Solomon Troup Architects explored a number of choices when engaged to rework this Eighties brick home in Level Lonsdale, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.

The temporary was to show the nicely lived-in house (that beforehand accommodated a household of 5) right into a extra purposeful house appropriate for the purchasers’ retirement.

Full demolition of the prevailing home was on the desk, however the architects noticed worth in retaining a lot of the unique house and including solely a modest extension.

‘Our intent for this undertaking was to cut back the quantity of building waste created by retaining and reusing as a lot of the prevailing constructing cloth as potential,’ says Lachlan Troup, director of Solomon Troup Architects. ‘This was equally essentially the most difficult but in addition rewarding a part of the undertaking.’

Parts of the prevailing home to the east and west have been retained, with reconfigured and repaired communal areas (kitchen, eating, and residing areas) in between.

A 40 sq. metre extension (added to the aspect of the house, on the location’s north) incorporates the brand new foremost bed room and en suite, oriented to obtain western solar and park views.

The extension was designed as a contemporary interpretation of a gable roof with a sloping roofline that follows the angle of the location. ‘This not solely creates a dynamic and attention-grabbing type but in addition maximises the out there house throughout the web site,’ says Lachlan.

An operable noticed gum rain display screen conceals the brand new ensuite from the adjoining public parkland as required, whereas offering shading to the constructing envelope. A blind can be absolutely opened to soak up views of the backyard, or closed to defend from the recent western solar.

‘I can’t think about many different locations I’d fairly be than sitting within the bathtub trying on the sky and watching the birds fly concerning the backyard,’ says Lachlan.

The untouched bed room wing within the unique home permits the purchasers’ prolonged household to go to on events, and will be closed off utterly when not in use.

Whereas a lot of the prevailing home was retained, methods have been used all through the undertaking to drastically scale back the quantity of waste. An current ensuite was repurposed into a brand new visitor powder room (eradicating the necessity to reduce up concrete as a way to relocate an current rest room), and a window turned the opening of the brand new bed room addition.

Final however not least, the unique street-facing facade was repaired, with solely a glimpse of the brand new addition supplied from the road behind mature bushes.