A full-height window and a projecting seating nook interrupt the facade of this suburban Melbourne house designed by local studio Pleysier Perkins in a former warehouse .

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The house is positioned in a vibrant bohemian neighbourhood in the heart of the Australian city’s Northcote suburb.

The single-storey warehouse creating had been converted into a featureless two-storey health care centre in the 1990s and Pleysier Perkins was asked to oversee its transformation into a residence that responds to its urban context.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The brief referred to as for a 3-bedroom home with an open-plan kitchen, dining and residing region, as well as a examine, wine cellar and garage workshop, to be constructed inside of the envelope of the original creating.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

“The present creating presented absolutely nothing in the way of character or heritage, but it did provide intriguing spatial possibilities – the likely for some huge heights, volumes and spaces, quite distinctive in a residential building,” Pleysier Perkins director Simon Perkins told Dezeen.


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“It really is not a property surrounded by a backyard, as is normal in Australia, but a series of living spaces on distinct ranges surrounded by two-storey walls developed on the boundary, with the possibility to add a third level set back from the front and rear boundaries.”

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The architects started the renovation by stripping the structure back to the unique single-storey masonry walls, which abutted neighbouring buildings on two sides and were bound on the other two by a street and a narrower side passage.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

A garage occupying the rear half of the ground floor was retained as component of the new programme, along with some structural steel beams that assisted reduce costs.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

Present walls have been extended and rendered to create a homogenous two-storey volume interrupted by openings. These are cautiously positioned to enable all-natural light to enter the interior and provide views out whilst maintaining privacy.

A third-storey addition set back from the front and rear facades homes the master bedroom suite.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

An entrance at the edge of the developing leads right from the street into a seven-metre-higher lobby featuring a total-height, north-dealing with window that fills the interior with daylight.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

This concrete-floored space adjoins a timber-decked play region lined on 1 side by a modest artificial lawn, and on the other by an indoor pebble garden containing a Japanese maple tree.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The home’s interior spaces are arranged all around an oak-clad box containing a wine keep and bathroom at the ground-floor level, with a mezzanine lounge on prime overlooking the reception below.

The perforated wooden panels enhance acoustics and offer a warm, all-natural contrast to the predominantly white-walled interior.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

“The layout idea is a box within a box, so we clad the internal box in oak to give it a rarefied visual appeal, like a jewellery box,” explained Perkins.

“Spaces and rooms exist in, on or adjacent to the internal jewellery box. Thereby a series of distinctive and contrasting spaces are positioned according to their use.”

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The ground floor also consists of two bedrooms and a connection with the garage workshop. A wooden staircase with a slender profile located in the void following to the timber box ascends to the 1st-floor lounge.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

The lounge adjoins a kitchen and dining area that opens onto a decked terrace at the rear of the constructing. A study overlooking the entry void also contains a window seat that projects outwards from the north-facing elevation.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier Perkins

Some of the openings in the facade integrate operable windows, which are screened by perforated metal panels that ensure they are secure while enabling light and air to pass through.

Photography is by Brendan Finn.

Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier PerkinsGround floor strategy Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier PerkinsInitial floor strategy Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier PerkinsSecond floor program Northcote Warehouse by Pleysier PerkinsSegment Dezeen

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