Piermont House Ballarat, Victoria Real Estate, Australian Modern Home, Architecture Photos

Lyons St House in Ballarat

30 Oct 2023

Architecture: Moloney Architects

Location: Ballarat, Central Highlands, Victoria, Australia

Photos by Ben Hosking

Lyons St House, Australia

Lyons House is a contemporary alterations and additions project for a down-sizing couple who wanted to create a home with ample sunlight, ease of access, and a close connection to the garden.

Owners Gary and Tara Gullock purchased the Federation-era house a few years ago as they prepared to sell their large rural property and move into the center of Ballarat. Built from rough-textured rendered brickwork, timber windows, and with an original slate roof, the heritage-protected house was in dire need of substantial restoration works.

While the upper floor bedrooms were in good original condition, the ground floor living spaces had suffered through a series of separate renovations in the 1980’s and 90’s, leaving a poorly-considered layout of spaces with little natural light access. The non-original elements of the ground floor were demolished, leaving only a large living room in-tact. The new ground floor layout transforms the original lounge into a large bedroom space, with a walk-in-robe and ensuite in the location of the old kitchen and pantry. The new ground floor layout provides easy access for day-to-day use of the main bedroom suite.

The contemporary addition is accessed via the original back door – leading to a glass linkway flanked by small courtyards on either side. This new threshold marks the transition from the heritage house to the contemporary living spaces in the addition. The new plywood-lined spaces include an open lounge, kitchen, and dining area – as well as a study, laundry and guest powder room. Each of the new spaces has direct access to the backyard, a courtyard or a skylight to provide natural light access.

A halo of highlight windows allows the thin, blade-like roof to hover above the walls of the addition. Although narrow, these highlight windows efficiently capture the low-angle winter sun allowing long shafts of light to permeate the spaces. The floating roof plane is supported by five 13-meter-long Victorian Ash beams, offcuts of which were used to construct the new dining table. The material palette of timber, black steel, and concrete is intentionally limited to provide cohesion between structure, surface, and joinery.

As a composition of old and new, Lyons House retains the character of the original home while providing new spaces for a contemporary life that is connected to light and landscape.

What was the brief?
Downsizing from a large rural property, the clients’ brief was for an open plan, light-filled living space with a main bedroom suite on the ground floor. They also wanted to retain the character of the original home that is an important part of the heritage streetscape.

What were the key challenges?
The clients brief called for the main bedroom to be located on the ground floor, however all of the bedroom in the original home were all located on the upper floor. Instead of adding a lift to the house, which is becoming a more common solution, we retained the upper level bedroom for visiting family and friends, and reconfigured the living space on the ground floor to become the new main bedroom, ensuite and walk in robe. The original living spaces were relatively dark and did not engage with the backyard, so it was advantageous to create new living space in the addition with improved sunlight access.