00:01Caringal Flats is quite a unique building given that there's one flat per floor.
00:07Each floor has four aspects with a lift going up directly into each flat.
00:13I sought to reverse years of unsympathetic alterations and neglect by stripping the
00:18flat back to its original form, maintaining all the soft round edges and beautiful white
00:24textual surfaces, and adding a series of contemporary interventions with sharp straight edges and
00:31uniformly black joinery pieces.
00:33I'm Ben Ellul, architect and founder of Ellul Architecture, and I live in this flat with
00:38my partner Jen and my Italian greyhound Vinnie.
00:48Caringal Flats is located in Turac in Melbourne, Australia.
00:52Turac's 10 minutes on the train from the Melbourne CBD.
00:56It's a tree-lined suburb with lots of substantial single properties in it and a few older apartment
01:01buildings.
01:03Caringal Flats were built in 1951 on the lands of the Wurundjeri people.
01:08The heritage listed flats were designed by architect J.W.
01:11Rivett and consist of three buildings, the Crescent, the Tower and the Garage.
01:15A series of sky bridges link the buildings together.
01:19The flats were known for their striking coral and blue colour scheme, and this was painted
01:24beige in the 80s.
01:25Recently it was restored back to its original colour scheme.
01:30When we purchased the flat, the first thing we noticed was how much light was in here,
01:34and so we wanted to really enhance and maintain the level of light in the building.
01:39This was a labour of love for many years.
01:42I owned the apartment for five years before we understood the renovation, so it was just
01:46worked on over time and details were refined and sketched whenever I had some spare time.
01:52All the rooms were very individualised.
01:55The bedroom was separated by a series of sliding doors.
01:58Off the living area there's also a kitchen that was separated from that area with a door.
02:02What I set out to do was to open the space up.
02:05I removed all the doors from the kitchens and lobby areas and then inserted a freestanding
02:10joinery piece to separate the bedroom from the living area.
02:12The bathroom was quite large given the size of the flat, so we consolidated that down to
02:18fit a laundry and a hot water service and then a smaller bathroom space.
02:25There's an original lift which serves as each flat.
02:28You step directly out of the lift into the lobby of the apartment.
02:34There's a storage closet which also acts as Vinnie's bedroom.
02:37This also houses some additional storage for larger items like vacuums, brooms and mops
02:42and shoes.
02:44I designed and made a series of benches for the flat, one of which lives in the lobby,
02:49which is a handy spot when you come home to dump your items down and take your shoes off.
02:54When you step through the steel reveal into the main living area you're greeted with the
02:58original floor to ceiling glazing with expansive views over the city of Melbourne.
03:04I've laid a series of sheer curtains and blinds to moderate the harsh afternoon light.
03:10All the furniture was deliberately kept low so that the view to the city was not obstructed.
03:17With the amount of glazing there was no logical spot for a TV.
03:20A custom solution saw the TV housed in a joinery piece, elevated on legs, tying it into the other
03:27elements in the flat.
03:30In order to maintain the clean lines of the heritage flat, the air conditioner was concealed
03:35in a low level custom made sideboard.
03:37It also provides a useful ledge to store items on.
03:42At the centre of the living room is a custom dining table in a muted green colour.
03:47The green references the foliage outside.
03:50All the furniture is easily moveable so we can open the space up.
03:54We have a matching table and storage which can be brought up when we're hosting.
03:57We use the benches that are normally positioned against the walls for the additional seating
04:02and we can seat 14.
04:06The size of the table makes it easy to work from home during the week with my Asus Send
04:10Screen set up while we continue to eat and dine at the table.
04:14If I'm going to be doing a small task for the evening I'll use the monitor with the kickstand
04:18but if I'm setting it up for a few days I'll use the adjustable arm.
04:25Everything selected for the flat was really considered so it was important that any monitor
04:29that I use also has that same sleek contemporary design.
04:33Given space is a premium, the compact nature of the monitor makes it easy to stow away when
04:38not in use.
04:41To separate the living room from the bedroom we inserted a freestanding joinery piece which
04:46is elevated off the floor and held off the ceiling to maintain a sense of space whilst maintaining
04:51privacy.
04:52It's divided into three sections, the first for display with pigeonholes below for each
04:57of us, the second bar and miscellaneous storage and the last as an extension of the kitchen
05:03as a pantry and a space for pots and pans.
05:07The kitchen consists of two freestanding joinery units that has the same design language as the
05:13room divider.
05:16One side has a low level workbench with integrated sink and dishwasher with views over the city
05:23great for when you're washing up.
05:27The other side has a cooktop and a fridge.
05:29Given the small room size we created a deeper than standard kitchen to create a ledge for additional
05:36appliances at the back.
05:37This extra depth also allowed us to accommodate a full size fridge.
05:41The black and stainless steel kitchen is in direct counterpoint to the warm textures of
05:46the apartment.
05:48The small format mosaic tiles are sympathetic to the original design intent of the building.
05:56The door in the kitchen leads to the rear stairs connecting the flat to the rest of the complex.
06:02These stairs look out over the common walkways and sky bridges which provides an opportunity
06:06to bump into neighbouring residents.
06:10On the other side of the room divider is the bedroom with a large east facing window.
06:16Like the living room, the furniture in the bedroom is deliberately low to the ground to maintain
06:20views out of the window.
06:24The benches also appear in the bedroom, some as bedside tables and another against the wall.
06:32The reverse side of the room divider provides our robe storage.
06:36These are deeper than the living room side in order to accommodate a standard hanger.
06:40The top of the joinery unit aligns to the top of the windows whilst the legs align to the
06:45top of the skirting boards.
06:47The added bonus is that it allows for crossflow ventilation and light to spread between spaces.
06:53On the other side of the room divider there's another punched opening containing a series
06:57of doors.
06:58One door is to the bathroom and the other door conceals the laundry.
07:02Whilst the flats have a communal laundry downstairs, the way we live it was really important for
07:06us to have access to our own washing machine.
07:11In order to accommodate a laundry, the bathroom had to be consolidated.
07:15The compact bathroom contains a full size shower, toilet and vanity.
07:20This required the relocation of plumbing.
07:23The floor is clad in an era appropriate terrazzo and the smaller mosaics that are in the kitchen
07:28are used on the walls.
07:30This creates a sense of light in the space.
07:33A series of mirrors back onto the service zone beyond providing deep above mirror storage.
07:43Design shouldn't dictate the way people live, it should enhance it.
07:47So I think when designing a small space it's really important to understand the needs of
07:51the client or in this case what our needs were.
07:54Functionality needs to come first and everything else is second to that.
07:58People often think that living in an apartment is a compromise.
08:01I think this flat is an example of how with careful restoration and considered intervention,
08:06heritage housing stock can be updated to provide a platform for modern living.
08:10That while maintaining as a living.
08:11Yeah.
08:18That means that living means that all people have Cem57, a lot of people can be updated.
08:19In the next part in the��.
08:21So the living was not so easy enough and falou to become bigger and había giants in the
08:22So the living extended passenger choices, all the living items I need to be a place
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