Bustle House
The very familiar task of renovating and extending an ageing, unavailing nineteenth-century Victorian terrace in inner-Melbourne quickly developed itself into a larger and more concerning conversation about how our constantly changing society lives and responds to the ageing and preservation of architecture of the past.
Photography by © Peter Bennetts
Our response was inspired and directed by the client?s determined assertion that she was merely the current caretaker of this ?old lady?; of this building that had preceded and would surely succeed her into the future. Beauty, ageing, utility and continuity were explored through the analogy of the existing house as an ?old lady? with a bustle dress. Perched on a hill and on the boundary of an elongated corner site, the house was thought of through its side elevation. With the Victorian ?Lady? in mind, we developed our architectural drawings as though they were Victorian portraits of women taken in profile ? drawings historically used to illustrate the pronounced fashions of women?s bustle dresses. Used as a language of self-expression, the bustle dress became the architectural equivalent of how our extension would add character and presence to the existing house without dramatically recreating its identity and cloaking its aged grace.
Photography by © Peter Bennetts
Containing a kitchen, dining room, bathroom and laundry, the modest addition was positioned to the rear of the existing house and centrally to the s...