Caringal Flats 底层花园公寓翻新项目丨Ellul Architecture

When most people think of Toorak, they picture grand Victorian mansions and leafy tree-lined streets. What they don’t expect is a concrete modernist gem from 1951, sitting quietly among the heritage heavyweights. Caringal Flats, designed by architect John William Rivett, comprises three distinct buildings connected by skybridges. It’s here that Ellul Architecture has completed their third thoughtful renovation.

This ground-floor garden flat presented a familiar challenge: decades of unsympathetic alterations had created a maze of dark, cramped rooms with minimal storage. The brief was equally clear—a musician needed functional, flexible spaces for work, entertaining, and daily life, all while respecting the mid-century character that drew them to the building in the first place.

Ellul Architecture‘s approach was methodical and respectful. All non-original elements were stripped away, services upgraded to current standards, and heritage features carefully restored. The gentle curved radius of the original plasterwork finds new expression in bulkheads that conceal modern services, while cork flooring complements the existing material palette.

The genius lies in the new insertions—a blackbutt-lined pod that rationalises the entire floorplan. This timber volume conceals bedrooms, bathrooms, and services while maintaining acoustic isolation critical for musical practice. Within this pod, moments of earthy green provide a surprise and visual relief, creating intimate retreat spaces that contrast with the light-filled living areas.

Here’s what really caught my attention: the shoot with minimal styling (or staging, depending on where you’re tuning in from) that captures the spirit of the renovation. Rather than fully furnishing each room, strategic placement of key pieces—Aalto stools, a vintage Persian rug, minimal lighting—allows the architecture to breathe while alluding to how the spaces might be inhabited. It’s a perfect case study for anyone working with limited styling budgets.

This approach can actually surpass full-scale styling because it communicates possibility rather than prescription. The spaces feel alive and purposeful without being locked into any particular aesthetic. The minimal intervention speaks to a confidence in the design—when spaces are this well-proportioned and thoughtfully detailed, they don’t need elaborate staging to tell their story.

The collaboration with builder Gotze, with whom Ellul Architecture has worked on previous projects, allowed for a streamlined 12-week construction process. This type of ongoing partnership creates efficiencies that smaller budgets, in particular, benefit from.

At 88 square metres, this flat pays homage to both its 1951 origins and its current musical inhabitant. It goes to show that thoughtful renovation doesn’t require reinvention, just intelligent editing.

[Images courtesy of Ellul Architecture. Photography by Hamish McIntosh.]