It is impossible to argue that inner city warehouse living does not come without its challenges. Space constraints and close proximity to neighbours aside, designing a home that makes the most of its aspect takes considered thought and ingenious thinking. For Ha Architects, this Leveson Street home came with its own unique challenge of multi-storey buildings surrounding all three sides of its existing warehouse facade.

DESIGN Ha | PHOTOGRAPHY Tom Blachford

By inverting the traditional floor plan of a two storey home, Ha have created a modern home that sees all bedrooms and bathrooms located on the ground floor while the kitchen and living areas are located upstairs in order to make the most of the outdoor entertaining areas with roof top views across to North Melbourne Town Hall.

In the kitchen there is a feeling of both intimacy and light as the room takes in light and filtered views of the rear garden. North facing clerestory windows have been installed to allow beautiful winter sun throughout the living and dining areas. Downstairs built in garden beds line the paint rendered walls covered with green creepers to soften the space and add visual interest to the interior rooms.

In order to open up the internal rooms of the rectangular building to both the natural environment and daylight, two external voids were created to run vertically across both levels in order to create beautiful light wells while also allowing access to natural ventilation.