This house in Melbourne’s Brighton East features a new extension with a distinctive roof that architects Wowowa describe as a colonnade. It also has a colourful new interior with a kitchen in chocolate brown, yellow, pink and multi-coloured terrazzo, and bathrooms in green and blue.
The architects have added four bedrooms and two bathrooms, extra living spaces, storage, and increased connection to the exteriors in one fell swoop with the colonnade – a new section of the building connected by a row of columns. “The hardworking colonnade is the innovation in this design,” the architect’s statement says.
“Not only does it provide connection to the outdoors, two bathrooms and four bedrooms, but it also increases the amenity of the home, without an expanse of additional space. It’s a daybed, a bookshelf, two break out spaces that provide seating for each of the children and a clothes drying room, dispersed throughout and nestled within the undulating form and soft, structural columns.”
The roof form here is also notable, with a folded edge in brown-red metal that creates three troughs along its length. Wowowa have said that the form was inspired by the construction of a boat: “The ‘keel’ is expressed down the length of the colonnade, like the belly of a whale, with nautical references carried through detailing; brass fittings, porthole windows and timber decking to both ceiling and floor.”
The interiors of the house have also had an update, with a new kitchen in dark brown, pale yellow, multi-coloured terrazzo and pale pink. The colour palette here is nostalgic and makes sense set against the original 1960s apricot brick architecture.
Elsewhere, the colours are also bold, with secondary and tertiary colours preferred over primary colours. There is a green bathroom tile and a blue bathroom tile (with blue grout), and two of the kids’ bedrooms sport two colours each (pink with magenta and yellow with lilac).
Overall, the design of Pony is hardworking, clever, but also fresh and unafraid to embrace colour and pattern.
More about Wowowa
