BRUNSWICK WEST GABLES
Location
Brunswick West, Victoria
Country
Wurundjeri
Completed
2023
Project Team
Gemma Border
Builder
Homes By Artisan
Photographer
Chasing Light
Text
Stephen Crafti
Awards
2020 Victorian Architecture Awards, Shortlist
2021 BLT Built Design Awards, Winner
2021 Houses Awards, Shortlist
Media
The Local Project
Lunchbox Architect
Dwell
Grand Designs Magazine
Est Living
House & Garden
Brunswick West Gables is a renovation of a modest heritage cottage that had grown dark and constrained over time. Originally designed for a very different way of living, the house has been carefully reworked to support a young family of four, while retaining the qualities that first drew the owners to it.
The two front rooms of the original cottage have been preserved, along with key heritage elements including the façade detailing, ceiling roses, stained glass windows and fireplace mantels. Beyond these rooms, the house opens into a new ground and first floor extension that improves light, circulation and daily function. The new work adopts a series of gabled forms that echo the existing roofline, allowing the addition to sit comfortably behind the original house and read as a continuation rather than a contrast.
Along the southern boundary, a new mudroom entry provides an alternative point of arrival, connecting directly to the laundry, pantry and outdoor storage. This quietly absorbs the practical demands of family life and allows the main living spaces to remain uncluttered. At the rear, the kitchen, living and dining areas are arranged as a single, light-filled volume, opening to the garden through timber-framed windows and doors.
Materials are drawn from the surrounding landscape. Timber joinery, green-toned cabinetry and selected furniture reflect the olive and eucalyptus trees in the rear yard. An exposed aggregate concrete slab with hydronic heating, paired with captured eastern light, provides comfort throughout the year.
Above, the first floor is conceived as a more private retreat. Finished in a pale sage palette, it accommodates the main bedroom and a work-from-home study, set amongst the trees. Externally, spotted gum cladding and muted eucalyptus tones subtly update the home while maintaining a quiet relationship with the surrounding streetscape.
Rather than a dramatic transformation, the project is a careful rebalancing. By working with the existing fabric and extending it in a sympathetic way, the house has been given the space, light and flexibility to support family life now and into the future.