The Gatwick Private Hotel
Designed by Kosloff Architecture, The Gatwick Private Hotel sees a fresh renovation to its heritage hotel, creating a dream-like series of spaces rich in a harmonious combination of colour and texture.
Words: Georgie Ward I Photography: Derek Swalwell
The Gatwick Private Hotel in St Kilda first opened its doors in 1937. The Spanish Mission-style building was designed by architect Harry Raymond Johnson as a luxurious residential hotel. Photo: Derek Swalwell
Long before palm trees silhouetted the St Kilda foreshore and bell-ringing trams trundled along Fitzroy Street, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung called this region home. Photo: Derek Swalwell
The pair, whose architectural practice regularly interrogates the intersection of public and private spaces and who were living with their children just around the corner, were intrigued by the hotel’s space and its potential. Photo: Derek Swalwell
The Gatwick Private Hotel in St Kilda holds a rich and varied history, once a luxury hotel in 1937, a low-budget accommodation, a boarding house and a property site for The Block.
Co-founders and directors of Kosloff Architecture Julian Kosloff and Stephanie Bullock saw opportunity for a new future for the home, redesigning the property for a modern makeover, whilst ever-aware of their engagement with and contribution to the building’s story. Scarred remains of walls from a previous life are given new meaning in this contemporary conversion whereby new elements are carefully juxtaposed against the old.
From the outset, the historical context of the site was incredibly influential to the Kosloff team, where they openly accepted the complexities of the building’s history as an important part of designing for its future.
Julian and Stephance resolved to build on this history by engaging in a dialogue with it, retaining and highlighting certain elements of the building’s shell and responding to these, materially, with new interventions.
Traces of history scatter the home, with features of old brickwork that hint at the placement of a former wall have been intentionally left exposed. The two designers were interested in creating liveable and pleasant rooms with little intervention on their behalf, leaving the space in its strong sense of solidarity.
Within the home, there is a strong connection between old and new materials and a delicate balance between colour and texture. To create harmony in its design, rooms with more ornate mouldings were painted in a single colour, and existing painted walls were stripped and repainted to create new life and sweetness to the spaces. The new plan includes four bedrooms, a communal deck, bathroom, laundry, kitchen and living spaces, as well as a separate self-contained studio and event spaces.
The current occupants of the home, Stephanie and Julian, have made history - not only in their grand redesign but in the tangible collection of histories literally inside the building too.
Within their newly created wall cavities, the family left a time capsule of heartfelt notes and meaningful messages, as well as a bottle of ageing Barossa Shiraz to one day be uncovered!
The sunlit home is a mellow mixture of colour and texture, with a palette and layout that is both dreamlike and functional, essentially a series of spaces where past stories converge with future possibilities.
Peeking hints of a former wall give glimpses to the history of the site. Photo: Derek Swalwell
The mergence of the old and the new can be seen in the contrasts in materiality. Photo: Derek Swalwell
“Kosloff Architecture respects the building’s history by engaging in a dialogue; retaining and highlighting certain elements of its shell and responding to them materially, with new interventions.”
Mounting pressures from an increasingly gentrifying neighbourhood prompted the sale of the Gatwick in 2017 to Channel Nine, which used the top three floors of the building as the site for The Block. Photo: Derek Swalwell
Its palette of soft, musky pinks, subdued beige and stony brown floors creates a calm, mellow space. Photo: Derek Swalwell
The Gatwick Private Hotel was once a derelict low-budget hotel with a tired front. Photo: Derek Swalwell
The most notorious chapter in the building’s history is its time as a boarding house. Run by twin sisters Yvette Kelly and Rose Banks, who inherited The Gatwick from their parents, over the decades it sheltered many vulnerable people with nowhere else to turn and was subject to much lurid media reporting. Photo: Derek Swalwell