Local architecture studio Wowowa has renovated a Victorian house in Melbourne and added an extension with a scalloped brick facade that contains an open-plan living space.

The practice was invited to oversee the modernisation of a property in the city's Fitzroy North neighbourhood by a client who had watched one of a series of YouTube videos produced by Wowowa about improving Melbourne's heritage properties.
The house's original Victorian frontage features a decorative brickwork pattern known colloquially as "tiger prawn" due to its predominantly pink colouring, which the owners wished to complement with a similar-looking rear extension.

"The brief called for a mirroring of the robustness, craft and ornament of the front out the back, in the spirit of cohesion and reinterpretation of the existing visual language," said the architects. The first step was to create an extension that mirrors the plan and proportions of the terrace frontage. This volume was then sculpted to create the scalloped form, which provides optimal daylight conditions and creates flexibility in the internal spaces.

The fluted facade is informed by the ridges on a prawn's shell and is clad in brickwork with grey and green hues that also evoke the crustacean's natural colouring.
The masonry extends around a corner just one metre from the boundary of the narrow site. This allows the neighbours to appreciate its dramatic geometry and also facilitates the integration of large north-f...