Outside In – Inner-Melbourne Courtyard Garden
Clever plantings in this small courtyard create a restful and protected meeting place for a couple and their adult children to come together.
Landscape designer Annabelle Drew was careful to replace and nurture the soil for this garden, this is the result of less than three years' growth.
The view of green foliage and warm tones of the bricks bring a friendly, easy feel to the main living spaces.
The rooftop garden is accessed through a window for an annual cleanup. Plantings are chosen for their resilience. Waving grasses add a lightness to the inner city aspect.
Without a lot of wriggle room, the design of a Melbourne cottage on a tight site cleverly lays the groundwork for the garden to be front and centre in daily life.
With the combination of a clear brief, and a response that won the trust of their clients, Project 12 Architecture has transformed this classic inner-Melbourne worker’s cottage into a restful, super-functional space for an owner/builder couple and their two adult children. To top it off, the cohesive design and collective approach has made clever landscaping integral to the house.
Project 12 was working with a builder on another project who liked their work so much that he and his partner asked if they would come up with a design for their own home.“The brief was to make sure that they had room for everyone to come together but also have their own space,” recalls Aimee Goodwin of Project 12. “There are three bedrooms, each with their own ensuite, on quite a tight site, so the garden and the planning of the house was very important. The central courtyard is key. Each element of the architecture sets up the framework for the landscape and the garden.”
The house is divided into distinct functions: bedrooms, bathrooms, separate lounge, separate kitchen and defined study and terraces. “The role of the landscaping was to soften the house,” says Aimee. “As well as the obvious view out to the garden, it was also important to seclude views from areas you don’t really want to see, such as neighbouring roofs etc. The garden was an important element of the design. Bringing ‘green’ into the spaces, setting up some relief and allowing the house to breathe.”
Punctuating the two main volumes and letting natural light into the heart of the home via an internal courtyard was an intentional design aspect, as was the green roof over the lounge and outside the parents’ retreat at the rear.
“The green roof over the rear volume was included in the design so that you’re not looking down to a roof and more generally softening the architecture. It is a really small space, and you don’t want to feel like its imposing or too oppressive,” says Aimee.
While the house was designed with every room afforded a view of a layered green space, the garden was planned only in a limited sense, or, as Aimee describes the approach: ‘we need green here’. It wasn’t until landscape architect Annabelle Drew joined the project near its completion that the creation of a garden that fully complemented Project 12’s plans came to pass. The result is a house with a feeling of a lot more space.
“The design of the house is just so simple and clean with a really personable element,” says Annabelle. “The clients were great and were happy for me to come up with some ideas. I had a couple of photos, a kind of mood board to go on, and in meetings withAimee we made a few decisions about the feel of the landscape design. We decided together that the front would be more ‘cottage-y’ and traditional but with a hint of the more relaxed feel that might lay behind.”
The two rooftop gardens – a small one at the front and one large one over the lounge area – have been installed using the VersiDrain 60 system by Elmich, a product designed specifically for Australian green roofs. They have been planted with slow-growing succulents and waving native grasses that get cut back in summer through open windows that allow access for tending. “The brief was for lots of green, and not necessarily boxy trimmed hedges. They quite liked the loose, romantic and organic style [of garden],” says Annabelle. “They were both very excited about the idea of the rooftop gardens – which is odd for a builder – most builders shy away from any type of waterproofing or having to deal with organic matter of any kind!”
Annabelle, Aimee and the clients also discussed the need for deciduous plantings to protect the glazing from the harsh northern light in the courtyard. Annabelle’s decision to trainVirginia creeper on wires from the ground all the way up and over the terrace on the first floor is a defining feature of not only the garden, but the whole house. “It was definitely the idea to have deciduous green leafy plants to curb the heat load onto glazing particularly,” says Annabelle.“So as the new buds came in in the spring with their bright green colours which deepen in summer and then change to lovely autumn reds and oranges – that was lovely of course – but secondary to the requirement of stopping direct sunlight through the windows and the general cooling of the space in summer.”
An added bonus, as Annabelle points out, is that the garden is surprisingly low maintenance. This includes the creeper. “It doesn’t look like it,” she says. “It’s one big working bee a year …chop it back hard for new spring growth.” Both the house and garden have left an impression on all those involved in its renovation, proving size is not the measure of impact. “It was a delight being given the freedom to design this garden for these clients,” says Annabelle. “I keep asking when they are going to move so we can do their next house!
