I love a little drama. Oh be honest Jo. I love a lot of drama. Why settle for a bland rabbit warren of rooms when you can create and cajole, imagine and conceive a space that screams luxury and sensory titillation. In the burbs no less. Melodrama! Meet the Bride as in the Bride and Groom by Russell & George. I’ll let them explain.

“This house is stage one of the transformation of an existing 1950s suburban house into one half of a grander vision. Dubbed the Bride and Groom, stage one is the bride, a decadent layered and luxurious series of reception and sleeping rooms. Stage two will be an open stone pavilion.”

A second warehouse today. A refurbishment of an existing space to open it up, adding drama through a folded steel staircase rising to a mezzanine level and large windows bathing it in natural light. The colour palette is restrained and references the building’s industrial past. Clapton Warehouse by UK firm Sadie Snelson Architects.

Photos by Rory Gardiner.

A house within a ruin is the premise for this new home in Carlton in inner city Melbourne. Rising from a decrepit warehouse shell, through a garden space climbing higher until, at the top, it reveals its living areas with expansive views, new spirals out of the old. The repetition of a circle is a recurring motif of the architects’ recent work. Carlton Warehouse by Kennedy Nolan.

I had to share. It’s such a clever idea. Wooden slats screen the house from the harsh sun sliding to where you need them. That’s not what has me excited. I’m loving the pattern in which the slats have been laid. Chevron when placed side by side but a crisscross when overlapped. It’s the small details that get me every time. By MRTN Architects.

I’m in a spin, a spiral spin. I love the simplicity and elegance of this Melbourne-based Pleysier Perkins renovation. The extension to a Victorian era house is punctuated by a spiral staircase that rises through a double height void connecting the timber box above (bedrooms) to the glazed kitchen living areas. Perfection.

Photography by Brendan Finn.