Before & After: She Cloaked Her 1970s Brick Home in a Concrete-and-Metal "Skin"

A retiree transformed her suburban residence by adding a surprisingly airy brutalist extension at the front.

Apr 12, 2024 - 18:34

Before & After: She Cloaked Her 1970s Brick Home in a Concrete-and-Metal "Skin"

A retiree transformed her suburban residence by adding a surprisingly airy brutalist extension at the front.

There’s a secret hiding behind this Brisbane, Australia, home’s sharp, brutalist façade: its original brick bungalow form is largely intact.

Carmen bought the three-bed house 16 years ago with her husband, Carl, to eventually retire there. At the time, they were living in a heritage home on a large block in the same leafy suburb of Brisbane. "We loved the area, and it was a small house on a small block of land. We thought, Retirement, downsizing—that would suit us in 10 or 15 years’ time," recalls Carmen, who has since stopped working.

Before: Exterior

Despite its basic design, Carmen could see the potential in this run-of-the-mill 1970s brick bungalow.

After: Exterior

With its concrete and metal finishes and brutalist edges, the home is unrecognisable. — A new compressed fibre cement sheet and metal enclosure wraps the home.
Photo: Andy Macpherson Studio

Carl had envisioned knocking down the 1970s bungalow to build a sustainable, energy-efficient home in its place, while Carmen thought the original house was worthy of a renovation. When Carl died a few years ago, Carmen was left to move forward with their downsizing plan on her own, and eventually decided to renovate rather than rebuild.

"What was always in the back of my mind was a quote I’d heard by Carl Elefante, an architect, who said that the greenest building is the one that already exists," Carmen says. "It cemented for me the idea that I could reuse and upgrade rather than demolish and replace."