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Metropolis Editors, Natural Habitat, sustainability, sustainable architecture

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Modern kitchen by LLDS with curved white cabinets, a central island, gold faucet, potted plant, large window, and sunlight casting shadows on the floor.
© Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS

August 31, 2026

An Urban Infill by LLDS Is Breaking the Mold in Melbourne

Transforming the Victorian terrace home typology, Northcote House sets the stage for digitally fabricated design.

By: Sophie Sobol

In Melbourne, Australia, Victorian terrace homes are a familiar sight. Typical features of these row homes include a long and narrow floor plan, decorative facade, and a standardized appearance. At Northcote House, local architectural design studio LLDS flipped the typology on its head with a bold, new materiality that makes it feel more like a high-tech spacecraft than a compact, multistory house.

Located at the rear of a commercial lot, the laneway-facing home was constructed with one goal in mind: Reimagine the terrace home using advanced, contemporary fabrication technology developed in the studio’s in-house CNC fabrication workshop. The result is a design that is intimately linked to its construction.

Modern two-story house by LLDS with large windows, a curved roof, exterior metal stairs, and a circular opening, surrounded by simple concrete walls and greenery.
Breaking from Melbourne’s familiar Victorian terrace homes, LLDS reimagined a tight urban infill lot as a bold experiment in digitally fabricated housing. The 883-square-foot home features a trellis of 385 bent galvanized tubes. © Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS
Modern three-story building by LLDS with vertical metal slats, a circular window, and an exterior spiral staircase, surrounded by greenery.
© Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS
A person walks down a sculptural, curved wooden staircase in a modern interior with ribbed concrete walls and high ceilings.
Designed as the architect’s own home, Northcote House embraces compact living through flexible, highly crafted interiors. The first floor houses an open kitchen and lounge, while the ground floor contains a library and two bedrooms. © Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS

“We wanted to experiment with how the tool we use to make architecture can also be used to make ornamentation,” shares Paul Loh, partner at LLDS.

To sculpt the scalloped concrete walls, LLDS used a V-shaped CNC router cutter for the dense foam formliner—which was reused to insulate the roof—creating a dynamic texture while remaining economical. On the roof, the construction process continues to inform the ornamentation. In collaboration with TGA Engineers, the architects introduced arches to stabilize the timber structure while reducing material and creating an arresting, curved silhouette. And the facade trellis—made up of 385 manually bent galvanized tubes—was created with a hydraulic pipe-bending machine and aided by augmented reality—a process that reduced on-site waste while enhancing the overall design.

LLDS Northcote House: Small bedroom with corrugated metal walls, a large window, a simple bed with green and blue pillows, and a black blanket. Natural light fills the space.
© Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS

However, the site itself posed certain constraints. In the tight urban lot, the designers needed to maximize every inch of the 883-square-foot home for it to remain fluid and functional. “The constrained site created an opportunity for us to experiment with compact living in the city,” explains Loh. “We deliberately created many ambiguous, almost unprogrammed spaces in the house, so it remained flexible.” In this spirit, the car park doubles as a summer barbecue spot, the front staircase is widened to accommodate seating, and an elevated roof garden supports local ecology while reducing the urban heat effect.

Designed as a case study for small-space city living—and the architects’ own home—Northcote House demonstrates how design rooted in contemporary fabrication technology can open the door to new models for urban housing. With a clear architectural vision and dynamic details—from the 13 roof lights that bring natural light down to the depths of the home to a stunning spiral staircase enshrouded in metal beams—the project is a testament to the power that technology wields to shape architecture.

View looking up a spiral staircase with a central pole, rounded wooden walls, and a geometric ceiling with circular lights.
Thirteen skylights bring daylight to every level of the narrow plan. © Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS
A modern bedroom with a glass sliding door opens to a courtyard, featuring a spiral metal staircase and corrugated metal walls with vertical slats and greenery above. Northcote House by LLDS.
© Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS
A sloped rooftop of a home by LLDS with gravel, fabric-wrapped planters, and small green plants, with city buildings and a cloudy sky in the background.
The home’s rooftop garden addresses the lack of garden space at ground level, while the sculptural exterior stair and galvanized steel trellis create a striking street presence. © Paul Loh Courtesy LLDS

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