Take Two

Don’t things get interesting when the universe gives us what we need instead of what we want? When clients Ali and Andrew first engaged Jo Foong and Jamie Sormann of Foomann Architects for a sustainable home it was to renovate their draughty Melbourne Edwardian cottage. As design progressed, the clients felt the wholesale change required was wasteful. They decided to sell and start afresh, guiltfree. The quartet reunited several years later on a long, narrow site in Brunswick East with the same orientation, offering northern sun along its entire length. Happily, the house was beyond repair. “It hadn’t been lived in for three years and there were vines growing through the roof,” Ali recalls.

Second time around, they embraced the clean slate to reimagine family life in a contemporary form unfettered by the spatial conventions of period homes. “Urban barn is the phrase that sticks in my mind,” Ali says. “We’d always liked the idea of living in a warehouse, but not the practicalities. A family friend who lives in the country … converted a barn just beautifully, with polished concrete floors and big posts. It was in my mind to try to blend those things.”

The architects don’t recall an explicit conversation to that effect, but Ali’s precedent images and occasional references clearly planted a seed. From the street, the inscrutable western facade is elegantly barn-esque, with an angled volume that also nods to surrounding rooflines and conceals a large solar array. Warm materiality includes those polished concrete floors, a colonnade of recycled spotted gum posts that runs the length of the ground-floor living spaces, and external cladding in thermally modified spruce, a sustainably sourced softwood produced using heat and steam.

The brief remained a high-performing, energy-efficient family home offering year-round thermal comfort, but functional requirements blossomed to include fun, multipurpose spaces for an active family (including daughter Frankie and pooches Fred and Sparrow). They wanted zones and nooks for varied activities including music and study, and spaces for entertaining and houseguests. Keen cyclists, they sought functional and formal entries, oodles of storage and zero wasted space. A bath with sky views was a must, and a separate creative studio “for slightly louder and messier things.”

Design was an iterative process as they explored playful inclusions like a climbing wall, in-ground trampoline and rooftop bath. They landed on a pared-back version offering space and flex but greater longevity. A long double-height form maximises the block’s northern exposure, opening every habitable space to glorious light, sumptuous views of the sky and surrounding trees, and exquisite garden spaces designed by Phillip Withers.

The upper level cantilevers over ground-floor living, kitchen and dining areas, which shade full-height, lift-and-slide glazed doors that open the ground floor to a slim boardwalk deck and landscape. The informal entry via the north-facing garden takes in a lovely entertaining area with timber seating elements shaded by a vine-covered pergola.

On the other side of the house, the functional entry provides a satisfying sequence of spaces with deliberately blurred boundaries. A bike garage with EV charging, workbench and camping gear storage leads through to a laundry/mudroom and pantry zone, allowing the family to clean up and stow ‘stuff’ with minimal effort en route to the expansive kitchen, dining and living zone beyond.

The interior is a calming combination of considered spatial experiences, effortless flow and exquisite craftsmanship by DC Building and a host of passionate trades. Hardworking spaces maximise every square metre, including an active circulation corridor that functions as spill-out space for each room and nook. With or without doors open to deck and garden, this place offers urban kids, dogs and adults a freedom of movement and choice we could all use a little more of.

Spotted gum joinery by Mood Workshop unifies the interior and includes a clever Murphy bed unit in the spare/music room that also accommodates the family’s musical instruments such as a beloved cello. In the dining room, a custom table by The Makery Club features legs and a long footrest made from offcuts of the colonnade of recycled spotted gum columns. The latter were painstakingly sourced and turned, forming a key project feature that brings the landscape indoors. They also formally express the underlying grid structure which, together with material consistency, gives this dynamic home a peaceful symmetry.

Upstairs, bedrooms and study nooks lined in celery-top pine are animated by treetop views. Perforated mesh screens provide shading, privacy and safety along with cross-breezes and trippy lighting effects. The bathroom delivers on the promised sky views. And in a simple move typical of this atmospheric place, a central bedroom is elevated ever-so-slightly on a platform, creating a serene mini-mezzanine experience from which to enjoy daydreaming through the treetops and passing clouds.

Jamie and Jo describe this as an unusually fun build, with clients, collaborators and suppliers united behind a clear vision. “Not every successful project is fun and easy,” Jamie says. “I think everyone loved the vision.” Jo says returning to see the fun and functionality in action is a delight. “We have so many ideas about how people live,” she says. “Hearing Ali talk about how it’s all working is just so awesome.”

Inside issue 112 – Grab the issue here.