This Melbourne Family Home Wraps Around a 125-Year-Old Dairy

When a young family, including a professional musician, outgrew their home in a 125-year-old dairy building, they approached Dan Gayfer Design to renovate the residence to suit their lifestyle.

“Footscray is one of Melbourne’s most iconic inner west suburbs, and it’s solidifying itself as a cultural hub. Seeing the existing brick dairy at the rear of the residence, one can’t help conjuring up idyllic fields of dairy cattle prior to the land being subdivided into residential blocks,” says Gayfer. “While the historical character of the dairy has been preserved, the overall outcome is what we would call ‘modern industrious.’”

From the very beginning of the design process, it was non-negotiable that the historic dairy—which was built circa 1894—would be retained. The design team quickly realized that this structure had the capacity to fulfill a key component of the brief.

“One of the owners is a professional double bass player who plays jazz gigs at bars, pubs, and jazz clubs, and also teaches double bass from home,” says Gayfer. “With double brick walls on all sides absorbing sound and its location at the rear of the property, the dairy was the perfect location for the music studio.”

An existing addition that adjoined the dairy at the front was demolished, and a new addition containing the kitchen, dining, and living area was built in its place. A first-floor addition—housing the master bedroom, ensuite, and retreat—is literally perched on top of the dairy, on structural steel supports that extend beyond the building to define an outdoor terrace below.