A suburban house is expanded into two striking interconnected dwellings

Located in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, this suburban house, a new double home by Justin Mallia Architecture transforms an existing two-storey building into a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces. The square plot was previously home to a traditionally styled two-storey bungalow surrounded by a garden that had been hemmed in by neighbouring extensions.

A suburban house elevated through a series of courtyards and interlocking spaces

Mallia was tasked to build over the overshadowed garden and create a new separate dwelling, but the resulting project, known as Scarborough and Welkin, manages to eke out new pockets of outdoor space together with improved amenity and privacy. Careful planning and sun modelling allowed for the creation of angled new structure that appears to intersect the original house. Although set back from the street, the new addition doesn’t read like a separate structure, more like a deconstruction addition to the existing house.

Mallia’s intervention allowed the client to keep trees from the original garden, while roof gardens and terraces provide new – and much lighter – spaces for planting and growth. All this is linked with what the architect describes as a ‘complex circulation network’, manifesting in a series of paths and walkways that weave through the site, provide a separate and private first floor access to the second house, and span multiple levels to create dynamic and vivid living spaces.

The set back of the new house preserves the heritage character of Clifton Hill, without compromising its modernist credentials. To the right of the traditional wooden garden fence is a route leading to covered parking, whilst pushed up at the edge of the site is timber and steel arbour that slopes up towards the new house’s front door.

The ground floor of the original structure has been repurposed to include four bedrooms and an open plan kitchen and living area. The original entrance porch has been preserved, while later additions at the rear have been removed to accommodate the new house. ‘The building mass is permeated with cracks and fissures,’ Mallia explains, ‘these allow natural ventilation and filtered northern sunlight to penetrate throughout a vastly varying arrangement of spaces that are a delight and surprise to encounter.’

Upstairs, the original attic has been transformed into two bedrooms, a bathroom and utility space to serve the new house. Reached by a wood-lined staircase that marks the junction between old and new, the attic rooms are connected to the two levels of the main house, one of which serves as the kitchen diner and the other the living room and principal bedroom suite.

The roofscape of both houses appears to blend together, with separate terraces for each dwelling that step up and down across the site. The original chimney remains as a brick totem amidst the new planting, privacy screens, seating areas and steps that criss-cross the site. A solar array takes up the whole upper roof area of the new house, while the original terracotta tiles have been left as a backdrop to the roof garden.

In addition to the solar panels, the project includes battery storage, a heat pump for hot water, rainwater recovery and storage for irrigation and EV charging points. ‘Scarborough and Welkin creatively reinvents a flexible approach to modern housing, infilling a compromised gap in the urban fabric and achieving a balance that is bold and innovative while engaging respectfully and modestly with its surroundings,’ Mallia concludes.

JustinMallia.com