The responding to the need for a home to be a private place of retreat, Canning Street aims to embody a quiet sense of escape for its owners. Heartly combines an honouring of the past with a contemporary understanding of materials, space and light, proposing a home of enduring relevance and extending its narrative well into the future.

Despite the challenges and constraints of its narrow site, the design elegantly combines the past and present. By opening to above and bringing in natural light the overall perception of space and volume within the home is enhanced, while also creating a connection that is commonly void in heritage homes – a connection to the natural elements. 

Further to this story, a wall of steel and glass doors bookend the extension of the home to the rear, bringing in more natural light and allowing the garden space to feel like a part of the living area. Heartly brings a complementary palette of tonally similar elements together throughout, binding the spaces and emphasising a sense of flow.

Located in Melbourne’s inner north of Carlton, the quaint cottage typology is a familiar sight and forms the impressive retention of history in the area. While the original façade of the 1870s-era home remains and the original front rooms are retained in place, an additional level is added above yet held back so as to not disrupt the existing face of the home amongst the streetscape. Built by ACS Builders, Canning Street is both a celebration of the existing detailed plaster elements and an offering of the present. In its balanced approach, the old and new sit in harmony together, both complementing one another.

Through opening both upward and to the rear, the original volume of the home is given a new life and is able to breathe. While inner Melbourne is known for its high-rise apartment buildings that impress a density within a small area, the inner residential areas such as Carlton become a place of retreat. The combination of the area’s history together with a contemporary sensibility allows the elements from the home’s past to continue. The use of light materials and colours ensures the insertions feel deliberate and of a similar handcrafted nature as the original home.