Mansard House

Kew East, Melbourne

Mansard House is a 1970s house in Kew East, Melbourne, named for its mossy-slate mansard roof and reworked by Studio Bright in 2022 rather than replaced. A big-box project home was being weighed for the site until the practice argued the house was "readily identifiable as a quintessential example from its time and deserving of retention". Its footprint and outside walls were left where they were and the work was almost all inside: the boxed-in living rooms were opened up and linked to each other and to the garden, and the bedrooms' service spaces sorted out; the main move outside is a roof terrace with bridging decks to the north and east, railed in concertina-folded sheet steel. Studio Bright on the brief: "Our clients intend aging at home and wish for the house to throw its arms out to extended family."

The floor is bluestone, chosen as a reminder of the slate tiles that were there before, and the ceiling boards are Victorian ash. The original brown brick was kept and the new palette set against it, walnut veneer, gold window and door frames and emerald-green marble in the kitchen, what the practice calls "a richly coloured and texturally intense interpretation" of the 1970s interior; the owners had brought back pictures of hotels from their travels, and they love the 1970s look. The house won the Australian Institute of Architects' 2024 National Award for Residential Architecture, houses (alterations and additions), and two commendations at the 2024 Houses Awards, for alterations and additions over 200 square metres and for a house in a heritage context.

Studio Bright

Studio Bright is a Melbourne architecture practice based in Kew, led by Melissa Bright as principal and design director with Rob McIntyre and Emily Watson as directors. On this house the team was Melissa Bright, Maia Close, Pei She Lee and Rob McIntyre.

studiobright.com.au · Instagram

Architecture Studio Bright (@studio__bright). Photography @arorygardiner. Built by @provanbuilt. Landscape design @sam.egan.gardens. Story @nikitabhopti__. Seen via @housesmagazine.

The picture comes from this post on Instagram.

Researched September 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.