Karen Abernethy adds metal-clad pavilions to modernist Melbourne, Australia home

https://www.dezeen.com/2025/07/06/karen-abernethy-modernist-home-extension-melbourne/









Australian studio Karen Abernethy Interiors and Architecture has restored and extended a 1950s modernist home in Melbourne, Australia, nestling two small pavilions into a lushly planted site. Originally designed by the architect Peter McIntyre in 1954, the heritage-listed dwelling is known as Coil House on account of its curving shape, which hugs a steeply sloping courtyard in the suburb of Ivanhoe East.









In 2018, Karen Abernethy Interiors and Architecture was approached to extend this home for a family with three children, who desired additional spaces that would not disrupt the building's original character. In order to minimise the disruption of Coil House's curved form, the local studio created two new pavilions on either side of its entrance, which connect to the original building via glazed links and expand its main living areas.









"The resolution of expanding this home, as required by the brief, without interrupting the views, or the integrity of the existing, relatively 'closed' design was the biggest challenge of the project," Karen Abernethy Interiors and Architecture founder Karen Abernethy told Dezeen. "Our solution was to carve two minimal pavilions into the rear of the site, on the 'back' of the coil," she continued. "The pavilions – one single storey and one double storey were connected to the outer skin of the original home with glazed linking structures that provide a visual separation between old and new."







To the north, the new two-storey volume extends the living room with a study and additional bedroom, while to the south the dining area is extended into the single-storey volume, which contains a double-height family room and laundry. Further along the coil, the original one-room width of the home has been maintained, stepping down towards three bedrooms which are connected by a thin corridor.

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