Johnson House, Medindie

Red brick and Victorian detailing takes a journey through the looking glass

A Victorian manor house lives on in the beautiful suburb of Medindie. As property owners take up developers’ offers to truncate their deep blocks and transform tennis courts into expensive infill housing, the footprint of Victorian manor houses has steadily reduced. Tectvs sought to achieve the opposite with the Johnson House. Exquisite architecture must remain the standard while moving into the 21st century. Through careful and detailed architectural intervention, we successfully transformed this Victorian manor into a modernist icon. 

Tectvs was asked to provide an architectural solution that brought the everyday into the new millennium without diminishing an enduring symbol of the past. So, the existing house was upgraded, with the space being turned into stylish bedrooms and private spaces for contemplation and rest. 

We designed an addition that would form the centre of family activity and interaction. The space is open, transparent, and outward-looking. The pool, which Tectvs located at the rear, is effortlessly at one with the new space and creates the illusion that its water flows under the glass box addition. A key criterion was to ensure that the new part of the home-made minimal impact on the visual harmony of the surrounding historic neighbourhood. Accordingly, the addition was set slightly to one side of the rear of the house, rendering it almost invisible from the street.

A beautiful, stately old manor home now has a new lease on life.