Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation
Victoria
Laneway House is located amongst the crowded, bluestone back alleys of Carlton. The heritage context is largely intact, almost eerily so, but it has also experienced over the decades many small-scale interventions, additions and accretions. Changes that have occurred over time as the neighbourhood has evolved from it working class origins. The original Victorian terrace house has been extended with a laneway facing addition that borrows from a wide range of local precedent rather than focusing on ‘original’ heritage fabric.
The design celebrates a wide range of ‘heritage’ elements in this dynamic and historic neighbourhood. It acknowledges the ever-evolving range of residents that have called this area home of decades of live and not just those of the ‘Victorian’ period. It also anticipates a range of possibilities for how the owner’s lives may evolve and change as they grow into the house.Â
This house is a tapestry of solutions; practical problems we briefed and surprisingly spiritual ones we did not know we had. The separate/connected solution to living with our teenagers has solved the problem of living together for many years- they come and go with friends from their front door, we slip out of the laneway. The spacious kitchen and dining areas allow us to host inside and out. There is so much storage that the calm we parents find in tidiness has become a possibility. The view onto the birches from upstairs, double glazed and silent, offers inner city sanctuary.Â