This Melbourne home offers an unusual take on industrial living.

Architecture practice Neometro inserted a two-storey home into the brick shell of an old steel fabricating factory in the North Fitzroy area of the city in the 1990s.

Spread over two floors, the house features an open-plan living room with a soaring ceiling and an open staircase. Elsewhere, the dining room and stainless-steel kitchen – a subtle nod to the building’s former life perhaps – open onto a courtyard.

In fact, you could say this property is as much about the outdoor space as it is the indoor… It is bookended both sides by high-walled patios set within the old building’s walls. Upstairs, the master bedroom also has a private terrace nestled in what would have been the eaves of the factory’s roof, now open to the elements.

It has potential as a live/work space too. A ground floor bedroom has access to the street, meaning it could easily be used as an office space.

Marketed via Nelson Alexander Real Estate, 42 Barkly Street goes under the hammer on 30 July and has a starting price of $2m AUD.

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