Designed by Modscape with imagination, urban planning and passive design, this home in Northcote, Melbourne redefines the concept of the modern family home.

“Modscape were approached by the clients, a design-conscious family of four, to deliver a modern solution that replaced the beyond-repair weatherboard with a home that addressed the family’s living requirements and the streetscape of mixed-period architecture. The ingredients that make up the home were based on images of buildings and finishes that our clients collected on Pinterest as part of a Modscape-established account. Five modules over two floors create 212 sqm that allows for optimised passive design and continuity of indoor and outdoor spaces. In this instance, the ground floor is centralised around the kitchen and dining room which not only drives the subsequent zoning of the interior floor plan, but also ensures that there is a continual sequence of social areas between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

Upstairs, a similar application involves the positioning of an internal courtyard, between the master bedroom and ensuite which is screened off by a spotted gum trellis and allows the areas to breathe. Unlike any other home in the street there is no front fence to the property, which when combined with the setbacks required for planning, allows for a significant amount of space to be retained in the front of the yard. The treatment of the front façade involves a combination of spotted gum cladding on the first floor and Alucobond cladding on the second, creating the illusion that the upper level is intersecting a timber fence. In this way, the external form acts like a barrier, giving space back to the landscape so that the front yard becomes the ‘street’ for the children to play in.”