As a collaboration between Pop Architecture and Karyne Murphy Studio, Fallow House benefits from the rigour and cooperative spirit of the project team, presenting a pragmatic and finely crafted response to brief and place. Nestled in a quiet suburban setting in Melbourne, the home brings materiality and expression of form into dialogue, skilfully fusing site, structure and landscape into a holistic proposition.

With an interest in building a new home, the clients first approached Karyne Murphy Studio to discuss their needs and aesthetic sensibilities. “I had a long-standing relationship with the clients and felt Pop Architecture’s work aligned well with their vision,” reveals Karyne. Delving into the project as collaborators, the team helped to distil the core objectives, working to emphasise natural light and ventilation, facilitate efficient circulation, access and entertaining, and create a beautiful, tactile experience of home. “The house embodies our clients’ lifestyle with a series of spaces that promote the way they live and interact with their family and friends,” says Pop Architecture Director Katherine Sainsbery.

Designed as a generous house for two, a core tenet of the planning was to create separable zones for the clients to activate spaces according to their needs. “One of our first moves was to split the program into two parts with a courtyard in the middle, so every space has equal access to northern light, ventilation and landscape,” Katherine says. Essentially designed in two halves, the front portion of the home accommodates a luxurious main suite on the lower level with guest rooms above, while the single-level rear contains living and entertainment spaces. A glazed link connects the two buildings – a central transition zone passing through the landscape.

The ‘split’ concept is reinterpreted in the front façade, where a graphic composition of geometries skilfully break down the scale of the building to the street. “In developing the architectural form, we were inspired by the ubiquitous 1980s tiled roofs in the area,” Katherine recalls. “There’s a great series of works by Bill Henson, which elevates the landscape of suburban tiled roofs to an abstract and dramatic texture.” Pop Architecture explored this interpretative method, conceiving the upper level as collage of fluted roof forms, grounded by the solid expression of the lower level. Stepped and textural, the façade changes in character throughout the day as light shifts across its surfaces.

Architecture & Interior Design Pop Architecture

Interior Design Karyne Murphy Studio

Build MRU Construction

Words Hayley Curnow

Landscape Design Amanda Oliver Gardens

Structural Engineering Measure Engineering

Art ConsultingO Jodie Kras Art Consulting