Cart 
When the pandemic hit, architect Jake Taylor left his life in San Francisco, returning to Melbourne. And like many of us, he found himself in need of a new passion project.
‘After several years exploring and researching all the amazing modernist projects across California and the US more generally, I was looking for somewhere to direct this energy during lockdown,’ Jake says.
‘By chance, I was living near Kew Junction for most of 2020 and stumbled into the amazing concentration of mid-century houses in the area and was blown away.’
Both the quality and quantity of architecturally significant houses in Studley Park made the leafy pocket unlike most anything he’d seen in his travels.
Over the next few years, he returned to explore and research the area many times, and by 2023, Jake started running walking tours of the neighbourhood’s Modernist gems.
‘The constant demand and energy for the tours led to the idea of exploring a potential book on the area,’ he adds.
Jake soon joined forces with architectural photographer Jack Lovel, and the pair set about capturing some of the suburb’s best homes built from the 1940s to the 1970s, which are immortalised in their new book, Riverside Modern.
It features homes like Pettigrew House, one of the earliest modernist buildings in Melbourne, designed by Robin Boyd, Kevin Pethebridge and Frank Bell.
You’ll also spot the 1963-built Guss House, known for its iconic glass-box form that floats over Yarra Street; an incredible Kennedy Nolan renovation of a Charles Victor Dumbrell project; and many more.
‘The streets of Studley Park showcase the energy and desire post-WWII to define a new image for Australia through the detached family home, a constant theme of modern Australian society,’ Jake says.
Meeting most of the homeowners through letter drops and word of mouth, Jack and Jake intentionally photographed the spaces with no additional styling.
Driven by a shared passion and deep respect for the community who live there, the book serves as a unique portal to the past, filled with the stories of this important slice of Melbourne’s mid-century history.
Riverside Modern by Jake Taylor and Jack Lovel, published by Thames & Hudson Australia, is out now. Get your copy here.
