On a typically exasperating grey Melbourne winter day, we arrived at an unassuming weatherboard cottage in Brunswick to be greeted by a man-mountain of an architect. Once inside, we realized that this gentle giant – Architecture Architecture design director Nick James – had literally thrown caution to the wind, opening up the bevy of doors and windows, and exposing us to the near artic blast – but also to the intent of the design. James humbly described an “adequate” home that met the client’s desire for a house that led you down an internal garden path.

While the original double-fronted weatherboard remains in the streetscape, like a familiar friend, the additions carve out the plan, revealing courtyards and small-scaled rooms of green-filled wonder. Stone paving blurs the lines between inside and out, clinging closely to the pink pigment of the softly rendered bricks.

Modest but perfectly proportioned guest accommodation above the rear garage overlooks the garden space as well as the laneway of a suburb that can only be enriched by the spirit of this home – which the jury found to be far more than “adequate.”

Arcadia leads us joyfully into an apparent golden age of “additions and alterations” – a term that seemingly undersells architecture of this quality.