Cornerstone House by Splinter Society

Splinter Society’s exploration of robust materials makes way for a monumental family home in Northcote, Melbourne.

Architecture studio Splinter Society drew inspiration from old quarries in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote to design a rock-solid family home. The design team introduced a dozen boulders positioned strategically around the home, honouring the rawness and scale of stone.

Layering these boulders with steel, charcoal timber, granite and recycled bricks, Splinter Society have explored the home’s robust fabric through a balanced and refined lens. In doing so, they’ve created the appropriately named Cornerstone House; a modern home that sets a precedence for material experimentation. 

Splinter Society craned the large cornerstones onto the site, to literally build the rest of the home around them. They deliberately left them untouched, inserting them at strategic moments in the home, such as the entry, beside the pitched black steel frame volume.

Both client and designer saw beauty in this unorthodox use of stone, dedicated to preserving its original state and the industrial details left. Throughout the home their function is varied, from being a partition, to featuring as part of the kitchen joinery, as well as the flooring, furniture and even the landscaping.

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Soft furnishings enhance the textural qualities of the home, such as the teal velvet lounge suite.

Splinter Society set out to create a fine-line, rhythmic vernacular, cladding the two-storey volume in black steel. Inside, this black steel is echoed through the blackened timber slats and fine steel handrails. Together with strategically placed windows – such as the glazing at the pitch of the kitchen ceiling – these features create a unique patterning of light in the home.  

While stone may be the fundamental feature of the home, Splinter Society were careful to steer away from its typically cold qualities. Timber panelling and rose-tone metals warm the coolness of polished concrete and granite walls. Through these juxtaposing elements, Splinter Society created a unique sculptural feature for the kitchen island, fusing raw-cut stone, rose-coloured metal and a granite benchtop. This rose-coloured metal also makes an appearance outside, breaking up the jet-back steel exterior. 

The home is positioned strategically around the sitelines of its neighbours, offering a sense of seclusion to the outdoor space. Enveloping the pool and outdoor entertaining area, the curved design softens the pitched roof; a motif replicated in the crazy paving walkways. The outdoor area doesn’t miss out on a stone feature either, where a custom table has been created from a shaved slab. 

A case study for not only its use of stone, but for its scale and volume, Splinter Society’s Cornerstone House beautifully articulates contrast in a unique family home. 

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