In the description of its Fairfield Hacienda, the Melbourne-based MRTN Architects note that the single-family home "effortlessly pick[s] up the street's original pattern of hipped and gabled roof forms." But parallels aside, the design makes for a pretty mold-breaking addition to the neighborhood of "Victorian villas and Californian bungalows" that it sits in. There's the jagged, midcentury-inspired Bart haircut roof for starters, and even further afield, a kind of deconstructed courtyard in front that MRTN describes as a "room without a roof." Even bolder, they opted to build it from naked concrete blocks, which to most minds signifies brutalist compound, parking garage, or prison.
However the neighbors fall on the Fairfield Hacienda, it's a pretty striking addition to the Melbourne suburb of Fairfield. The inside is a lot more conventionally good-looking, much of it covered by a canopy of cedar that MRTN describes as a "warm blanket." Read up on the rest of their decisions over at Architizer, and see the results below:
· Fairfield Hacienda [Architizer]
· All Melbourne coverage [Curbed National]