Caulfield North

by Pleysier Perkins Architects

This house draws inspiration from a gabled roof form to create the illusion of space.

Designers from Pleysier Perkins Architects were briefed to create a light home, filled with the sense of openness. With a strong connection to the garden, created with a focus on a main feature tree, a skylight was installed in the kitchen, to capture the view of this tree; which attracts cockatoos feeding in the morning.

Prior to renovation, the existing house; which was an old Victorian Bungalow, had limited light and lots of dark areas in the middle of the house, which created poor circulation and relationship with the living spaces throughout.

With the client’s desire to create a better connection of spaces, with a particular focus on the relationship between the main living and the kids retreat, Pleysier Perkins designed a more usable space, which opens up the house and creates engagement between the new spaces, and also allows you to close of these spaces when needed.

Creating a seamless integration between the old and the new, whilst detailing the connections in order to be aware that this is the old and this is the new. Careful measurements of the existing conditions were imperative to this design.

During early construction to the house, it was critical to re-measure the existing structure and amend the design to ensure accuracy. Alignments of bulkheads, skylights and joinery were critical to achieve a crisp executed outcome of the final house design.

The plasterwork around the skylight was particularly difficult and required many attempts to achieve a desired finish – which ended with a brilliant outcome.

Additional features of unique materials used for this project were grooved lining boards to gable end, timber fascia and pergolas. And hard plastering to the existing house.

Photography by Dan Hocking.

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