Beaconsfield Residence
Hawthorn East
A renovation and addition to a 150 year old double fronted Italianate Victorian terrace in Hawthorn East, Melbourne, that had fallen into disrepair. B.E Architecture restored the heritage front and refined it toward the character of an Italian villa, with glazed doors, painted vaulted ceilings and trompe l'oeil paintwork, and set a windowless sculptural volume in rough drag render behind it, the two reading as separate buildings under one steel framed roof. Every internal wall of the old house came out, and the rear bedroom wing sits above an underground car park. The clients are a pair of doctors, one drawn to raw concrete and strong geometry, the other to softer decorative rooms, and the house carries both.
The entry was moved off the formal Victorian front to a quiet paved path down the flank of the house, through dense planting by Ben Scott Garden Design, arriving at the link between the two buildings so guests walk straight into the kitchen and living space. Upstairs, a walled garden lets three bedrooms keep large windows without screens. The project is named Beaconsfield Residence, and The Local Project featured it in its Issue No. 18 in 2025.
B.E Architecture
B.E Architecture is a residential practice thirty years in operation, with studios in Armadale in Melbourne and in Byron Bay, directed by Andrew Piva, Jonathan Boucher and Broderick Ely. On this house Andrew Piva was design architect and Julian Cecchini project architect.
Architecture B.E Architecture (@b.e_architecture). Landscape @benscott_design. Construction @w.buildau. Photography Victor Vieaux (@victorvieaux).
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.