About
Chan Architecture designed Campbell St House in Kew, Melbourne, around a lifelong obsession with BMW rally cars. The client needed a home that could accommodate a proper working workshop: double-height, with two car hoists and room for four vintage BMWs. It's a theme that runs through many of our architect-designed features, but few take it this far.
The defining detail is the home office. A steel-framed window connects it directly to the workshop, framing a Warsteiner-liveried BMW race car like a painting on the wall. If that sounds familiar, Bureau Fraai pulled a similar move in Amsterdam with a Jaguar showroom visible from the living room. From the desk at Campbell St, you're looking straight into a cathedral-ceilinged space filled with rally posters, model cars, and the real thing. The house wraps around a central courtyard, so the workshop opens to the same outdoor space as the living room. It's a home where the cars aren't hidden out back. They're woven into the architecture.
Location: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Architect: Chan Architecture
Photographer: Tatjana Plitt
Photos // 8 images
Build Details
Project Size: 353 m² (3,800 sq ft)
Site Size: 621 m²
Completed: 2023
Building Levels: 1
Workshop: Double-height, capacity for 4 BMWs, two vehicular car hoists
Vehicles: 4 Vintage BMW rally cars including Warsteiner-liveried race car
Key Materials: Handcrafted brick, exposed steel, concrete-lined walls, dark-stained timber, natural marble, timber battens
Notable Features: Steel-framed window connecting home office to workshop, internal courtyard with stacker sliding doors, dramatically angled ceiling with east-facing skylights
See also: Werkstatt 80 — another workshop built around a BMW collection.