One could be forgiven for assuming that the residents of May Grove house like their privacy. Sweeping in off the corner of a busy residential street in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra, the dwelling challenges the masked frontages of the properties that soldier alongside. Sited among a series of single-storey twentieth-century bungalows, May Grove reinterprets its site conditions and explores alternative streetscape opportunities.
The site, previously occupied by a 1930s red brick cottage, was originally fronted by a high fence in a style similar to those that still flank the latest addition to the street. Faced with this context, Jackson Clements Burrows Architects sought to reconsider and redefine the ways in which the new house might challenge the existing street facade.