Architecture studio Ritz&Ghougassian has extended a traditional Melbourne house, using a minimal material palette that sees blockwork walls left exposed both inside and out.

The property in the suburb of Prahran is situated on Highbury Grove ? a street lined with traditional federation-style cottages surrounded by leafy gardens.
Local practice Ritz&Ghougassian was tasked with adding an extension behind the property's heritage street frontage, while retaining an appropriate relationship with an existing public laneway to the north.

A pair of bedrooms accommodated in the existing house were modernised by replacing their decaying structure with spotted-gum floorboards, and introducing new hearths in place of the neglected fireplaces. A narrow corridor that extends past the bedrooms opens into a light-filled open-plan living space, lined at either end by courtyard gardens containing native plants including Australian tree ferns.

"The connection between the heritage architecture and the new addition is expressed as a singular moment cast in shadow," said the architects.
"The user is squeezed into close contact with the concrete walls, causing a shortness of breath before a step up into a large hollow volume of open air and light."

The new addition is constructed from simple concrete blocks that emphasise the orthogonal arrangement of the walls and provide privacy to the public laneway.
From the outside, in particular, the boundary elevation can be...