Passive Design Strategies Abound in This Expanded Victorian Cottage Outside Melbourne

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Project Details:

Location: Fitzroy North, Victoria, Australia

Architect: Pop Architecture / @poparchitecture

Footprint: 1,885 square feet

Builder: MRU Construction

Structural Engineer: E2E Design Group

Landscape Design: Sarah Perry Garden Design

Stylist: Jess Kneebone

Photographer: Willem-Dirk du Toit / @willem_dirk

From the Architect: "This project for a family is an extension to a double-fronted Victorian weatherboard home, designed with a focus on sustainability and landscape integration. Situated on a south-facing block, the project strives to optimize natural light, spatial efficiency, and support long-term adaptability while critically engaging with the site’s layered history. The arrangement and architectural resolution of the site speaks to its history—aboriginal land, colonial structures, and post-war migration. Prioritizing a rejuvenated landscape, the design takes a whole-site approach. Three distinct forms—the original house, the extension, and retreat—comprise the built component, allowing the garden and sun to weave through the site and engulf the forms.

"The new forms critique colonial roof design, offering a more site- and climate-specific solution. Corrugated zinc roofs top façades of bagged brick walls and timber windows. The extension’s tapered skillion roof falls north to south, allowing for clerestory windows along the north, flooding the living areas with natural light while minimizing backyard overshadowing. Overhangs to the west and south drop below window heads, providing sun protection and screening the adjacent neighbors, focusing views on the garden. The retreat’s roof slopes in the opposite direction to provide shading for northern windows and optimal solar panel orientation. A pergola structure is designed to accommodate landscape elements, further integrating the garden.

"A new side entrance directs people to a genkan located at the intersection of the original house and the extension, dividing the main house into two zones: private spaces in the original house and living areas in the extension, reducing built circulation. Within the original structure, bedrooms, bathrooms, and a study have been rearranged for improved functionality. Although the original front door was removed, new casement windows allow engagement with the street. The front garden, with a veggie patch, fosters neighborhood interaction, countering the private nature of heritage precincts.

"Materials are warm and pared back. Off-white, gray, green, and varied timber tones subtly reference the hues of a lemon-scented gum, shedding its bark and revealing new growth. Terrazzo in the bathrooms and the decorative wrought iron entry gate (an abstraction of the gum’s trunk) playfully reference the migrant overlay, tying historical narratives together.

"The project spanned Covid and ensuing dramatic cost escalations. Consequently, value management distilled the design to essential elements and prioritized sustainability measures over high-end finishes. The project maintains a modest footprint, using recycled bricks and floorboards while ensuring high-quality light control and ventilation. An all-electric home without gas, the project includes a heat pump, solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and provisions for EV charging. Passive strategies include thermal mass, orientation-driven roof design, and operable shading. Material reuse reduces embodied carbon."