Breathing Space Materials shine in this beautifully executed extension to a Victorian-era home.
Expertly opened up and expanded, this Melbourne home now fits its new family to a tee.
Materials are to the architect as paint is to the artist, and that is why this home can truly be described as a masterpiece. Expanses of meticulously book-matched marble, gently curving Corian joinery and era-appropriate bluestone cladding all work together to make it so.
The owners of this home in Melbourne’s south had admired the work of architect John Matyas when he completed a project for their friends. They had also spotted his signs on heritage renovations around their suburb. “It was pretty clear to us that John was the right architect for our project,” says the homeowner.
What John and his design team took on was a complex and comprehensive renovation of the Victorian-era double-fronted home, which was rather rundown after having been used as a share house for years. “It had lean-tostackedontheback,itwasdarkandclaustrophobic inside, and almost all of the period features were long gone,” says John. With little apart from a heritage
facade to redeem it, the structure was gutted and reimagined as a home that would better suit its new family who, at that time, had one toddler and a baby on the way.
“The owners’ brief really captured what just about everyone wants from their home today: practicality and familyfriendliness,plentyofnaturallightandaminimum of maintenance,” says John. The two front rooms of the house are now a study and guestroom with a central hallway leading past a family room and internal courtyard into the open-plan extension. “The light well in the middle of the house demarcates old from new. It features a Japanese maple that becomes a striking feature in its own right when it’s lit at night as it casts shadows on the surrounding rendered walls.”
Site constraints and setback rules may have presented quite a challenge but John has created a generous open-plan living zone where long stretches of Statuario marble adorn the walls like exquisite works of art. “We spentalongtimesettingoutthemarble,using3Dsoftware to work out how to best join the slabs so they looked continuous. The process was a bit like dressmaking.” Using the marble on the walls gets the most value from it, he says. “You see much more of its character when it’s run vertically rather than just used on benches.”
Corian was the material of choice for the kitchen’s benchtops. “It’s a surface that doesn’t mark easily and it allowed us to introduce some more fluid, rounded edges,” says John. A wall of mirror by the walk-in pantry helps to bounce light around the room and creates the illusion that the kitchen’s heavenly marble splashback stretches on and on.
The living area has been cleverly designed to borrow both space and light from the stairwell. “There’s glass at either end of the stairs: morning light floods in from the bottom while afternoon sun pours in from the top,” says John. “The glass wall by the stairs is frameless to enclose them without reducing the width of the living zone. A long built-in bench/display shelf under the stairs also works to visually increase the size of the room.” Upstairs, there’s a main bedroom with a glorious Carrara marble-clad ensuite, bedrooms for each of the children and the main bathroom.
High-performance glass doors lead out from the open-plan living area to a rear courtyard, their green tint reflecting the beauty of the garden, which is the work of landscape designer Le Page Design. The backyard is a wonderful asset to the house, says the owner: “We love the bluestone cladding John has used, and the fact that the kids have enough space to play in.” A lot of attention was paid to an established tree in rear courtyard. “The garage is built around the root zone of the tree to protect it,” says John. Stacking doors on the garage allow it to open right up and transform into another play area for the children.
“We had so much trust in John and I think this is evident in the home we have today,” says the owner. “Yes, the marble on the walls is breathtaking, but this is still a relaxed, casual home that suits our family perfectly.”
“THE MARBLE ON THE WALLS IS BREATH TAKING BUT IT ’S STILL A RELAXED FAMILY HOME .” Owner