Built in 1937 as a luxury hotel, then becoming a last-resort accommodation for those in desperate need and later being featured as the site of real-estate reality television show The Block – the Gatwick Private Hotel in St Kilda has nothing if not a rich and varied history, one that in many ways parallels the evolution of its locale.

Gatwick Private Hotel is the conversion of two empty ground floor shells into a family home, within which a significant portion of the existing has been retained and celebrated. Scarred remains of walls from a previous life are given new meaning in this contemporary conversion whereby new elements are carefully juxtaposed against the old.

This project explores a dialogue with the building’s past, present and future. It is a study in editing and preservation and poses questions regarding what it is Kosloff Architecture value and why.