Georgian House

The brief

Fulfilling a dream in limestone.

I found myself sitting at the dining table of a little red brick cottage, sharing my clients' dream of a Georgian-style home in Roman bricks. In the end, they found that solid limestone blocks offered better window reveals and mouldings — and a quieter, more refined character than brick.

Hiding the garage under the house was essential to preserve the classic facade — and the slope of the street helped us achieve this, while also creating a large games room in the basement. The key to the design was a traditional pitched roof that doesn't exceed height restrictions, achieved by transitioning to a flat roof at the rear — which also provides the perfect north-facing eave for passive solar shading.

The result is a home that feels genuinely Georgian from the street — not a reproduction, but a considered interpretation of the style built with modern materials and thinking.

Has more romance than a season of Bridgerton.

Vanessa · Georgian House, Northbridge 2013

The design thinking

Classical form, passive solar thinking.

The Georgian style presents a specific design challenge: classical proportions demand a steeply pitched roof, but height restrictions in most residential zones don't accommodate one. The solution — a pitched form to the street that transitions to a flat roof at the rear — is invisible from the footpath.

The flat roof at the rear creates a wide north-facing eave that shades the living spaces from summer sun while admitting winter sun. It's an example of how traditional and contemporary thinking work together without compromise — the house performs as well as it looks.