The Perforated House is located in Brunswick – Victoria, Australia and has been designed by Kavellaris Urban Design. The home was constructed in this once vacant site, nestled at the eastern bookend between a row of single fronted Victorian terraces and a double fronted Edwardian weatherboard house. The built form is essentially an urban infill within an 18 foot by 47 foot (5.5 x 14.4m) building envelope.

The architects wanted the house to be more than just a facade. More than just a message or a graphic stuck to a building. The building was not an urban canvas paying tribute to Venturi “decorated shed”, instead the external facade could be experienced internally and is also a multi functional device that constantly transforms the built form from solid to void, from private to public, from opaque to translucent. By day the building is heavy and reflective and by night inverting into a soft translucent permeable light box. The operable wall or the absence of the facade enabled the architects to remove the idea that houses are static.

The use of operable walls, doors, curtains and glass walls enables the occupants to change the experience and environment. This architectural manipulation of space blurred the boundaries between inside and outside, the public and private realm. The manipulated spaces overlapped and borrowed the amenity and context of its surrounding environment.

The perforated house incorporates passive sustainable design such as northern oriented glass bi-fold doors and louvers for cross ventilation as the primary means of cooling, solar hot water and 5-star rated sanitary fixtures. The north facing terrace redefines the “aussie” backyard reinforced by the childlike mural reminiscing on a past era and making commentary on the changing demography of the family unit and ultimately the inner city house typology.