Caringal Flats is quite a unique building given that there’s one flat per floor.
Each floor has four aspects
with a lift going up directly into each flat
I sought to reverse years of unsympathetic alterations
and neglect by stripping the flat back to its original form
maintaining all the soft round edges and beautiful
white textual surfaces.
and adding a series of contemporary interventions.
with sharp, straight edges and uniformly black joinery paces
I'm Ben Ellul, architect and founder of Ellul architecture,
and I live in this flat with my partner Gen, and my Italian greyhound, Vinnie.
Caringal Flats is located in Toorak in Melbourne, Australia.
Toorak’s ten minutes on the train from the Melbourne CBD.
It's a tree-lined suburb with lots of substantial
single properties in it and a few older apartment buildings.
Caringal Flats were built in 1951 on the lands of the Wurundjeri people
The heritage listed flats were designed by architect J.W. Rivettt
and consist of three buildings the crescent, the tower and the garage.
A series of sky bridges linked the buildings together.
The flats were known for their striking
coral and blue color scheme and this was painted beige in the eighties.
Recently it was restored back to its original color scheme.
When we purchased the flat, the first thing we noticed was
how much light was in here. And so we wanted to really enhance
and maintain the level of light in the building.
This was a labor of love for many years.
I owned the apartment for five years before we undertook the renovation.
So it was just worked on over time and details were refined and sketched
whenever I had some spare time.
All the rooms were very individualized.
the bedroom was separated by a series of sliding doors off the living area,
there's also a kitchen that was separated from that area with a door.
What I set out to do was to open the space up
I removed all the doors from the kitchens and lobby areas.
and then inserted a freestanding joinery piece
to separate the bedroom from the living area.
The bathroom was quite
large given the size of the flat, so we consolidated that down
to fit a laundry and a hot water service and then a smaller bathroom space.
There's an original lift which serves as a flat.
You step directly out of the lift into the lobby of the apartment.
there's a storage closet which also acts as Vinnie's bedroom.
This also houses some additional storage for larger
items like vacuum brooms and mops and shoes.
I designed and made a series of benches for the flat,
one of which lives in the lobby, which is a handy spot when you come home
to dump your items down and take your shoes off.
when you step through
the steel reveal into the main living area you’re greeted with the original floor
to ceiling glazing with expansive views over the city of Melbourne.
I've layered a series of sheer curtains
and blinds to moderate the harsh afternoon light.
all the furniture was deliberately kept low
so that the view to the city was not obstructed.
With the amount of glazing.
There was no logical spot for a TV.
A custom solution saw the TV housed in a joinery piece elevated on legs,
tying it into the other elements in the flat.
In order to maintain the clean lines of the heritage flat
the air conditioner was concealed in a low level custom made sideboard.
It also provides a useful ledge to store items on.
At the center of the living room is a custom dining table
in a muted green color.
The green references the foliage outside.
All the furniture is easily movable, so we can open the space up
We have a matching table in storage which can be brought up when we're hosting
we use the benches that are normally positioned against the wall
for the additional seating and we can seat 14.
The size of the tables makes it easy to work from home during the week
with my ASUS ZenScreen set up while we continue to eat and dine at the table.
If I’m going to be doing a small task in the evening
I’ll use the monitor with a kickstand.
But if I’m setting it up for a few days I’ll use the adjustable arm.
Everything selected for the flat was really considered
so it was important that any monitor that I used also has that same sleek,
contemporary design.
Given space is a premium, the compact
nature of the monitor makes it easy to stow away when not in use.
To separate the living room from the bedroom
we inserted a freestanding joinery piece which is elevated off the floor
and held off the ceiling to maintain a sense of space whilst maintaining privacy.
It's divided into three sections, the first for display with pigeonholes
below for each of us, the second bar and miscellaneous storage and the last
as an extension of the kitchen, as a pantry and a space for pots and pans.
The kitchen consists of two freestanding joinery units
that has the same design language as the room divider.
One side has a low level work bench with integrated sink and dishwasher
with views of the city,
great for when you're washing up
The other side has a cooktop and fridge.
Given the small room size, we created a deeper than standard
kitchen to create a ledge for additional appliances at the back.
This extra depth also allowed us to accommodate a full size fridge.
The blackened stainless steel kitchen is in direct counterpoint
to the warm textures of the apartment.
The small format mosaic tiles were sympathetic
to the original design intent of the building.
The door in the kitchen leads
to the rear stairs connecting the flat to the rest of the complex.
They stairs look out over the common walkways and sky bridges, which provides
an opportunity to bump into neighboring residents.
On the other
side of the room divider is the bedroom with a large east facing window.
Like the living room,
the furniture in the bedroom is deliberately low
to the ground to maintain views out of the window.
The benches also appear in the bedroom,
some as bedside tables and another against the wall.
The reverse side of the room divider provides our robe storage.
These are deeper than the living room side in order to accommodate a standard hanger.
the top of the joinery unit aligns to the top of the windows
whilst the legs align to the top of the skirting boards.
The added bonus is that it allows for cross-flow ventilation and light to
spread between spaces.
On the other side of the room divider
there's another punched opening containing a series of doors.
One door is to the bathroom and the other door conceals a laundry.
Whilst the flats have a communal laundry downstairs,
the way we live, it was really important for us have access to our own
washing machine.
In order to accommodate
a laundry, the bathroom had to be consolidated.
The compact bathroom contains a full sized shower toilet and vanity
this required the relocation of plumbing
The floor is clad in an era appropriate terrazzo,
and the smaller mosaics that are in the kitchen are used on the walls.
This creates a sense of light in the space,
a series of mirrors back onto the service zone beyond
providing deep above mirror storage.
Design shouldn't dictate the way people live. It should enhance it.
So I think when designing a small space, it's really important
to understand the needs of the client or in this case, what our needs were.
Functionality needs to come
first and everything else is second to that.
People often think that living in apartment is a compromise.
I think this flat is an example
of how with careful restoration and considered intervention,
heritage housing stock can be updated to provide a platform for modern living.