This House Never Ends

This House Never Ends is a family home in a heritage-protected inner-city suburb of Melbourne, conceived as a sequence of spaces to be discovered rather than a single object. Steffen Welsch Architects extended an Edwardian weatherboard house at the rear, in a dense and eclectic residential streetscape that became the starting point for the design.

The new work stretches the full length of the site, rotated 45 degrees and pulled apart from the original house. The move generates a run of interconnected spaces and a sense of gradual revelation as you move through the home. A north-facing courtyard separates the old weatherboard house from the recycled-brick extension, formed by three walls in three materials: the weatherboard of the existing house, the recycled brick of the new wing, and a timber-screened link. The house was designed around arrival by bicycle, with the main entrance relocated to the side.

The timber link divides the plan into a children's wing in the old house and communal living in the new part. Setting the new building at 45 degrees opens vistas through rooms and outdoor spaces, creating complexity and depth. Upstairs, a first-floor patio off the lounge and study stays private while keeping a relationship with the neighbourhood, and a terrace above gives views over rooftops, the city and Mount Dandenong.

Thermal comfort is achieved through passive means: solar control, zoning, thermal mass, high insulation and cross ventilation, supported by high-performance double-glazed timber windows and doors and recycled brick to the internal walls. A 4.75 kW grid-interactive photovoltaic system generates power. The home uses no gas; heating and hot water run off a heat pump and the cooktop is induction.

Project size 254 m² on a 431 m² site, completed 2020 across two levels.

Credits: Architect, Steffen Welsch Architects (design architect Steffen Welsch). Builder, Renovation One. Joinery, Woodcraft Mobiliar. Photography, Shannon McGrath and Peter Clarke.