A Balcony With a Bathtub Caps This Striking Prefab in Melbourne

With its bold, black timber facade, Modscape's recently built three-bedroom house in Melbourne doesn't look like a cookie-cutter prefab home. Yet the structure, built for the owner and her growing family, comprises a series of modules constructed off-site in the company's nearby factory.

"The client wanted a home that had space for entertaining guests, but also an intelligent design that was flexible rather than unnecessarily large," says Prue Lavery, the design manager at Modscape. "It was important that ample outdoor space remained as [the owner] is an avid gardener and plant lover."

The home is situated in an inner-Melbourne suburban heritage area that’s surrounded by weatherboard-clad, single-fronted residences with pitched roofs. The site was previously occupied by a heritage-listed home, which, in many cases, can make it hard to begin anew. However, since it had been deemed unlivable, permission was granted to replace it with a modern interpretation of the neighborhood vernacular.