Milieu and Edition Office have completed 231 Napier Street, eleven exclusive apartments positioned on a peaceful street in the heart of Fitzroy. Surrounded by culture and commerce, this quiet pocket of Melbourne sits on a coveted spot, bordered by Gertrude, Smith and Brunswick Streets just north of the city. Back in 2019, the conception of this project graced our pages and now we are happy to reveal the finished product.

For Milieu, who specialise in crafting small to medium scale developments within Melbourne‘s most attractive inner-city enclaves, the development reflects their dedication to enhancing neighbourhoods through design. Teaming up with Edition Office, 231 Napier Street has been designed with consideration for its surrounding buildings, marrying contemporary ideals with the history of site and context.

“We studied the materiality of Fitzroy’s historic buildings, their relief patterns, the composition of windows and doors to the façade, and the rhythm of party walls that line the streetscape,” says Aaron Roberts, director at Edition Office. “This research informed the design process from the outset creating a strong connection with the neighbouring context.”

Subtle details and materiality amplify the building’s honest character and feel. When encountered from the street, the building appears as a series of singular, raw concrete shells stacked, one upon the other. Each apartment is transformed into a vessel that offers a sense of enclosure and protection.

Inside, visitors are greeted by an internal atrium enclosed in a perforated metal surround providing ever-changing light and air into the common spaces. The momentary quality of this entryway ensures each arrival and departure feels different from the last. It also acts as a filtering mechanism, obscuring the connection between public and private spaces.

Carefully sleeved within the building’s raw shell is a more tender, pale timber inner skin. This delicate timber boundary embodies luxurious simplicity, amplifying the building’s character and feel. The internal spaces are deliberately paired back, removing internal walls to maximise space, allowing for more free-flowing light and air, strengthening the connection to the outdoors.

231 Napier Street reflects Milieu and Edition Office’s commitment to refined simplicity and civic responsibility, enhancing the local neighbourhood rather than taking away from it.

[Images courtesy of Milieu. Photography by Rory Gardiner.]