{"id":64111,"date":"2025-08-13T03:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T03:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64111\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T03:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T03:26:11","slug":"parkville-apartment-by-healy-ryan-architects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/64111\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkville Apartment by Healy Ryan Architects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The brief was simplicity itself: replace some original kitchen joinery that was falling off its hinges in a 1960s apartment. But architect Tom Healy saw greater potential in this character-filled home, whose intact original features include popcorn ceilings, archways, exposed brick feature walls and vintage tiles. The place was also brimming with colour thanks to the clients\u2019 collections of art, ceramics and books.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">The home had a small sitting area adjacent to the kitchen, opening to a terrace with views to surrounding eucalypts and beautiful Royal Park beyond. Tom suggested removing the dividing wall in between the kitchen and sitting area to unlock a tiny kitchen-dining corner, creating a sociable suite of interlinked spaces animated by expansive views.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">The clients are keen cooks and entertainers but were wary of open-plan arrangements. The designer proposed a partial opening and the sustainable reuse of existing materials to blend old and new. \u201cIn houses, it\u2019s simpler in a way,\u201d Tom says. \u201cThere\u2019s often a really clear delineation between the original and the new, and the new will be quite distinct in character. Whereas, in apartment fitouts, they overlap a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Open shelves facing the living space are used to display objects and books.\" class=\"['full'] full blur-up lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/608471d552059ac68461a96823077a2c.jpg\" height=\"582\" width=\"465\"\/><\/p>\n<p>View gallery<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">Healy Ryan\u2019s deft renovation inserts a sociable island\/bar with overhead display joinery into the new opening between kitchen and sitting room. \u201cIt\u2019s completely changed the way that the apartment is used now,\u201d Tom says. A separate living room remains the clients\u2019 choice for reading or watching TV. For meals and events people have naturally gravitated to the home\u2019s new heart, gathering casually around the bar, on the couch opposite and outside on the terrace.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">The sitting room\u2019s door was replaced with hardwood-framed sliders. Worn carpet made way for blackbutt floorboards. Creamy white kitchen joinery was paired with exuberant red handles and joyful orange tiles \u2013 originals hand-cleaned and re-laid to reduce waste and interweave old and new. The latter inspired the use of striking orange joinery from Woodcraft Mobiliar, further unifying the apartment\u2019s contemporary and mid-century Australian modernism.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Orange overhead joinery matches the original tiles in a cohesive layering of old and new.\" class=\"['full'] full blur-up lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/278b564e40776b66670a29ba419531c9.jpg\" height=\"580\" width=\"465\"\/><\/p>\n<p>View gallery<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en-US\">\u201cFor me what was really interesting about the design process was trying to get the balance right between openness and separation,\u201d Tom says. \u201cI felt like there were a lot of requirements coming together with that jigsaw puzzle piece of joinery we created.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brief was simplicity itself: replace some original kitchen joinery that was falling off its hinges in a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-64111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}