A new home in Melbourne’s Armadale has successfully achieved seamless integration with the landscape and heritage streetscape through careful selection of materials including Krause Emperor bricks from Robertson's Building Products Pty Ltd.

Designed by Inarc Architects, this immaculately designed freestanding home is set within a lush, green landscape, wrapping itself around an existing mature pine oak tree, and perfectly integrating with the heritage precinct in Armadale.

Inarc Architects Director Reno Rizzo explained that the design intent of the home was “to not only integrate the home into the landscape but maintain the importance of the pine oak tree, having the towering specimen be admired from as many spaces in the home and garden as possible”.

To achieve this, the architect divided the first floor of the house into two wings, separated by a bridge-like area to allow views into the tree canopy.

The house is surrounded by a beautiful mix of heritage architectural styled homes using brickwork, steeply pitched tiled roofs, slender window openings and detailed ornamentation. Inarc cleverly created for its clients, a finely crafted contemporary interpretation of this heritage style. The colour palette selected by Inarc paid tribute to Old English Tudor homes and integrated well with the heritage vibe of the Armadale neighbourhood.

Krause Emperor bricks in Grampian Blue from Robertson's Building Products Pty Ltd were found to be a perfect fit for the design objectives. The colour of the bricks works beautifully with the nearby Old English Tudor homes, combining well with external details such as bronze coloured metals, grey timbers and the slate dual hipped roof, and tying in with the surrounding, lush vegetation.

It was a period of discovery for Inarc and their clients as they found that the Krause Emperor brick not only offered much warmer tones in browns, reds, rusts and a slight tinge of mauve to match the English Tudor style, but also enabled greater creativity in its end use. Reno described the brick as “more unusual, more like a tapestry than just a brick, so you’re able to do more things with the mortar joint and patterning”.

Bricks are prominently used in the home’s design, and carried through from the outside facade, complete with a striking brick arch, to the inside design, being used as a feature wall in a basket weave pattern around the fireplace, on the stairwell, and on a selection of walls on the upper level.

Architecture & Design Team

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