Enduring Connections – Quarry House by Winwood Mckenzie

Located near the edge of Northcote’s All Nations Park, a former quarry and brickworks on Wurundjeri Country in Melbourne’s inner north, Winwood Mckenzie’s Quarry House finds opportunity within heritage conditions to intensify connections to place, community and the joys of everyday life. Designed as a continuity of spaces that can adapt to the requirements of the clients’ young family, the renovation work responds to both the need for enduring functionality and the timeless potential of honest, elemental material selections. By prioritising uncomplicated detailing and tastefully restrained built features, the home becomes a representation of inner urban living that can elevate domestic and family experience.

Quarry House entangles expressed client interests in midcentury modernism with the contemporary architectural resolution of the Winwood Mckenzie design team. Director Thom Mckenzie notes that “Quarry House is a continuation of our ideas about residential architecture, material use, detailing, spatial adaptation and the retention of urban qualities that we appreciate.” The result is a clarity of renovation moves that remain respectful to and honour the existing worker’s cottage conditions whilst defining new areas for both privacy and togetherness.

“Quarry House is a continuation of our ideas about residential architecture, material use, detailing, spatial adaptation and the retention of urban qualities that we appreciate.”

One of the fundamental challenges of the project lay in preserving this original character of the house and blending modern elements and contemporary functionality through formal gestures and spatial organisation. At the scale of the street, this is demonstrated by retaining the original frontage of the home and introducing black-stained timber between the terrace houses to distinctively bridge the gap and create the appearance of a recessive façade. The custom-designed tessellated tiles adorning the refurbished front porch similarly add a touch of contemporary sophistication to breathe new life into the historical charm. Such unique combinations create an amplifying juxtaposition between the modest elegance of the old structure with the attentively slender scale of new works. “We believe that we have elevated the resources that were available to us to create a work of architecture that represents ideas of inner urban living,” Thom explains, “building less and achieving more.”

The essence of the renovation lies in catering to the distinct lifestyle needs of a young family. The primarily functional brief for two bedrooms and a living space is complemented by the introduction of a multipurpose space, which can programmatically change over time to adapt to different functional requirements and family configurations. The space can be “an extra bedroom for extended family or a tired parent, a work-from-home space, a second living space, a second child’s bedroom, a space for exercise, depending on the requirements,” Thom explains.

One of the fundamental challenges of the project lay in preserving this original character of the house and blending modern elements and contemporary functionality through formal gestures and spatial organisation.

Innovative additions and meticulously planned outdoor areas were craft-ed as one seamless space, fostering effortless connections between the main living area, two tranquil courtyards and the multipurpose room. Large sliding doors are strategically placed to effortlessly blend the indoors with the outdoors, allowing the inhabitants to bask in natural light, relish fresh air and engage in outdoor activities. These courtyards, lush with foliage, offer a peaceful sanctuary within the bustling Northcote location. “Creating an inner-city oasis was at the heart of our design,” Thom explains. “The courtyards bring a connection to the outdoors, vegetation, light, fresh air and indoor and outdoor activities. Internally, they extend the scale of each space and provide outlooks onto external spaces, the sky and the weather.”

The outdoor spaces of these courtyards become central to the design realisation and lived experience of Quarry House. Carefully selected local and native plants become backdrops to interior activities in the communal areas of the home, fostering a direct connection between inside and out whilst further cooling the air for comfort and leisure. Thom ex-plains, “increasingly we design around outdoor spaces and connections to vegetation and external spaces. It is a response to the prevalence of contemporary digital lifestyles that we aim to make the external world present from the interiors of the residences we design.”

Innovative additions and meticulously planned outdoor areas were craft-ed as one seamless space, fostering effortless connections between the main living area, two tranquil courtyards and the multipurpose room.

For Winwood Mckenzie, it was also crucial that design interventions at Quarry House not suffocate the latent qualities and amenity potential of the home, despite the limited space. For Thom, “responding to the brief without overdeveloping the site and reducing access to light and air” became both a challenge and opportunity worked through by listening closely to the client’s vision whilst “bringing our expertise of spatial and functional qualities.” The design team dedicated themselves to enhancing the spatial possibilities of the original terrace house, conserving its lofty ceilings and intricate detailing and also uncovering moments to extend comforts, such as by adding a walk-in robe and ensuite to the front bedroom. By integrating features like double-glazed windows and new herringbone timber flooring, Quarry House not only enhances its aesthetic dimensionality but also its practical occupation by emphasising the improvement of factors such as thermal performance and efficiency.

Quarry House exhibits a soft yet robust character through its carefully chosen and highly tactile material expression. “The materials are selected because the finished material is the finished surface,” Thom describes, noting that “with the introduction of the courtyards and the fernery, conceptually, we liked the idea of masonry walls and timber beams referencing the carved-out spaces of quarries and mines.”

Quarry House exhibits a soft yet robust character through its carefully chosen and highly tactile material expression.

Through the thoughtfully unfussy forms and material systems, Quarry House becomes a home with a soul and the space to grow with its residents. Winwood Mckenzie skilfully tailors its design articulation to create an enduring architectural legacy that will resonate with changing lives, routines and family configurations. To Thom, it is “a house that is designed for and to be used intensely by the residents – spaces that facilitate and evoke the joy of entertaining, bringing families together, relaxing, working, preparing for the day and sleeping. It is a house where the realities of the everyday lives of the inhabitants [are] deeply considered.”

By navigating the home’s original character with new interventions, Quarry House not only pays homage to Northcote’s rich heritage but also embraces the realities of modern life. With its careful design, adaptable spaces and refined finishes, this residence is an inspiring benchmark for urban living and heritage renovation.