Pop Architecture and Beatrix Rowe transform an Edwardian-era house in Melbourne’s inner south into a unique and materially-rich family home.
Pop Architecture, in collaboration with Beatrix Rowe Interior Design, have realised a contemporary extension and renovation of a home in South Yarra, Melbourne. Pop Architecture directors Katherine Sainsbery and Justine Brennan have skillfully designed the house to align with their client’s brief of “light and flow throughout”, while simultaneously honouring the building’s past and its surrounding natural context.
Despite its compact footprint, South Yarra House has a sense of spatial generosity with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two living areas and outdoor entertainment spaces. A single-storey addition and roof terrace at the front of the home is designed to extend the footprint to the rear.
Pop Architecture and Beatrix Rowe have unified the home’s eras – Edwardian and contemporary – through materiality, contrast and curves. Each material element has been carefully curated and considered for both aesthetics and functional everyday use. For example, the sculptural ivory brick feature wall houses a pizza oven and storage for wood outside, as well as as a kitchen exhaust, air conditioning and laundry storage inside.
The materiality of South Yarra House also centres around the idea of contrast, openness and flow. The large-format terrazzo tiles featured in the kitchen, living and bathroom juxtapose with timber cabinetry and aged-iron tapware.
The clients expressed how delighted they were to see how the house changes in character over the course of the day; “Nothing remains static as light moves over the curved forms and textured materials.”
South Yarra House demonstrates Pop Architecture and Beatrix Rowe’s shared passion for materiality and form, seeing the pair successfully employ the two elements to deliver a characterful and refined home.
