It would usually be a TV disaster: on the day before filming began, spray-paint vandals “tagged” a home being profiled by Dream Build in Fitzroy. But this was The Graffiti House – so the damage was quickly painted over by a professional street artist whose graffiti stretches from one end of this unique home to the other. Fitzroy is known for its extraordinary street art; prestigious architect John Wardle is not. Owners Pearly & Trevor appreciated the area’s artwork and vibrant street culture – and wanted to incorporate it in the house design, so John Wardle embraced the chance to include graffiti in this inner-city Melbourne home. It was a remarkable chance encounter which paved the way to take this further. Artist Paul Round was caught by the owners painting graffiti on their wall before the main construction work began. Instead of painting over his graffiti, John, Pearly and Trevor commissioned Paul to undertake additional painting at the home, adding to the actual design elements of the house. In the finished design, the graffiti flows inside the home, is on the walls of the covered court yard and in some respects IS the walls with the front of the house having raised bricks representing the photographic “pixels” of an enlarged picture of the graffiti itself. The graffiti is, however, only one part of this beautifully conceived, understated design. The home consists of two well designed pavilions facing each other across the courtyard; an oasis in busy Fitzroy.