Moorhouse is conceived as an urban monolith. Despite measuring only 4.5 metres wide, the Victorian terrace has been carefully restored and transformed into a compact retreat, a veiled house on a public lane, a quiet domestic world removed from the constant movement of nearby Hoddle Street and the crowds of football fans passing through the neighbourhood.

The façade is composed of movable batten screens that operate as a veil over the building’s outer skin. These kenetic elements provide privacy and protection from the harsh western sun, but they also give the house a shifting presence within the lane. At times the screens close and the building reads as a quiet, almost mute volume; at others they open and the façade loosens into a layered surface, revealing glimpses of domestic life within.

Fluted glass windows line the laneway edge, allowing light to enter while blurring the relationship between public and private. The effect is deliberately ambiguous: the house participates in the life of the lane without fully revealing itself. The façade therefore oscillates between opacity and permeability, between the idea of the house as a solid object and as a thin inhabitable membrane.

The pastel joinery plays an important role in shaping atmosphere. While the exterior maintains the clarity of a singular object in the laneway, the interior echoes Ricardo Bofill’s use of tones to temper the monumentality of strong architectural forms. Colour acts as a kind of atmospheric counterweight to the solidity of the building, introducing warmth, intimacy and a slightly dreamlike quality.

The project engages with the idea of the house as a singular figure in the city. The reading of the dwelling as a unified object stemmed from thinking about the typological clarity explored by Aldo Rossi, whose work often treated buildings as primary urban artefacts. Simple, almost archetypal forms that hold their presence within the complexity of the city.

Completed April 2023

Project Team

Architect - James Harbard

Engineering - Clive Steele Partners

Planning - URPS

Builder - Grace Lewin Construction

Photographer - Pier Carthew