Deepdene House by Kennedy Nolan.

Having won the national AIA award in 2016 in the category for residential architecture, Deepdene House by Kennedy Nolan Architects (KNA) is a treasure trove of contemporary design details that work together to enshrine the past. Located in Melbourne’s inner city suburbia, Deepdene kicks some pretty mean modern-architecture ass by demonstrating how the design process can be beautifully and delicately driven by context.

Briefed by a family of seven that inhabited the existing house, KNA’s respect for contextual conditions like streetscape, neighbourhood and heritage detailing merge to create a new local artifact within an already rich Melbournian context.

Sloping down towards the street, Deepdene is split programmatically into two sub-houses. The first single storey house fronts the property and contains the more communal programs whilst the second is double storey and chiefly acts as sleeping quarters. A slender corridor connects the two. With a family of seven, that’s probably a pretty smart move.

Keeping the neighbours happy and maybe making them a little envious too, the front house exhibits to the street a hot-to-trot ceramic shingle roof which is broken by a couple of Edwardian chimney flue details and their monolithic white stacks. One of the chimneys serves as an outdoor fireplace, taking the humble barbecue to a whole new level.

Moving beyond an impressive vertically oriented hit and miss brick wall lays a swimming pool that is tiled in a rich aquatic blue, providing a vibrant offset to the open plan living arrangement within. Scattered with a few Edwardian arches, an elegant timber solution for a pool barrier and a simple but pretty bloody seductive outdoor shower, the first house’s crowning jewel is undoubtedly its beautifully sloped copper roof eave detail. Smoothly capping the join between roof and wall, it actively works to bring the outside in. Simply neat!

The second house is a modern timber, concrete and brick structure that plays the simple roll of being a backdrop for the front house. With a sequence of lush landscaping elements filling the space between, the house offers a truly simple yet sophisticated way of living for that lucky family of seven.

Saluting KNA for yet another stellar project. Us, Yellowtracers, are drooling for more.

[Images courtesy of Kennedy Nolan. Photography by Derek Swalwell.]