Villa's contemporary renovation makes it more spacious and liveable

Renovation by Matt Brew Architect

Architect statement:

This is an old villa in Devonport. It had been done up sometime ago, probably in the 80’s. 

It was tidy, but the rooms were very enclosed, with the living dining and kitchen all separated from each other. 

It definitely needed modernising, it needed a connection to the outdoors, and the garden needed landscaping and re-imagining. 

The garage had been chucked randomly in the back garden. It was all pretty odd and not particularly liveable.

The brief – the spaces are not working for the way the owners want to live. 

The owners wanted a secondary living space and a brand new outdoor living area, where they can entertain and the kids can play.

So, we internalised the garaging under the house, digging out the ground rather than raising the house. That had two effects – reclaimed the garden and also gave my clients internal garaging and a downstairs guest suite and study.

The master bedroom was moved to the front of the house and given a new ensuite, and a new family bathroom was added to service the redecorated guest bedrooms.

The big change was combining the kitchen, dining and living into one space and opening the whole space, via a wall of glass sliding doors, to a new entertaining deck, pool and spa. 

We also extended the wrap-around veranda by about 1.5m all round, which makes a huge difference to all the rooms that are off this space.

We deliberately tried to keep some visual separation between the modern outdoor living area and the existing house by introducing steps down to the outdoor area.

We have created a much more modern, substantial house, without extending the footprint – apart from the veranda. The exterior still feels very traditional, which is what our clients wanted, but it has the interior layout of a modern home.

Story by: Trendsideas