Casa Victoria

Casa Vic­to­ria is an explo­ration of design ideas inspired by the client, whose strong aes­thet­ic sense and Mex­i­can her­itage are expressed in the approach to the restored work­ers cot­tage. Uni­fy­ing two dis­tant worlds, the design explores an over­lay­ing of a tra­di­tion­al Mex­i­can court­yard home on an inner Mel­bourne Vic­to­ri­an work­ers cot­tage, result­ing in high­ly unique design detailing.

Like many tra­di­tion­al work­ers cot­tages, the exist­ing home was lim­it­ed by access to light and restrict­ed by sig­nif­i­cant plan­ning guide­lines. In response, the com­pact home relies heav­i­ly on the imple­men­ta­tion of a new curv­ing roofline allow­ing north-west­er­ly light to per­me­ate the new addi­tion, intro­duc­ing a sec­ond lev­el mez­za­nine to cre­ate a lux­u­ri­ous mas­ter bed­room and ensuite. 

Ben­e­fit­ing from the addi­tion­al ceil­ing height, the exten­sion at the rear of the house cre­ates a sculp­tur­al open liv­ing space and kitchen ele­vat­ed by a rich mate­r­i­al palate. Addi­tion­al­ly, the back of the house encom­pass­es a framed court­yard like gar­den, to extend the liv­ing room beyond its limits. 

With a con­sid­ered selec­tion of raked plas­ters, recy­cled tim­bers, weath­ered stone and exist­ing brick, a high­ly tex­tured and hand worked aes­thet­ic was ampli­fied with dra­mat­ic nat­ur­al and arti­fi­cial light­ing. Rep­e­ti­tion is cre­at­ed using a sub­tle grid pat­tern lay­ered into the kitchen, fol­lows and blend­ing into the rear garden. 

Respond­ing to the lim­i­ta­tions of the archi­tec­tur­al expan­sion, the archi­tec­ture is high­ly focused on the inte­ri­or design to cater the clients pro­gram­mat­ic brief as well as to add sophis­ti­ca­tion to the home fos­ter­ing a rich expe­ri­en­tial quality. 

The 4.5m wide, ful­ly enclosed block deter­mined a lin­ear sequence of open plan spaces that utilise ceil­ing, top light­ing and mir­rors for def­i­n­i­tion, con­nec­tion and spa­tial dra­ma as an approach to mod­ernising the front por­tion of the tra­di­tion­al home. The Vic­to­ri­an mason­ry qual­i­ty remains dom­i­nant, with tex­ture, stone and imper­fect hard plas­ter cel­e­brat­ed. Fine tim­ber and steel ele­ments com­ple­ment this, with raw fin­ish­es high­light­ed against the pol­ished to rein­force a sense of age and permanence. 

Where exist­ing and new come togeth­er, a light well is intro­duced to allow fur­ther light to the core of the building.