HIGH VOLTAGE

A tight collaboration between architect, clients and interior decorator has produced a creatively expansive project where old and new built forms collide with a charge of eccentricity.

- KAREN MCCARTNEY

Brought on by David Neil of Melbourne practice Neil Architecture with a brief to work with their creatively adventurous clients, interior designer Simone Haag found an instant meeting of minds. She describes her as sourcing the things that would fall out of a house if you turned it upside down and shook it. So while Neil Architecture took care of all the spatial decisions and built form in re-imagining this original 1907 Queen Anne house, by celebrated Federation-era architect Christopher Cowper, Simone became the curator of all things furniture, lighting, art and objects.

"We love Simone's enthusiasm and her ability to source the unconventional and those pieces that are hard to come by and give the house its offbeat personality," says director David Neil. "As a practice we embrace the opportunity to work with creatives who bring a distinctive energy to our clients and their projects." So while Simone was engaged early in the process it was Neil Architecture's envelope into which she worked as they had designed all the joinery and specified all wall finishes and the majority of the fixed lighting.

The house, which sits on a large block in Melbourne's Hawthorne, had been in the hands of the previous owner for an impressive 52 years and had over that time been subject to a number of warren-like additions in the 1960s and 70s. Stripping back in order to re-plan for underground parking and a cellar alongside a contemporary addition, to house family living and bedrooms for their two children and guests, while incorporating generous garden spaces, formed the essence of the brief to the architects.