Located on the northern fringes of Fitzroy, a lively Melbourne suburb with a bohemian reputation, Fitzroy Terrace was a run-down, Victorian terrace house originally built in the late 1800s. Set on a deep, narrow site enclosed on both sides by double-height party walls, the original residence was plagued by a lack of natural light, dampness, and poor ventilation. Melbourne-based firm Taylor Knights intervened, bringing light deep into the home through a series of sculptural volumes and openings.

The firm flipped the home’s original layout, creating an inverted floor plan that naturally assuaged many of the building’s original issues. Lifting the living spaces improved the home’s natural cross-ventilation and afforded communal spaces more daylight and city views.

“Our approach was to use design solutions and gestures to make a small house feel incredibly generous,” says architect Peter Knights, who co-founded the firm together with architect James Taylor. A series of flexible, layered spaces and undulating floor plates and ceiling forms would act as “simple tools of compression and expansion—of diffusing lightness and distilling darkness—and celebrating the thresholds in-between.”

Another top priority was sustainability—by removing the walls and elevating the roof, the firm sought to create greater control of the passive environment, “enabling air movement throughout the first floor while providing a natural heat stack above the kitchen.”

A simple, traditional material palette encourages the interplay of light. “We wanted to explore how simple materials such as concrete and brick could be used to catch light and tie the contemporary form into the existing dwelling,” says Knights. High-performance insulation lines the floors and walls, while the sculptural, concrete ceiling was formed using recycled bargeboard: “We wanted the ceiling surface to be rough and organic to offset the highly refined detailing elsewhere.”

To create the rough-hewn results, the architects placed 16-foot-long sections of bargeboard as the formwork on-site, using spacers and packers between planks to amplify the timber grain and add depth and variety to the ceiling. Once the formwork was in place, the concrete was sprayed on in what’s called the shotcrete method.

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Taylor Knights’ innovative approach to tradition didn't go unnoticed—the firm was awarded a coveted 2019 Victorian Architecture Award for Residential Architecture. “Behind this very traditional heritage facade, the contemporary design shifts the way we think about Victorian terraces,” says Knights.

An Unassuming Edwardian Saves the Best for Out Back

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Taylor Knights / @taylorknightsarchitects
Project team: Peter Knights, James Taylor, Julie Sloane
Builder: DimpatEngineer: R. Bliem and Associates
Landscape plant selection: Ben Scott Garden Design
Landscaping: Mack Landscape
Construction Joinery and Steelwork: Tescher Forge
Building Surveyor: Fotia Group
Photography: Peter Clarke