November 2025
😮 I like a bit of Brutalist Revival but I’m afraid this one in Hopetoun Road is a bit top heavy. With the timber walls a similar colour to tan bricks, it ends up looking rather like a 1970s TAFE building. And not sure but the off-form concrete seems to be in precast panels, rather than boarded in situ, oh well if you just want the look… (the builders tell me it is in fact in situ). It really pops out given the slope of the street, and that top level cantilever (how does it fit the rescode envelope?). And not that they have to match, but 75% of the houses are Neoclassical/ French Chateau, built since the 80s, like the one right next door, also not yet finished.
@b.e_architecture tend to the monumental, they’ve done others similar, and also a rather nice one snapped a while ago in Shakespeare Grove Hawthorn.
Comments
June 2021
Not all it’s cracked up to be …I’m posting photos of Michael Coppell’s house, now for sale, in #HopetounRoadToorak, not to talk about taste vs $, but to point out that it’s cracking up- built over 25 years ago, not doing as well as Victorian mansions which generally still havnt cracked up like this after 140 years. I wonder if it’s render, or just reinforced concrete with a thin coat ? Guess just re-coat it, god knows why they didn’t do it before the sale !
Ok a bit on taste – well it’s needlessly huge, with a 9 car garage, but perhaps he entertains a lot ? The interiors are ok lush-modern.
As to the classical front, the proportions of the columns are fine, I like that they’re paired, but after that, it’s very thin on details, just some bits of balustrade, and a few mouldings – you know, you’ve got the whole of architectural history in books (it was the 90s), so why not learn from them ? Or did they try to be restrained ? Or was it just a builder who basically guessed ? Or scaled up suburban stuff ? 6/10.
Photos Domain.com
Storey of Melbourne 