This brick family home in Melbourne was connected with a modern glazed extension

Looking for a cool idea for an extension of your home? Today we’ve got a great example for you! Connect Parkville, a project by Melbourne based studio Steffen Welsch Architects demonstrates merging old with new and in the case, it has manifested as a quiet extension that has been inserted in-between two existing masonry builds.

Inhabited by a family of five, the brief called for another layer to be added to over the existing program. Steffen Welsch Architects responded with a single intervention featuring a glazed atrium dining room linking the disparate spaces inside. The envelope of this volume is open to the outside; the roof is lifted, split and extended; new walls show multiple skins; the main façade is screened with obscure glass to express ambiguity. Internally, this new transitional space serves as a new communal family zone. Lit with clerestory windows, inviting northern light inside and sliding doors opening onto a sun-filled courtyard.

The décor inside is pretty simple and modern, no excessive patterns or pieces, just stylish modern materials like wood and glass. Everything is laconic, simple and functional, just like we love! Everything is functional and sustainable, there’s a glass backsplash in the kithcen that gives it a modenr look, lots of white surfaces that visually enlarge the space and make it filled with light and light warm woods that make it cozier. There are attic windows that bring much light in and make this space even more welcoming.

From the street, the addition appears transparent under the sun and adds to the architect’s focus of bring ‘layers of light’ into the home. Although contrasting it its material, the intervention inherently reunites the family home together programmatically and introduces sustainable solutions, natural light and ventilation.

The insertion is a quiet addition that relies not on references but scale and contrast

The skin protects from and is open to the outside, and relates to its built context

The roof is lifted, split and extended; new walls show multiple skins

The extension opens onto the backyard

The new space serves as a new communal family zone, lit with clerestory windows

The decor is modern and sustainable, with a sleek look, warm woods and glass

Sliding doors open onto a sun-filled courtyard where it's so pleasant to stay