The Design Files: The award-winning home that's a tip-of-the-hat to art deco design

Who:  Annie Rose (co-founder and director of Lift Education, a school-based sexual and social health education program) and Peter Rose (a lawyer).

Where: North Fitzroy

What: An award-winning architect-designed home

Seven years ago, Annie and Peter Rose bought a run-down property in Melbourne’s inner north. The house was known as the “railway cottage”, but this quaint descriptor belied the state of the property.

Initially, their son Lachy and members of his band lived in the house, before the Rose family demolished the cottage to build their current home.

The Roses worked with local architects Maura Baracco and Louise Wright of Baracco + Wright, who had previously designed a beach house for the couple, as well as an apartment in Melbourne’s Cairo building. This long-standing client/architect partnership and relationship was cemented over a shared love of Robin Boyd.

As well as appointing their architects, the Roses engaged Julian Barlow of Atma Builders for the construction, and said he did an excellent job on the tricky shape of the unique home.

“Every architect, builder, designer or tradesperson who has been to this house since its completion has marvelled at the finish and craftsmanship that is evident in this build,” Annie says.

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The Roses’ design brief was for a house that “would see us through the next steps of our lives, and hopefully forever”. With now-adult children, the couple no longer needed a large home, nor space for cricket games in the garden. After much consultation between clients and architects, two small, adjacent houses were designed for the irregular-shaped block.

The Roses are now proud owners of “two spacious houses and a lovely side garden on the site”. Importantly, the house also incorporates a “decent-sized wine cellar”. Priorities!

The curving front and triangular shape of the building is a tip-of-the-hat to art deco design, as well as a nod to the aesthetic of surrounding houses in the suburb. Annie says this generous rounded space is like being on the “bridge of a boat”, when standing at the kitchen bench.

The living room operates almost as a theatre-in-the-round, providing the owners with a view across “270 degrees, that is really beautiful whatever the weather”.

Annie says the design is both private and connected to the community, with an outlook over the park to view acrobats, school sports and weddings.

For all its wow-factor, this home is an understated and elegant response to an odd-shaped site. It is both generous and practical, with the sort of presence that has made it a landmark.