Buyer be warehouse: Enhancing the quirky character of a complicated building

 Calling a past century pseudo warehouse “a strange style” is architect Daniel Xuereb’s diplomatic way of understating “the quirky, elaborate, freestanding building” he was recently asked to renovate in Melbourne’s Richmond.

Designed by an engineer during the early 1990s as a dwelling for an artist, it had internal brick walls, a 10-metre-high main room, and an industrial-style steel gantry with a steel balustrade painted turquoise.

But that’s only the half of it.

“It also had interesting 1920s-style porthole windows, large faux classical columns and ornate moulding features,” Xuereb says.

There is more – internal divisions for the main bedroom were effected by a wall of ’60s-style wooden shutters, and there was a stumpy wall partition built of big stones brought from Sydney that looked like remnants of an ancient ruin.

“Interesting,” Xuereb says. “Quite a lot of character … but with all that recycled and very dominant brickwork internally it was a very orange building … very busy.”

As well as reworking the layout to make it into a liveable and modern three-bedroom family home, and removing many of the over-the-top features “while keeping the goodies”, Xuereb, director of Richmond’s DX Architects, ramped up the industrial premise by adding another gantry in the apex of the main living space.

“The aluminium metal grate floor allows light to come through a usable surface,” he says.

• Related: Australia’s most sustainable homes
• Related: Inside eclectic retreat of artist David Bromley
• Related: This couple restored an 1870s Victorian ruin

And putting a platform right up in the roof lantern of the building, with its clerestory window surround, allows a 360-degree view across Richmond and to the city.

“It’s a long way up, but it’s fun.”

One wall of the shutters was replaced by vertical cedar boards, part of the original stairwell was kept, part was replaced in another position, the ground floor became engineered oak over the concrete slab, and the kitchen was moved.

The sitting area gained a partial, metal-floored gantry that has space for a settee and desk.

What started out as a complicated building “became quite an exciting project because we were able to improve the spaces for contemporary living while keeping it unique”.