With tone-on-tone colour and space layering, Hindley & Co has reinvigorated this Balwyn home to amplify its original features with a playful and contemporary rework.
Established by architect Anne Hindley in 2012, Hindley & Co is a multidisciplinary design studio based in Melbourne.
One of the studio’s latest residential projects, Arch Deco, is an exploration of “resonance and change,” says Hindley & Co.
Originally built in the 1930s in a Spanish Mission style, Arch Deco required “extra dimension”.
To achieve this, Hindley & Co harnessed colour, light and spatial layering to create an emotive home that echoes the past for added depth.
“Those ideas help us harness the phenomenon of time to give the project an extra dimension,” explains the design studio.
“Our use of colours allowed us to create these atmospheres and respect the existing Art Deco nature of the house.”
In order for the house to become larger, especially the layout of the kitchen and family room, Hindley & Co borrowed and layered space, light and tone for a moodier and functional feel.
“We were asked to achieve the extra space without increasing the footprint of the existing house. We realised that the size of the spaces was sufficient but as they were closed off from one another, the flow was awkward.
“Walking through the utility areas between the dining and kitchen was an undesirable program.”
Arch Deco had existing spaces that were unutilised, which prompted Hindley & Co to rethink how the rooms would be named. This enabled a refreshed perspective for re-planning and incorporating key concepts into the design.
This included reconfiguring the dining room into the family room, inserting two arches between the living and kitchen for space and shared light, reducing the size of the study, and adding a glazed screen to continue views of the garden.
Hindley & Co also used several green shades to tie the tone concept to the garden, extending these spaces to one another while reaffirming the existing Art Deco bathroom that the clients already enjoyed.
The sunroom, originally an outdoor verandah, was also infilled and coloured in the same garden green colour palette.
“We took cues from the history of the house to inform our design response and incorporated contemporary design strategies to update the house to the client’s living values.”
Photography by Tatjana Plitt.
Also in residential design, Madeleine Blanchfield Architects refines flow and proportion in Irirki house.