The stunning family home that was designed on a beer coaster

This former factory has been reimagined as a contemporary family home, paying homage to the site’s industrial history and a much-loved piece of 20th century French architecture.

The house – inspired by Pierre Chareau’s Parisian modernist masterpiece Maison de Verre (House of Glass), finished in 1932 – is located in the old Federal Truck & Trolley building in Fitzroy, one of Melbourne’s oldest suburbs.

Built in 1920, the workshop is believed to have produced tram axles before moving to other forms of metal fabrication some years later.

The address was then subdivided and converted for residential purpose in the 1990s, with one townhouse on George Street and another facing Little George Street.

Donald Holt of Hola Projects, the architect responsible for the latest renovation of the building, describes the townhouses as “an odd kind of Tuscan/art deco combination”.

“The ’90s renovation wasn’t wearing well but was habitable,” he says. “The original envelope was great and needed some love.”

The client, a nuclear family with whom Holt has a relationship spanning 20 years, worked out their brief for the building over beers with the architect at a nearby pub.

“We went to a viewing of the property one evening and decamped to the Napier Hotel,” Holt says.

“Over a few drinks, [we] developed a beer-coaster map of the special ideas in the building. [The brief] is surprisingly similar to those ink-bled sketches. I wish I’d kept them.”

The end result was a three-bedroom family home punctuated by five courtyards, each with a separate purpose – one at the centre of the house with a 1.8-metre plunge pool – and a herb garden adjoining the kitchen.

The original facade and signage, which are under heritage protection, provided the starting point for a number of nods to the building’s heritage throughout the interior.

An exposed steel frame supports the masonry walls, while the steel-framed windows and wired glass pay tribute to the single, original window facing on to the street. The bronze door and window hardware was custom-made at a local foundry.

The industrial aesthetic is continued through to the kitchen with the large, stainless steel Sub-Zero refrigerator and Wolf oven from kitchen, laundry and bathrooms company E&S.

Colour is employed with great care. The internal face of the facade is painted scampi pink to infuse a warm glow through the house’s interior in the afternoon.