What was the brief?
Our clients asked us to create a family home filled with natural light and a better connection to the back yard. They wanted to retain and restore the heritage fabric of the original home, and create a contemporary open plan family space opening to the garden; a ‘mullet’ arrangement in their own words (traditional at the front, contemporary at the rear). Clad Pad is a sun-filled, family friendly renovation to an existing dwelling located in Caulfield North. The original double-fronted, single-storey, weatherboard house was built in the 1890s in the Victorian style. The 1970s were not a kind decade andthe house was transformed from an elegant Victorian cottage into the ugly duckling of the street.
Undaunted by a challenge, our clients purchased this ugly duckling with ambitions to transform the original rooms back into their former Victorian era glory and add new contemporary light-filled spaces at the rear.
Our intervention retains original bedrooms, adding new services and a multifunctional living room that re-orientates the house to be north facing and opens onto a generous back garden.The roof form of the extension takes the existing double hip roof form of the original house, rotates it 90 degrees and carves it out to create a distinct sculptural profile; the negative of the existing roof form as a folded ‘zig zag’ that gathers the new kitchen, dining and living space under it.
Clad Pad celebrates the best aspects of contemporary living whilst restoring the heritage charm of what once was the ugly duckling of the street.
What were the key challenges?
The extent of the repairs and restorations required meant that the existing house was stripped back almost completely to its bare bones. We wanted to ensure the existing house was restored faithfully.
What materials did you choose and why?
The material palette learns from the existing - the new footprint is clad in a linear grooved panel to echo the weatherboard lines of the heritage front. Dark timber floorboards and white walls and ceilings run throughout the house, tying in old and new.
