My name is Chris Megowan I'm the director of Megowan Architectural and we are the proud
architects of this bronze, steel and stone clad residence. We're located in South Yarra, which is
a prosperous suburb just south of the Melbourne CBD. It's a vibrant and eclectic neighbourhood.
We started the process four and a half years ago. We did actually have a different set of
clients when we began. The benefit of getting the second set of clients was that we really
could hone in on what their particular needs were and how they wanted to live.
You enter off the street through a gate which kind of filters you from a public domain into
the private space and you pass through the landscape forecourt, through the front door,
which is this dramatic, bronze, full height pivot door. As that swings open you see the
beautiful tundra limestone flooring and you pass through a modest and intimate sitting
room with a fireplace and look to your left and you, you see these green walls.
So central in the house is a double height stair void and the walls of the stair void
are covered in the venetian plaster and on top of that sits an oculus or a roof light that
essentially animates that space, filters light down into the centre of the house.
Beyond that is the first of the two studies but also has a beautiful vista over the pool
to one side and and out to the street on the other. The pool's actually located over
the basement ramp. If you can imagine this kind of stepped engineering,
took an army of people to come together and kind of figure it out and while it's not big,
it does feel kind of right size within the space. Then enter into the open kitchen living dining,
pass through these large steel doors and the house is fully revealed. You can see the gardens,
the statement kitchen greets you on your left and a large dining table sits
elegantly underneath a feature pendant. Finally you reach the living area which is complete with
entertainment units and fireplace. To allow the space to feel as large as it can, we incorporated
a series of bronze steel sliding doors that fully retract and stack onto each other. We
took the floor and continued it from the inside to the outside, which creates this outdoor room where
when the doors are open, that boundary is gone and you can live outside or inside seamlessly.
I'm Sarah Anderson. I was the project manager on this beautiful home in South Yarra. Terry,
my father, built the client's previous home 20 plus years ago. They approached us when they
found this site and they put their trust in us again to build their beautiful home.
The two major materials used throughout this house is steel and stone. We used a natural limestone
called tundra grey; we used this throughout the project internally and externally. We have large
stone slabs on the facade of the property. These were precisely measured, cut off site, transported
and craned into position and then mechanically fixed, so there was no visible fixings from
the front. We used steel frame windows and doors throughout the property. They were powder coated
in a bronze finish which really complemented the tundra grey, bringing out those warmer tones.
We have a heritage overlay on the street and that's where we ended up with this open gable
form at the street frontage; we actually took it and turned it into a organising element
within the build and we took that element and we copied it again three other times and used it as
a light scoop device that brought light from the north deeper into the living and you know,
private spaces of the home being ensuites, walk-in robes and primary bedrooms.
Natural light is one of the greatest luxuries you can have and it's actually quite challenging to
get an urban environment. An example being even just the the splash-back behind me,
so that's an east facing splash-back and the way that the range hood
sits sculpturally in front of that, the bench-tops and all the surfaces in
the house are animated by the dappled light that filters in through the bamboo hedging.
Jack Merlo, the the landscape architect on the project, did a great job of incorporating
landscape as a privacy device. The placement and the selection of the landscaping was a
vital component and part of the success of this project. It creates this inner urban oasis.
My favourite part of this house is definitely the back room.
The design just really allows the outdoors to flow into the room, which is definitely really
important being an inner city townhouse. I think we executed the build to the
highest quality and standard and I hope the clients enjoy this property for a long time.
It's a real privilege to be able to work with you know the tradesmen and
the builders and have clients like this that are supportive and collaborative. You know,
it's an incredible reward to be able to see the built out come together in
such a fine way and our studio and hopefully the team at large is incredibly proud of that.