Near inner Melbourne’s Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, a 1980s concrete block house designed by Ross Perrett sits along a quiet street. Though noteworthy, it is not the sole architectural story on the site, which also includes a recently completed glass block structure in the back garden. Designed by Baracco+Wright Architects, the two-storey outbuilding exists in strong dialogue with the original house, creating an entirely new spatial narrative for this place through simple geometry and sightlines.
The outbuilding was conceived to provide the clients and their young children with additional space. As Louise Wright of Baracco+Wright says, the existing house is “an excellent building that didn’t suit an extension,” and so she and Co-Director Mauro Baracco explored the concept of a separate structure for play and utility. In considering the form, location and materiality of the outbuilding, its relationship to the existing house and garden was integral, and the prevailing dialogue is one of this project’s most notable qualities. Louise says, “it is as much about the shape of the building itself as the negative space of the garden and the long views from within the house.”
In comprising the most aligned response to the existing apartment, the motions of transition between differing stages in life were considered through a sensitive lens.
