Powell Street House in South Yarra by Robert Simeoni

A compact site in South Yarra with an unassuming 1930’s brick duplex yields a distinctly layered home that reveres restraint and respects quietness. Powell Street House is the home of architecture and design writer Stephen Crafti, his partner Naomi and their beloved cat. Since purchasing the property in 2011, the couple aspired to combine the two dwellings into one and enlisted Melbourne based architect, Robert Simeoni to make it a reality. The unified residence combines two vastly different forms; a street-facing Art Deco complex and a brooding contemporary pavilion tucked behind.

The existing home comprised of ground and first floor apartments which shared identical floor plans. Hesitant to pull the place apart during the renovation, walls were kept largely intact and alterations were made judiciously “to retain and respect the existing fabric wherever possible,” says Simeoni. New elements were contrastingly “treated as interventions which were clearly distinguishable from the original fabric, whilst being respectful to it.” The main bedroom, sitting rooms and studies all reside within these quarters and are connected by a winding steel staircase which is in the former bathroom space to each level.

The quiet interior and soft light of the existing home extends into the contemporary pavilion and while stylistically divergent, the darker tonalities marry the two spaces. Accommodating the kitchen, laundry, and dining room, the new addition comes to life with an exacting material palette of blackened steel, obscured glass, and polished concrete.

The serrated steel-framed window to the courtyard is a striking element that has been detailed to perfection and produces a captivating quality of light. The courtyard is accessed through a door with the same uninterrupted zigzag profile but is only visible through a strip of transparent glazing positioned at eye level while seated at the dining table.

Loosely referencing Donato Bramante’s Tempietto in Rome, the new addition hosts a geometric double-height volume with a high-level window allowing indirect western light to filter across a rare white wall above the dark kitchen joinery. Simeoni explains that it “was conceived as a quiet space, with ambiguous connections between the existing and the new, the outside and the inside.”

There are several norms that this home balks at and it is quite refreshing. Firstly, the house reflects the clients’ style, values and priorities rather than resale potential. Case in point, the entire first floor is occupied by the master bedroom with a luxurious bathroom and two separate dressing rooms.

The home is filled with art and objects as well as custom lighting and furnishings created by designer Suzie Stanford. Secondly, this house is a fascinating exploration of light and dark. Conventionally with a north-facing aspect and in this case into the courtyard, there would be glazing for days to maximise this. Instead, Powell Street House carefully considers the importance of muted and filtered light.

Rightfully winning a slew of awards, the jury citation by the Australian Institute of Architects describes the home as “rather like inhabiting a late Rothko painting, where the eyes adjust to participate in a slow reveal of dark tonalities and subdued textures.”