Ararat House

This project is about a modest resizing of life. Designed by Adam Haddow for his parents who were moving into town after life on a property on the outskirts of Ararat, Victoria, the original 1950s cream brick house has been renovated to ensure its longevity and offer a living environment that could accommodate his parents through to the end of their lives.

If you look, beauty is found in the landscape and in the modesty of the habitation. Most houses are small, and most are made from local materials, by local people, and growth has been delightfully slow. As a result, there is a cacophony of architectural housing styles that line the streets, each expressive of its time, with few streets exhibiting any strong sense of architectural order. The directness of the architecture, coupled with a distinct lack of wealth, has not seen significant reworking of the township, indeed apart from the destruction bought by the local council in the 50's through the removal of the Victorian street awnings, the Main Street remains largely intact.

Rather than remove the original and replace it with something new, as offered by the cheaper and quicker local kit home builders, it was our intent to perform a series of surgeries on the original dwelling - with the intent of not only respecting the embedded carbon of the original but also capturing the cultural and familiar history of the place.

We added a 'good room', a new kitchen, living, and dining space with a veranda and private courtyard facing north, and two bathrooms to the south – augmenting the original building that accommodates 3 bedrooms. In the long term, my guess is that my brother's family will one day live here again, and for that, the house sets up a strategy to enable the addition of the rumpus room that will open onto the rear yard that will be able to handle my raucous niece and nephew.

For the moment, the house has become home: made by local people using local materials for a local family. A moment of urban acupuncture to enable the town to support those who call it home.

Architecture: SJB

Photographs:Martina Gemmola

Landscape: Amanda Oliver