Daniel Robertson Hawthorn bricks, renowned for their use in heritage architecture, also find a home in cutting-edge modern designs such as this house in outer Melbourne. The 950 square metre home is grouped around a central courtyard and situated on a 4000 square metre site. The massive building, home to a semi-retired couple, is constructed on a concrete raft floor slab. All external walls are built in insulated cavity brickwork. The external walls and the brick piers supporting the verandah (which all but rings the house) are face brickwork. The central walls flanking the courtyards also display the brick faces on both sides. The brick partition walls – there are no stud walls – are sheeted with plasterboard. Face brickwork is in keeping with the design philosophy of using low-maintenance, natural materials. “It’s about having robust natural materials and emphasising the texture of those materials,” says the architect John Matyas.