Residence S&A

This compact new house for a small family is located in a dense inner-city area of Melbourne. The clients’ brief called for an efficient, sustainable and private dwelling, with generous space for a vegetable garden. Conceptually, the project derives from an investigation of its site context and from our ongoing exploration of simplicity and formal restraint

The neighbourhood is a jumble of styles and scales: Victorian cottages, 1990s townhouses, contemporary apartment blocks and large developments under construction. One constant in this fast-changing area is the Wertheim Piano Factory, designed by Nahum Barnet in 1909, a striking four-storey brick volume with a confident, enduring presence

The envelope of the new house was defined through pragmatic siting studies. Priority was given to the private back garden over a front setback, and to coherence of form over articulation. The compact footprint, occupying less than half of the small 200 m² site, makes room for a generous garden and reflects a sense of appropriateness: not doing less, but doing just enough

Our intention was to design an autonomous form, with its own order and logic, set against the busy visual background and gently echoing Barnet’s building nearby. The elemental, abstract volume, clad in a single material and punctuated by irregular openings, offers clarity and repose. Its quiet oddness invites pause and reflection

Although the project was approached through economy and pragmatism, following simple construction methods and using unfinished materials, it is not a study of minimal spatial requirements, nor a search for a new Existenzminimum. Instead, it offers carefully proportioned rooms and an interior that is open and bright. Daylight enters from all sides, connecting daily life to seasonal and temporal rhythms. Every room looks into a garden, courtyard or treetop view. Aluminium canopies control the northern sun, while a full-width folding screen filters the strong western light

In many respects this is a typical three-bedroom house. Yet formulaic spaces—master bedroom, ensuites, walk-in robes—are set aside in favour of rooms with a degree of freedom, indeterminacy and a less hierarchical layout. A multipurpose room shifts between playroom, music room and guest bedroom. At the top of the stairs, a study space becomes a point of pause—connected to the street yet withdrawn—offering a quiet outlook across the trees and the park beyond

The house is a solid, private shelter, a retreat from the intensity of the city. Its interior elevates the essentials of daily life. It underscores two concerns central to our work: that measured simplicity can carry poetic intensity, and that even the most pragmatic project allows for moments of surprise and quiet delight