Breeze Block Lovers, This Cottage Renovation in Australia Is for You

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Project Details:

Location: Cremorne, Melbourne, Australia

Architect: Studio Bright / @studio__bright

Footprint: 1,550 square feet

Builder: Frank Victoria

Structural Engineer: Meyer Consulting

Landscape Design: Studio Bright with Coolth.Inc

Photographer: Rory Gardiner / @arorygardiner

From the Architect: "Garden Tower House is a gymnastic exercise in making a family home with all the amenities one might have on a suburban block, fit into a very tight 13.8-foot-wide site in Cremorne. The addition to the rear has a singular, all-encompassing outer skin of breeze block, employed to diffuse the boundary interface and moderate the two-way arm-wrestle between opportunity and detriment.

"In such tight planning, every millimeter has to work hard to realize programmatic potential, every wall surface needed to contribute to supporting family life.

"At every opportunity, lush greenery is introduced in small pockets of planted area that, in total, seek to offer verdant backyard surroundings where none are possible. The breeze block–clad volumes form a trellis for climbing leafiness to eventually take over. The ambition is that Garden Tower House will, over time, become attached to and embedded in nature, offering calming respite from the pressing urban context."