Landscape design by Josh Arkey of Jala
Landscape designer Josh Arkey of Jala has transformed the garden of Melbourne architects Stephanie Burton and Joseph Lovell’s inner-city worker’s cottage, dissolving the boundary between house and garden.
Carlton Cottage began as a tired single-storey dwelling on a small allotment. Built in the 1870s, it had accumulated multiple additions over time and suffered from a clear disconnect between the original house and its outhouse.
The architects set out to create a flexible family home that could adapt as their two young children grow. Josh Arkey from Jala was tasked with creating a seamless connection between the retained cottage and the new pavilion, so movement through the home naturally extends into planted space.
Blending old & new
At the front, the original four-room footprint was retained and carefully reworked. A walkway through two planted courtyards now links this portion of the home to a new living pavilion, drawing in light and cooling air.
In the main living space, the garden becomes the focal point. Pivot glass doors, 3.2m high, open onto a brick-paved patio, while a circular skylight in the skillion roof frames the canopy of a mature Eucalyptus on the neighbouring property. The roof brings light deep into the home and directs water for harvesting.
The visually permeable fencing allows for a dialog with the street, where the local community engages with both the architecture and the garden. The planting here references the heritage facade with accents of emergent perennials that peek through the mounding native shrubs.
Green rooms
The garden is organised as a sequence of layered outdoor rooms, including play and dining areas. Dense planting creates privacy and seasonal variation within the compact site.
Strong architectural elements are grounded by sculptural trees and climbers, while the ground plane is planted entirely with native species, forming a resilient and dynamic matrix.
The result is a compact inner-city home where architecture and landscape operate as one.
Plant palette
- Acacia podalyriifolia
- Betula ‘Moss White’
- Brachyscome multifida ‘Break O Day’
- Calocephalus citreus
- Calothamnus quadrifidus
- Cordyline stricta
- Correa baeuerlenii
- Correa reflexa nummularifolia
- Dianella tasmanica
- Echinacea pallida
- Eryngium planum
- Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii
- Euphorbia robbiae
- Lomandra confertifolia ‘Seascape’
- Metapanax delavayi
- Microsorum pustulatum
- Miscanthus transmorrisonensis
- Parthenocissus henryana
- Parthenocissus sikkimensis
- Poa labillardieri ‘Eskdale’
- Polystichum proliferum
- Veronica perfoliata
- Viola hederacea
- Viola labradorica
- Wahlenbergia stricta
