Living Large in A Narrow Home Made of Brick and Concrete (House Tour)

Located in Brunswick, Victoria, Brunswick House by Placement is a showcase of how a narrow home can contain a lot of graceful design aspects within its walls. Sitting on a small block, the house offers a north-to-south-facing layout, with neighbours flanking on either side. Tasked to rectify a defunct terrace typology that is common to the area, the architect has employed a refined sense of detail from entrance to the back courtyard. To retain certain aspects of the original home, Placement has chosen to maintain the main bedroom with its original fireplace. While the house tour continues on, small design elements help to reignite the home’s historical character through a modern lens.
Placement has a sense of release and decompression to unveil the house by designing a double-height ceiling that leads into the dining area. When responding to the home’s narrow site, the architect had to find a way to welcome light into the centre of the building. This crucial design element was answered by the use of a central courtyard, which has been finished with large glass windows to allow for light to flood the living spaces. Moving from the dining area, two hallways are revealed, one which accesses the bathroom and another that works as a galley kitchen, and at the end of both hallways sits the living room and rear garden.
An additional mezzanine level is built above the hallways, designed to be used as a multipurpose room, second bedroom or office space. However, the space ultimately helps to zone out the separate dining and living areas. Employing bricks as the main material element within the narrow home, they are laid in a stack bond to accentuate the verticality in the space. Selecting the Nubrik artisan by Brickworks for its tactility and textural quality, the architect has used brick to help define the interior detailing and works alongside the timber joinery. In doing so, the timber is employed to do the heavy lifting of the interior spaces as the joinery creates a seamless transition between living, dining and the mezzanine level by creating overlapping lines. Additionally, the overlapping lines of joinery help to create a warmth and feeling of being nestled within a singular volume.
From the living room, the backyard opens up to a garden that has been envisioned as a courtyard, sandwiched between a rear pavilion and living room façade. Additionally, the insertion of a semi-underground water tank has been cleverly hidden by dense planting, which will take over the fences to become a nook of greenery. Due to living in the house for almost a decade, the client was already settled into the land and wasn’t looking for anything pretentious. Being sure to steer away from artificial finishes, Placement has instead used natural materials that will stand the test of time and create a home that answered the clients needs. By combining bricks, concrete, timber and warm paint finishes, the architect has created a narrow home that is pleasing and timeless.
00:00 - Introduction to the Narrow home
00:33 - Quietly Clever and Robust
00:50 - Working with a Narrow Block
01:07 - The Bricks and the Materials
02:07 - A Walkthrough of the Home
03:41 - Responding to the Narrow Nature of the Home
04:08 - Creating Seamless Transitions
04:32 - Proud Moments
04:51 - Favourite Spots
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Photography by Tom Ross.
Architecture and Interior Design by Placement.
Bricks by Brickworks.
Filmed and Edited by The Local Project.
Production by The Local Project.
The Local Project acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land in Australia. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our country and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands.
#NarrowHome #Architecture #InteriorDesign

[@TheLocalProject]

We hope you enjoyed the compact but beautiful Brunswick House by Placement. For more of the latest and greatest in architecture, interior design and house tours, make sure to subscribe to our tri-annual hardcopy print publication - thelocalproject.com.au/subscribe

[@lysan1445]

How beautiful! Modern but still warm. Simple and minimal, but not empty. The tiles and the wood accents are so pleasing to the eye! The different levels make it very enjoyable. I really love this home. As for the video: I know it is not easy to find the right background music, but the beat of this music made it really difficult for me to listen to the architect. It's not the first time I noticed it on this channel. I would appreciate the music being more in the background and not peaking and interfering with what is being said.

[@nataliakyselova809]

Let me just say, for someone who loves a smaller living space and thrives in a 'smooth and simple' design, this is one of the most welcome houses I have seen so far on the Local Project channel. I particularly enjoyed 'moving' through the ground level and the view through the private and cozy garden. Hats off to the architect on this excellent design execution.

[@2-_-B-_-continued]

Very nice home, and I appreciate that they are fans of Bjork

[@danaesquires7571]

The joinery and stairs are a thing of joy.

[@danaesquires7571]

I love this. It has a seventies vibe. Love the brick floors.

[@frankdeleon8836]

I just love this home. It's a place that has a sense of being lived in and fantastic proportionality. Oftentimes, we feast our eyes on "moments" in a home: a nook with amazing wallpaper, expensive art or furniture, breathtaking architecture, etc. I love that too. But when I think of a family home in a city, I think creative use of space that also gives a sense of place. And this home achieves that so effortlessly. It is impressively cohesive and cogent. I absolutely enjoyed all the details - especially the wall lighting. Thank you for sharing!!

[@martynsylvester5102]

Unbelievably gorgeous, wouldn’t change a thing.

[@liyaka]

Simply beautiful.

[@The_Professional_Hobbiest]

The home is absolutely gorgeous, and the architect did a great job presenting it. The music choice was very fatiguing though because of the highs, and the volume was quite high. I love the content, but would appreciate a warmer track.

[@DizarArchi]

Keren-keren sih semua desain rumah yang ada di channel ini.

[@tomisugiarto8922]

Yup

[@bearchow1723]

Another gorgeous video. While this project may not be my favorite among others featured on the channel, I appreciate Stephanie Kitingan's approach. I loved the vibe of this video too -- including the lo-fi tunes in the background. They're chill and vibrant at the same time. Just added them to my playlist. For anyone complaining about the music, maybe turn on the subtitles? I heard Ms. Kitingan just fine without them though. The Local Project seems to capture each project's vibe. We get to go on a multifaceted tour of each home as it might be experienced by its homeowner and the team behind its build. This includes music. While the interviews from developers, architects, and builders are important, they share one facet of the overall story. (Moreover, again if we want, we _could_ turn on subtitles in our preferred language. ☺)

[@MsWinterlife]

What with the history of factories in the area back in the days, it’s not surprising to see bricks and tiles all over the place. Still, it does feel like a missed opportunity to not select some contemporary bricks and tiles and apply them sparingly, to achieve more striking effects without enveloping the entire house.

[@frankdeleon8836]

She would have missed her client's brief: he wanted nothing pretentious. He wanted clever and robust, I believe she said. And from my perspective, she worked wonders with that brick. I don't feel a single trace of industrial in the home. It's incredibly warm and tactile. Texture and warmth are what come to mind.

[@dogcounter]

what an incredible space, one of my favorites you have shared

[@ME-dc4sj]

Love love love your video! I’m a great fan of your channel. Wish I can live such a gorgeous house…

[@DanMolinaStudio]

Great use of space on a narrow house. Also, there seems to be a black frame every now and then when it cut to her speaking. Check it out!

[@darien33]

Sin música por favor..., no hace falta y quita protagonismo a las imágenes y la bonita voz de la arquitecta

[@leo-nf3gb]

Loved it!

[@thedharmabum]

What is the wood used for the kitchen cabinets?

[@bullymac68]

That knee high barrier in the mezzanine space terrifies me!

[@donnaoz5502]

It certainly met the client's brief... "to create a design that was quietly clever and robust." well done! Interesting how the bedroom poster looks like the architect.

[@serpserpserp]

Are you saying she looks like bjork?

[@donnaoz5502]

@@serpserpserp If Bjork is the portrait, then yes.

[@keithronson2624]

Absolutely love this! Want to move in! A 'perfect' home. Probably my favourite to date on Local Project channel! Yes, that good. The use of space, the quality and timelessness of the materials. A proper place to live and to 'be'. A home, not simply a 'show home'. Amazing! Illustrates the perfect use of using a [limited] space and urban environment to its full potential. A defining 'home for life'. Thank you for sharing.

[@whizzywoo582]

sound much better this time ;)

[@NA-or2js]

Is cost ever discussed in these projects?

[@laraandrews9710]

Cannot hear anything. The background music is too loud.

[@davesbeard]

Waaaaaay too loud

[@TeeBoyd88]

I watched on mute for this reason. I thought it was just me.

[@justsubbingtochannellsilik9760]

Beautiful home, but like some other viewers pointed background music is too loud first half of the video.

[@childemperor]

❤

[@ivanklymenko]

😍😍😍😍😍

[@Jessica-kk1cz]

White gray wood. Oooo - look! Beige! 🙄

[@LogansRun314]

Please, for the love of god, lower the music. I would love to be able to hear this lady's calming voice.

[@carlm6766]

owners new hobbies include cleaning grout

[@ryansoo4000]

The house is beautiful but I found myself listening to the piano music more during the first part of the video and had a really hard time following what the designer was saying. Maybe tone down the background music a bit.

[@Thinksthat...]

Music is too loud.. duh!

[@joshuacarl1013]

No but I need the name of the song

[@tc2486]

I found the music distracting and made listening to the narrator difficult. I had to turn the sound off and just make do with the visuals.

[@aylinurgun5244]

Tile wall looks like 3rd world airport bathroom, I hate it.

[@megan_collins]

I really like the projects that this channel showcases, I just find the music volume or choice can be quite distracting and ruins the viewing experience…

[@antoniog2854]

simply beautiful...and the house isn't bad either.

[@willbass2869]

Not a fan of tile kitchen counters. Hell of a job cleaning the grout

[@nadinezeni3645]

Music is very loud

[@bugraatlgan4640]

Songs better

[@sharonhaasbroek7464]

Mmmm. That irritating music.

[@daboundy]

the client may not have wanted a pretentious house .. but by god the architect is certainly pretentious. .. (and not impressed by the house either)

[@ntgroup1571]

Sorry to say but nothing impressive 🙏🙏🙏.