How This Architect is Renovating His Own Mid-Century Modern Home
Peter Woolard, architect and Director of Studio 101 Architects, remembers what it was like walking to school as a kid and wanted to give his children that same experience.
“We wanted to find a new family home and began searching within a 3km radius of their school and noticed there were some mid-century modernist gems in the area,” Peter Woolard says. “We did a few letter drops; unfortunately, we didn’t receive much of a response, but our patience paid off when Kirriemuir House came up for auction.”
The mid-century modern was built in 1962 after the original owners visited the Carlingford Homes Fair in Sydney. They saw the Lend Lease Pan Pacific house, designed by Nino Sydney, and wanted the modernist home it to be built back in Geelong.
Peter explains that while the mid-century house was a little run down and showing its age, they were more drawn to the efficient floor plan with a great flow of spaces and that it was simply a 'killer piece of modernist architecture'. Inspired by mid-century modern architecture, stemming from his formative years studying in California and Australia, Peter set out to do a sensitive renovation that respected the home's history while improving the livability and comfort for his family.
"For Kirriemuir House, it wasn't about historically restoring the house into a museum piece from the 60s; it was about providing a home for our family", Peter explains.
The home maintains the original material palette, an essential element of mid-century design and architecture. The exterior features brick, slate stone and breezeway blocks in the carport and north-facing terrace, with Peter adding new timber cladding, decking, windows, and glazed doors at the rear. Internally, a blockwork wall sits at the entry, with exposed structural elements throughout the home. New flooring was needed, so Peter opted for Scandinavian-inspired oak timber flooring and new carpet for the bedrooms.
"Rather than the regressive terrace houses, which are better suited for the northern hemisphere, modernist architecture took a leap forward for design better suited to the Australian climate and lifestyle", Peter says. "The simplicity, functionality, honesty in materials, connection to the garden, and forward-thinking sustainability of mid-century architecture were all driven by solid design principles that remain timeless, even 60 years on."
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Kirriemuir House by Studio 101 Architects, built by Meridean Builders.
Production, photography and words by Anthony Richardson.
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