Fringe Dweller’s sculpted extension transforms an unassuming weatherboard cottage into a proud forever home. It walks multiple tightropes at once: balancing openness with privacy, strength with softness, and a rich history with our clients’ future needs. On Clifton Hill’s suburban edge, the house sits opposite the leafy Quarries Park Reserve. Our clients, Ishtar and Craig, have three children and purchased their cottage to create a long-term family home. Lying within a heritage overlay, the cottage’s traditional layout is largely preserved – only tweaked, in a wise parenting move, to form three equally sized bedrooms. The extension’s shared spaces feature rich materials, a warm palette and curved edges, creating a feeling of softness and easing transitions between zones. A staircase arcing through the living areas leads up to the lounge and main suite. Elevated above street level, these spaces can more freely relate to the park: the lounge’s attached balcony overlooks the park’s open field, while the main bedroom’s floor-to-ceiling window frames magnificent foliage. Downstairs, sliding doors connect the living areas to a semi-covered deck, while the garden beyond is embraced by a self-contained studio at the rear and high walls on either side. A brick wall interspersed with permeable screens lines the site’s public edge, balancing backyard privacy with neighbourhood connection. For passers-by, it’s a strong addition to the streetscape, granting glimpses of the lush garden within. Fringe Dweller embraces its presence on the fringe of the parklands, balancing its historical context with its future as a nurturing family home.

Grosvenor

Robilliard Building & Design

This is an example of a contemporary two-storey brown house exterior in Sunshine Coast with a flat roof.

Holzhaus Düsseldorf: Natürlich wohnen inmitten der Stadt

Uwe Siepmann

Im Laufe der Zeit wird die Holzfassade des Doppelhauses in Düsseldorf durch Witterung und Sonneneinwirkung eine Patina erhalten und auf natürlichem Wege altern.

Haus F. für Holzbau Kühlborn GmbH

Lars Gruber Architekturfotografie

Large contemporary two-storey brown exterior in Frankfurt with wood siding and a gable roof.

Oxfordshire Country House

Chris Lewis Smart Home

This is an example of a large contemporary two-storey brown house exterior in Oxfordshire with a gable roof, mixed siding and a shingle roof.

Wooden Box House

Moloney Architects

Christine Francis
Photo of a small contemporary one-storey brown exterior in Melbourne with wood siding and a flat roof.

Maison C - Bouscat

Atelier Mélange Des Genres (MDG)

Patrick Desvergnes
Photo of a mid-sized contemporary one-storey brown exterior in Bordeaux with wood siding.

Villa Råhøj

C.F. Møller

Design ideas for a large scandinavian two-storey brown exterior in Aarhus with mixed siding and a flat roof.

Projekt

Arkitekt Håkan Olsson

Inspiration for a large scandinavian two-storey brick brown exterior in Malmo with a gable roof.

MAISON DEJEAN à LAVERNOSE

Architectures Stéphane DELIGNY

Stéphane DELIGNY
Photo of a large contemporary one-storey brown exterior in Toulouse with wood siding and a flat roof.

ökologisches Lehmbauhaus

Studio B2

Anya Zuchold
Design ideas for a mid-sized country two-storey brown exterior in Hamburg with wood siding.

Fairfield.2

Excelsior Master Builder

Emma Cross
Inspiration for a contemporary two-storey brown house exterior in Melbourne with mixed siding, a shed roof and a metal roof.

Long town garden Strawberry Hill

Echinops Garden Design

Inspiration for a contemporary three-storey brick brown exterior in London with a gable roof.

Private House in Surbiton

Francesco Pierazzi Architects

This detached Victorian house was extended to accommodate the needs of a young family with three small children. The programme was organized into two distinctive structures: the larger and higher volume is placed at the back of the house to face the garden and make the best use of the south orientation and to accommodate a large Family Room open to the new Kitchen. A longer and thinner volume, only 1.15m wide, stands to the western side of the house and accommodates a Toilet, a Utility and a dining booth facing the Family Room. All the functions that are housed in the secondary volume have direct access either from the original house or the rear extension, thus generating a hierarchy of served and servant volumes, a relationship that is homogeneous to that between the house and the extension. The timber structures, while distinctive in their proportions, are connected by a shallow volume that doubles as a bench to create an architectural continuum and to emphasize the effect of a secondary volume wrapped around a primary one. While the extension makes use of a modern idiom, so that it is clearly distinguished from the original house and so that the history of its development becomes immediately apparent, the size of the red cedar cladding boards, left untreated to allow a natural silvering process, matches that of the Victorian brickwork to bind house and extension together. As the budget did not make possible the use a bespoke profile, an off-the-shelf board was selected and further grooved at mid point to recreate the brick pattern of the façade. A tall and slender pivoting door, positioned at the boundary between the original house and the new intervention, allows a direct view of the garden from the front of the house and facilitates an innovative relationship with the outside. Photo: Gianluca Maver

Tregunter Road

Robmooreconstruction.co.uk

This is an example of a traditional three-storey brick brown house exterior in Hampshire.

Project | Cove House

Eco Outdoor USA

Architecture: Justin Humphrey Architect Photography: Andy Macpherson
Industrial one-storey brown house exterior with mixed siding and a flat roof.

Lookout House

Room 11

Ben Hosking
This is an example of a large contemporary one-storey brown exterior in Hobart with wood siding and a gable roof.

Minimalistisch Häuser

Mid-sized modern two-storey brown exterior in Berlin with mixed siding and a flat roof.

WIMBLEDON FAMILY HOUSE

STEPHEN FLETCHER ARCHITECTS

A Victorian semi-detached house in Wimbledon has been remodelled and transformed into a modern family home, including extensive underpinning and extensions at lower ground floor level in order to form a large open-plan space. Photographer: Nick Smith

ORFORD | RESIDENCE

HuM Architects

Modern brown house exterior in Melbourne with wood siding.

Brown Exterior Design Ideas