Shop-House House

Shop-House House is a small heritage alteration to a former shop-house. The building still carries the logic of its earlier use: a street-facing room, a direct relationship to the footpath, and a domestic plan shaped by a commercial past. The project keeps this history in play. The former shop is not treated as an awkward front room to be normalised, but as the thing that makes the house interesting. The work looks at how that room can be lived in now, and how the threshold between street and house can remain part of the building’s character. The alteration is deliberately light. It improves the plan, light, circulation and everyday use of the house while keeping the former shop-house legible. The project is modest, but specific: a heritage house adjusted for contemporary life without sanding off the thing that made it unusual.

Client Private Project Team Lauren Garner, Isaac Wise Consultants Structural Engineer: George Simonetto, Platinum Consulting Engineers Land Surveyor: 5D Surveying, Rob Toller-Bond Geotechnical Consultant: Structerre / Brad Buenen Location Bendigo, Victoria Country Dja Dja Wurrung Country Year 2026–ongoing Status In progress Type Heritage alteration, shop-house, residential retrofit