Peek into Reed House: An Edwardian home update inspired by childhood memories

We’ll be the first to admit – we’re not shy of using phrases to the effect of “a heritage home, updated for a contemporary family”.

It’s practically a cliché at this point… But nevertheless, the charm of a historic home contrasted with courageous, contemporary updates is often the point of architectural alchemy, the fusion that creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Reed House, designed by architect Beth George, goes one step further: envisioning a home that merges childhood memory, Edwardian character, ancient archaeology and contemporary elegance on a timeline of centuries, not decades.

Located in Subiaco, Reed House was designed for George’s sister’s family and completed in 2019. The original part of the home was built in 1908, with later, less sensitive additions to be removed and reconfigured to reflect the modern family’s lifestyle.

At the same time, spaces were also created to resonate with fond childhood memories of George and her sister, who grew up in the Hills surrounded by abundant gardens tended by their mother. (Importantly, George’s brother-in-law and niece are also avid gardeners.) In recounting the project to Architecture Foundation in 2023, George references Austrian sculptor, artist and architect Walter Pichler, who described memory as the vital component of a building – but also to a “200 year project”: a building with a lifespan that exceeds any occupants, incorporating and morphing with memories and alterations across its two centuries.

Bisecting the home between its original and new components, a central courtyard is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides – the blurring the delineation between outside and inside. This reconfiguration was centred around the idea of, as George describes, “a house with a garden for every room”.

A corridor runs almost the entire length of the home’s extension, but is mirrored in parallel between the courtyard and pool – echoing and overlaying the previous addition’s corridor, now reimagined as an outdoor walkway, its wall created by a lush overhang of plants from the cantilevered planter above.

These concrete planters and the surrounding tree canopy also function as gardens for the first floor bedrooms, best enjoyed from cosy reading nooks – reading in the garden is another of George’s favourite childhood memories with her sister.

Where outside, the home’s former home is echoed in the garden’s layout, inside, the juncture between the original home and the new speaks to a quality that is both timeless and personal.

New archways mimic the original home’s more ornate arches, while a 600mm excavation creates a sunken dining room, encircled at its base by a crisp, new-but-old dado-finished plinth that nods towards the owner’s profession as an archaeologist – or, as George describes: “something of a dig site within the old cottage.”

To check out more projects by Beth George, head to her website or follow her on Instagram.

Project credits
Builder: Alan Pope & Associates
Engineer: Atelier JV
Landscape Architecture: Banksia and Lime
Photos: Ben Hosking
Cabinetwork: Shepherdcraft
Dining table: Guy Eddington Design
Vintage lighting refitted by St John Lamps
New lighting: Alti