Our building was formerly the National Science Centre, built in the 1970s as an institution for academics. In the 1990s, it changed hands and was converted to residential units with the addition of penthouses with views across the local parks and balconies onto MacArthur Road, which runs through Melbourne’s northern suburbs, becoming Alexandra Parade to the East and connecting to Flemington Bridge in the West.
The apartments are generous in size due to the building's previous proportions. We saw the potential in the corner unit facing into the park; however, as it’s on level 1, it is most exposed to the noisy road. Fortunately, this meant we could at least afford it!
We were keen to sell our new Northcote townhouse, which had been a poor experience since it was purchased with many defects, whilst the stairs and overlooked outlook had not been something we had fully anticipated. The interest rates we had to endure sealed the deal, so we looked to downsize, realising we preferred apartment life, we just needed ‘enough’ space.
The apartment we found had not been updated since the 90’s and was being used as a short term rental. It was in a state of disrepair with leaking showers causing mould, bathroom ventilation exhausts that discharge to the ceiling cavity and carpets deeply full of dust and grime. It was not suitable for our family, so we took a short term rental for 3 months (that turned to 5) nearby and set about renovating.
We engaged a builder for the bathrooms and had windows and ventilation systems supplied and installed, whilst we also added a wall to create a 3rd bedroom, replaced the kitchen, integrated bike storage in the entry and turned an excess storage area into a small office nook.
In terms of sustainable design, we insulated and wrapped the exposed surfaces, added a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery, removed the gas to the stove, the windows were double glazed and thermally broken, and we had a responsible material focus.
