East Melbourne Terrace

by JTA Architects

Located between the MCG and the city, the East Melbourne House offers a lot of amenity on a small footprint. When the owners purchased the Victorian era house they could see beyond its 1980s ‘restoration’ and focused on the lifestyle benefits of its location, tall ceilings and heritage.

Despite the small site the owners had a long wish list of requirements including a new living area, additional bedrooms and outdoor space for entertaining, The planning required some serious spatial gymnastics and the final solution includes a roof top terrace for the views and entertaining space, a long and narrow courtyard with green wall providing amenity to the living room and a portion of the first floor building which ‘pop out’ over the side courtyard. From the terrace are panoramic views across to the Melbourne skyline and around to the MCG. An outdoor kitchen on the terrace ensures it is easy to use (and regularly used) without lugging too much stuff up and down the stairs.

New additions are contemporary and include a delicate white perforated screen which wraps around the external stair and first floor ‘pop outs’. This element unifies the new add-ons while complimenting the existing building. Like the exterior, new and old comfortably sit side by side on the inside. This is best demonstrated in the circulation areas where the volumes of space a layered New and old are integrated harmoniously adding to the visual interest of the contemporary architecture.