Office MI—JI Carves a Nine-Square Courtyard House out of a Bayside Melbourne Block

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Q: What is "Office MI—JI Carves a Nine-Square Courtyard House out of a Bayside Melbourne Block" about?

This article covers topics related to Residential Building, Office Building. A bayside Melbourne house in block and brick, tied together by one pale blue steel band and split into four quadrants around planted courtyards.

Melbourne's bayside suburbs hold Federation homes, mock-neoclassical villas, weatherboard beach houses and the oversized mansions of the 2000s, often on the same street. Office MI—JI, led by Millie Anderson and Jimmy Carter, has added to that mix a house on a 692 sqm block for two occupants. A 1918 covenant on the site limits walls and roofs to tile, brick or concrete. Many architects would treat that rule as a constraint to work around. Here it sets the house's whole material palette: concrete block on the ground floor, rendered brick above, and sawtooth gables roofed in brick.

What interests us is the plan. The house sits inside a stretched square, loosely divided into a nine-square grid. The middle segment on each side is carved out as outdoor space, and the four corners become independent quadrants. The result lets two people with different daily rhythms live apart under one roof, then gather the extended family around a shared kitchen at the centre. The design also plans for later life, with wide doorways and step-free access, and it handles this without a trace of the clinical.

A Private Face to a Public Street

Timber paling fence with sawtooth brick roof gables rising behind it, beside a eucalyptus trunk under an overcast sky

Brick chimney stack and low blue-edged roofline behind a timber gate, with shrubs and permeable pavers in the foreground

Open steel-clad gate door beside a timber fence, revealing a planted courtyard below pale brick sawtooth gables

Entry with timber-clad pivot door, galvanised mesh panel and globe light, set beside a bed of broad-leaved plants on flagstone paving

Grey panel doors with slim steel pulls under a corrugated roof with exposed timber rafters, shaded by a large oak

Overlapping ribbed fibre-cement cladding boards below a pale blue fascia, with chain-link fencing and a dark roof behind under overcast sky

From the street you see very little: a timber paling fence, a brick parapet, the tips of sawtooth gables and a single window. The street gate is a concrete panel set within the timber gate and fence, cut to the exact height of the steel eave line behind it. The house stays hidden until the gate swings open and the planted courtyard appears.

The reserve is deliberate. In a suburb where houses compete for attention with columns and porticos, a blank brick frontage reads as confident rather than defensive. The secondary surfaces have their own character. The garage door is clad in lapped bands of shiny corrugated aluminium, and elsewhere there are ribbed cladding, galvanised mesh and globe lights. These cheap, honest materials keep the masonry from turning precious.

One Steel Band Doing Three Jobs

Close-up of pale brick sawtooth gables above a light blue steel fascia and timber-framed glazing, with autumn foliage behind

Garden-side view of the block chimney, pale blue roof edge and timber-framed glazing beside sawtooth roofs on a grey day

Three sawtooth gables of pale block above a glazed living space, with a planted garden bed in front under flat cloud

Open entry between pale concrete block walls framing a dining table, with a tall chimney and sawtooth gable under overcast sky

Open dining area framed by a pale blue steel beam, with a timber table, wire-frame chairs and oak kitchen beyond

A pale, sky-blue steel band runs continuously between the two levels. It serves as lintel, rainhead and awning at once. The studio describes it as a way "to allow for a lot with little", and the phrase is accurate. One element spans the openings, collects the water and shades the glazing. It also lets the rendered brick upper level appear to float above the heavier block base.

The colour matters as much as the engineering. Against pale block and brick under Melbourne's flat grey skies, the blue line gives the house a horizon. Inside, the same beam frames the dining area, so you sense the building's structure from the dining table. This is the house's best detail, and it shows how much a single disciplined move can carry.

Bringing the Garden Inside

Bedroom doorway framing a courtyard with a maple and broad-leaved plants, beside timber wardrobe and block wall in afternoon sun

Open courtyard corner with a kitchen bench under a blue-edged roof, a Japanese maple and broad-leaved plants in the foreground

Kitchen island seen from a courtyard of broad-leaved plants, with flagstone paving, terrazzo floor and a timber fence beyond

Open doorway beside a round ceiling skylight and slatted vent, framing a palm tree and flowering shrubs in soft overcast light

Study with shelves of books seen through full-height glazing, beside a vertical timber pivot door and a block chimney in dull light

The carved-out middle squares do the real spatial work. One holds a compressed covered entry, two hold planted courtyards, and the fourth is a paved northern forecourt that opens onto the wide rear garden. Landscape designer Susannah Lawler of SL.ug Projects planted the courtyards with Japanese maples and broad-leaved understorey. As a result, nearly every room, from bedroom to study, looks onto foliage rather than a fence.

The crazy paving makes the idea literal. It runs from the garden straight into the dining area, so the floor itself refuses to mark where outside ends. Many houses claim to bring the garden in; this one actually lays the garden's surface through the kitchen.

The Shared Kitchen at the Centre

Marble-topped bench on slim white legs in the foreground, with a long dining table and garden glimpsed through timber-framed glass

Symmetrical view down a corridor of framed artworks on block walls to a dining table and oak kitchen wall

Pale concrete block walls and a pitched timber ceiling framing a doorway toward a white-legged bench and oak cabinetry

Oak clad stair volume with timber treads beside a terrazzo floor and a kitchen counter lit by a ceiling strip

Laundry with a white shirt hanging from a rail at a corner window, linen skirt under the steel bench and sink

With four quadrants pushed to the corners, the kitchen becomes the hinge of the plan. A corridor of framed artworks on block walls lines up on axis with the dining table and the oak kitchen wall. That symmetry signals that this is where the household converges. The oak-clad stair volume rises beside the counter, so movement between levels also passes through the common room.

The service spaces get the same care. The laundry has a corner window, a steel bench and a linen skirt, and it reads as a room someone will enjoy using. That attention runs through the whole house: no corner is treated as leftover.

Four Quadrants, Two Ways of Living

Living room with block wall, timber bench, wooden armchair and low sofa, looking through a doorway to a bookshelf beyond

Living room seen past a block wall, with a glazed skylight, low sofa and upright piano, and neighbouring brick houses through the glass

Doorway view through cream block walls to a sofa, piano and skylight, with framed artworks on the wall and flagstone underfoot

Study with a full-height timber bookshelf, a long desk and wooden chair facing a concrete block wall and tall garden window

Bedroom corner with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, a purple desk lamp on a timber crate and a mirrored basin beyond

The brief asked the house to support being together and being independent, and the quadrants deliver both. The living room has a piano, a low sofa and a skylight. The study is lined floor to ceiling with books. A bedroom has a full glass wall. Each zone has its own atmosphere and its own garden aspect, yet none is more than a few steps from the kitchen.

The concrete block stays exposed throughout, and the furniture does the softening. A maple coffee table by Fred Ganim sits alongside pieces from Gervasoni, Vaarnii, ClassiCon, Artek and Thonet. The mix feels collected rather than styled, which suits a house built around how two particular people actually live.

A Lighter Upper Level

Rooftop brick wall with a grey door, chain-link fence and two globe lights, with a tree canopy rising behind in grey light

Upper room with a round skylight, a lone steel-framed chair on a cork floor and birch plywood walls in dim daylight

Corner of a room with a pitched plywood ceiling, pivot window onto greenery, timber joinery bench and a cantilevered cane chair in daylight

Timber stair rising past a steel mesh balustrade and a metal cylinder toward a tall window with green grating above

Corner detail of a green fibreglass grating set in a pale timber frame beside a cork floor

Upstairs the palette shifts. Birch plywood walls, cork floors, pitched plywood ceilings and round skylights make the first floor feel more like a workshop or attic than a continuation of the masonry below. The stair adds a steel mesh balustrade and green fibreglass grating, industrial pieces that keep the upper rooms from getting too sweet.

A rooftop terrace with chain-link fencing and globe lights looks out into the tree canopy. On a block this size, the roof is the one place to take a long view, and the architects have claimed it.

Light, Circulation and Wet Rooms

Corridor with a green-tinted skylight, timber cladding and plywood cabinets leading toward a garden window and a bench in soft light

Hallway of pale concrete block walls and a pitched plywood ceiling with a skylight, over a speckled terrazzo floor

Stainless steel basin and wall tap seen through a doorway between oak panelled walls, with concrete block behind and a mirror above

Shower alcove with plastered walls, a pale timber cabinet, steel towel rail and striped towel in soft daylight

The corridors are lit from above rather than through borrowed side glazing. One has a green-tinted skylight; another runs under a pitched plywood ceiling above a speckled terrazzo floor. Each passage ends at a window onto planting, so circulation always leads back to the garden.

The bathrooms stay restrained: plastered walls, oak panelling, a stainless steel basin and a wall-mounted tap. The materials are durable, the detailing quiet, and the step-free planning is built into the layout rather than added later as fittings.

Plans and Drawings

Site plan drawing showing a rectangular house with courtyards, pebble paths and tree canopies inside a dashed boundary, with a scale bar

Ground level floor plan drawing showing rooms arranged around a central kitchen and stair, with garage, study, bedrooms and workroom at the edges

Level 01 floor plan drawing showing a central rumpus with bedrooms and a terrace, beneath a rooftop plan of sawtooth and brick-pattern roof areas

Section A drawing cutting through a low brick outbuilding, masonry walls, a stair, a garage door and a raised upper volume

Section B drawing showing three sawtooth roof profiles over masonry and shelving walls, with a taller stair tower and brick roof plane behind

The site plan and ground floor plan make the nine-square logic clear. The kitchen and stair sit at the core, the four outdoor rooms occupy the middle of each edge, and the garage, study, bedrooms and workroom fill the corners. The Level 01 plan puts a central rumpus room among the bedrooms and terrace, with the brick-patterned sawtooth roof drawn above.

The sections show the house's profile. Section B cuts through three sawtooth roofs and the taller stair tower. Section A shows how the raised upper volume sits on the masonry base, with the steel band holding the line between them.

Why This Project Matters

Suburban Australia has a habit of answering heritage covenants with pastiche, or ignoring neighbours with bulk. A Courtyard House does neither. It accepts the 1918 material rules and reads the Federation and weatherboard context, then produces something clearly contemporary. The sawtooth brick gables and pale blue band are new forms built from old permissions. It is a useful model for anyone designing within character controls.

The larger lesson is about plan before image. The nine-square diagram with carved courtyards solves separation, togetherness, daylight, garden access and ageing in place all at once. The single steel detail then brings the exterior together with the same economy. Its inclusion in the Victorian chapter of the 2026 National Architecture Awards program is deserved: this is a house where rigour and warmth do not have to compete.

A Courtyard House by Office MI—JI (Millie Anderson and Jimmy Carter), Melbourne, Australia. Site area: 692 sqm. Completed 2024. Photography by Ben Hosking.

About the Studio

Office MI—JI

Official website of Office MI—JI, one of the studios behind this project.

mi-ji.com.au

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