There was plenty of scope for things to go wrong for this home reno
Surprisingly, given the variety and choice of architects in Melbourne, the owners' search ended beyond Victoria's border. Complicating things further was the client's architecture background. Would they be tempted to change, interfere and make the process more challenging?
Luckily for Sydney's Pohio Adams Architects, the clients – a couple with two children – were open to pushing the envelope as much as running with ideas. And what started out as a tired old Edwardian house in St Kilda is now a light-filled family contemporary home that also creates touchstones to the past.
The client, who only worked as an architect for a relatively short period, had been in the same year in the school of architecture at Auckland University as Bianca Pohio, a director of the practice.
'There were few constraints when it came to the design. Our client regularly travels the world looking at great architecture, including by architects Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier,' says Pohio, who worked closely with her life and business partner, architect Chris Adams. 'I've known this client for 30 years, so there's also that element of trust,' she adds.
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Located in a leafy heritage streetscape, the Edwardian house set on a 475-square-metre site, was always going to be retained. However, the house – renovated over intervening years with a number of Arts & Crafts and Art Deco elements – 'fell away' at the back with a poorly added lean-to. 'We were also faced with a three-level apartment block to the rear of the property which meant that we had to address issues such as overlooking,' says Adams.
Pohio Adams Architects retained the front four rooms of the period home but reworked them into two separate bedrooms for the children and a large main bedroom and an en suite – with the remainder of the space used as a separate bathroom.
Beyond this more traditional arrangement with open fireplaces and decorative plaster ceilings, the house starts to express new forms and materials.
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