Landscape as Protagonist: Adelaide Villa by Mim Design.

Mim Design has reimagined a grand Victorian Villa in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Brighton with a thoughtful contemporary addition, drawing lush pockets of landscape into the experience of the home.

“The proportions of the original Victorian Villa and its gardens were on such a grand scale, it just had so much potential,” recalls Charlotte McGill, Director of Interiors at Mim Design. Responsible for the home’s architecture, interior design, furniture and styling, Mim Design approached the project with a holistic philosophy, creating continuity between old and new, while “capturing views across the garden at every opportunity,” says Charlotte.

From the street, a robust concrete wall introduces the minimalist architectural language of the new addition beyond. Inside, the home’s ornate, arched hallway is flanked by bedrooms, a bathroom and private reading room, preserved with the home’s traditional embellishments.

The continuation of oak hardwood floors unites the historic frontage with a steel-framed, glazed atrium—an inversion of space that heightens the transition between old and new. The atrium’s lowered ceilings and darkened palette foster a sense of “compression and anticipation,” explains Charlotte. As one moves into the extension, the old home’s generous proportions are echoed with lofty, 3.5-metre-high ceilings, enabling “view lines to expand up and out towards the garden, evoking a feeling of elation and luminosity,” adds Luca Vezzosi, Director of Architecture at Mim Design.

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“Separating the extension away from the old home allowed us to retain the integrity of the Victorian Villa,” reflects Luca, affording breathing room between volumes, while offering an ephemeral “atrium of light” at the home’s centre. A study space, saturated in deep-hued finishes, sits to the east, enlivened by the home’s verdant garden, designed in collaboration with Kate Patterson Landscapes.

The addition’s open kitchen, living and dining spaces embrace a sleek, monochromatic palette, elevated with sculpted furniture pieces, delicate pendant lighting, and a thoughtful curation of contemporary art. Broad, operable glazing connects the interior with the landscape, a blue oasis pool and a discreet studio apartment in concrete and timber at the back of the garden.

Adelaide Villa’s monochromatic palette is softened by the surrounding landscape. “Breathing new life into heritage buildings is certainly a passion of ours,” reflects Charlotte. “We believe in respecting our architectural past, and likewise, creating architecture for the future.” To this end, Mim Design has bound together Adelaide Villa’s old and new volumes with purpose and conviction—with rich materials and expressive forms celebrating and evolving the home’s experiential narrative.

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[Images courtesy of Mim Design. Photography by Timothy Kaye.]