Ivanhoe Houses

By Michael Ong Design Office

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The site is located in the leafy suburb of Ivanhoe, Victoria. The clients came to us with a brief to create two well sized town houses, each with 3 bedrooms, 2 bath and generous opening living, aside from the spatial requirements, the clients wanted a house which connects well with the garden and one that is incorporates sustainable principles.

With the site tapering away at the rear, the most common townhouse siting approach will be to adopt a ‘tandem’ layout, this unfortunately will create a long concrete driveway most of the way down one side of the lot, aesthetically this forms quite a hash street facade, but it also means we’ve lost a lot of valuable land area. Alternatively, we’ve borrowed the tapering angles from the site to form the ground floor footprint, this allows us now to build two ‘side-by-side’ townhouses.

Internally, an angled wall can be difficult to utilised, so we’ve designed a timber bench to run along the width of the wall which forms the a bench for the dining room table and also a TV stand for the living room.

Full height sliding doors to both North and South ends of the open living area allow plenty of natural light and promotes cross ventilation. The north facing sliding doors lead out into a central courtyard, the eave around the northern doors are designed to promote passive solar gain, by cutting out the summer sun, while letting the winter sun flow through.

To the first floor, the master bedroom looks out over the street, with full width windows the room captures a wide picture view of the surrounding neighbourhood. A window planter box at the window introduces are touch of greenery to the upper floor. 

photographer: MODO

Michael Ong Design Office
Ivanhoe Houses
Ivanhoe Houses
Ivanhoe Houses
Ivanhoe Houses
Ivanhoe Houses

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Ivanhoe Houses

Michael Ong Design Office
Michael Ong Design Office
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Michael Ong Design Office

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About the
Professional

Michael Ong graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2009 with a Masters of Architecture.

Michael Ong has won the Intergrain Timber Vision Award for Peppercorn House (residential category), has been named in Italian Architectural Journal CASABELLA as one of its international architects under 30, The Guardian listed Michael as one of the upcoming architects and is the SOYA Award winner for the Architecture and Interior Category.

Michael’s work has been published both nationally and internationally. Most notably, his conceptual silo regeneration work in MARK magazine, Dwell Asia ( where he was selected as one of the seven experts to discuss the future of design), Monument and HOUSES magazine to name a few.

Michael Ong Design Office is an award winning architecture studio based in Melbourne, Australia.

Our design process is driven by a strong focus on quality and the benefits of good design. A process which is grounded by thoughtful design ideas and rigorous analysis of site, context and brief.

Our buildings create spaces to form intimate and highly responsive connections between its landscape, building and inhabitants. We are excited by the simplicity and beauty of everyday spaces and objects, and we explore concepts that turn the ordinary and common into rich, textured and expressive.

At every scale, we greet each project with an open mind and our innate sense of design curiosity to realise buildings that are enriching and inspiring. We always collaborate with our clients brief and budget to realise a thoughtful, unique, complete project.

“Michael’s first home shows a real feeling for space and materials. His silo project and in particular his experimental kitchen is indicative of his need to explore design.” – Brian Zulaikha [former president of Australian Institute of Architects and director of TZG Architects]”