{"id":241627,"date":"2025-09-20T14:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T14:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241627\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T14:26:13","slug":"compact-home-in-melbourne-by-jos-tan-celebrates-city-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241627\/","title":{"rendered":"Compact home in Melbourne by Jos Tan “celebrates city living”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian architect Jos Tan has completed Melville, a compact home<\/a> in Melbourne<\/a> with a simple, pale brick<\/a> form that mimics the appearance of the neighbouring buildings.<\/p>\n

Located along a row of shops in the suburb of Brunswick West, the home stands directly on the street with no setback within its small, 90-square-metre plot.<\/p>\n

Tan, founder of local studio Tan Architecture<\/a>, took this as an opportunity to “celebrate city living,” with tall, narrow openings that balance a connection to the street with privacy for the home’s inhabitants.<\/p>\n

\"MelvilleMelville is a house in Melbourne with pale-brick walls and tall openings<\/p>\n

“The site is an unusual one to build a house on in Melbourne, being a small six-by-15-metre subdivision on a shopping strip along a main road,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“This situation provided an opportunity to pursue a typology uncommon in Melbourne \u2013 a house with no front setback that opens directly onto the footpath; one that celebrates city living, engages with the street, and encourages face-to-face interaction,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“I think the building succeeds in having a conversation with its surroundings and about its place in the city while expressing a distinct and contemporary character.”<\/p>\n

\"MelvilleIt was designed by Jos Tan to engage with the street and celebrate city life<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of a 1.2-metre change in level from the front to back of the site, the entire ground floor level of the home was raised up to avoid direct visibility from the street.<\/p>\n

This allowed a previous vehicle crossover to be replaced with a new pedestrian footpath in front of the home, from which a metal entrance alongside the home’s front door leads directly into a “bike garage”.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mygunyah<\/p>\n

Matt Gibson adds Arts and Crafts-style brick extensions to Melbourne home\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

On entering Melville, a short stair leads up into the home’s living areas, which are organised into two halves \u2013 a more public, street-facing side and a side facing onto a rear garden, described by Tan as a “private oasis.”<\/p>\n

At ground floor level, the lounge was placed at the front of the home and a dining and kitchen area at the rear, where it opens onto the garden patio through a full-height sliding glass door.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteThe kitchen and dining area opens onto a garden<\/p>\n

Above, two children’s bedrooms and a study occupy the first floor, while the main bedroom is housed within a smaller metal volume on the second floor, which opens onto a private roof deck.<\/p>\n

“By raising the ground floor level to match this rise and obscuring the lower section of the ground floor window facing the street, a sense of privacy is maintained without compromising visual connection to the street and sky,” said Tan.<\/p>\n

“Road and tram noise was mitigated by using thick double-glazing, cladding the house in brick, and sensible spatial arrangement.”<\/p>\n

\"LivingInteriors were finished with a minimal material palette<\/p>\n

The home’s external finish of pale brick was selected for is noise-attenuating properties as well as to “honour” both the older buildings on the street and the pale-render of the neighbouring structures.<\/p>\n

Simple, minimal finishes define the home’s interiors, which feature white walls ceilings alongside floors and fittings made from salvaged timber.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in Melbourne, Matt Gibson Architecture + Design recently extended a 19th-century terraced home with a series of contrasting brick extensions informed by Arts and Crafts-style architecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Tom Ross<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian architect Jos Tan has completed Melville, a compact home in Melbourne with a simple, pale brick form…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":241628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,4740,129024,96187,1033,171,6029,18929,25017,92915,92916,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-241627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-houses","12":"tag-bricks","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-houses","16":"tag-melbourne","17":"tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","18":"tag-sectionall","19":"tag-sectionarchitecture","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115237092616949658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}