This week on our Home Life Series, we’re visiting the North Fitzroy home of artists and makers Marija and Bryan — a creative duo who’ve turned their space into a living, breathing work of art. Designed in collaboration with Austin Maynard Architects, their home, affectionately known as Parkside, is a masterclass in thoughtful, sustainable design — where sculptural forms, sunlight and texture take centre stage.
From the bold pop of a yellow spiral staircase to shelves lined with handmade ceramics and sculptures, every corner of Parkside tells a story of creativity and colour. It’s a home that celebrates individuality, artistry and the beauty of the handmade. Keep reading as we dive into Marija and Bryan’s world of design, inspiration and all the little details that make their home uniquely theirs.
Hi Marija and Bryan! We’re so excited to step inside your North Fitzroy home. For those who aren’t familiar with you, can you introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your career journeys?
Welcome to our beautiful home! I was very lucky to grow up in a migrant family. Very limited resources meant that we made, grew and produced most of what we needed. We lived in a community that shared similar values. In this environment, I indirectly acquired a very broad range of skills and experiences, for example, at the age of five, I straightened nails with a hammer and block of wood for my dad whilst building our home, cut cement sheeting, sorted noggins and set out lines for footings. My mother was creative, teaching her seven children a range of skills from drawing, cutting and pasting to knitting, sewing, crocheting and cooking. By the time I was ten years old, I was making my own clothes, moving on to make tailored clothing by the time I was in secondary school. Whilst I did not go on to have a career in the art world (finance and research administration was my chosen career), having a family certainly provided scope for being creative. Throughout my career and mothering, I engaged in night classes for ceramics and drawing. In my early 50’s my children were independent and I was single. I left my job and previous life behind to become a full-time student graduating with first-class honours in BFA Sculpture from RMIT. I work from my studio in Clifton Hill, have taught children with special needs, run workshops, tutor students in art practices and have exhibited my work in many group shows and several solo exhibitions. My works are in private collections in Australia and overseas. - Marija
My career journey began as a child when I was the family handyman. With very limited materials and skill, I made useful things for my family, such as a peg box which hung on the clothes line, a wood-fired BBQ and a letterbox. For this, I needed to build a workbench and an improvised shed using found materials. This led me to do an apprenticeship in a country town engineering business, essentially servicing the farmers. Following a five-year apprenticeship, I worked as a tool maker at General Motors in Melbourne. At the same time, I started a hobby of making ceramic tableware. I realised that to make a living from ceramics looked too hard, so after prototyping and considering many business ideas, I decided to start a new business making modular prefinished spiral stairs for the domestic building industry. The first spiral stairs were access to the wine cellar in my first home in Fitzroy North. From there, I went on to design and manufacture thousands of similar staircases for people all over the world. The design and manufacturing process led to recognition from the Australian Design Council, BHP and the Prince Phillip Prize. After my son took over the business, I find myself able to return to my love of designing and making ceramic tableware. My practice is developing styles of organically formed porcelain glazed in a range of complementary colours. The joy I experience from working with this material is liberating because the freedom allowed through shape, colour and style contrasts with the limitations governing staircase design and regulations. - Bryan
Your home feels like it was made for creativity! From purchasing your original Victorian terrace in Fitzroy almost twenty years ago to creating Parkside with Austin Maynard Architects, how did you imagine this next chapter? What inspired the decision to build in your own backyard, and how did you make a home that feels so distinctly ‘you’?
When Bryan and I decided to buy our home together, we made a list of what we wanted - close to a park, public transport and inner city, since we both lived in the inner city, I lived in Carlton and Bryan in Fitzroy. The terrace house in McKean Street filled the brief. We saw the potential of developing the back yard (facing Alfred Cr) in the future, (for our retirement city home) as another dwelling with a beautiful north-facing aspect and access to a garden which we did not have to maintain (the park).
Shop Marija and Bryan’s Curated Collection
Parkside is not just beautiful, it’s also environmentally adaptable and 100% electric. Can you share some of the sustainable design choices you made along the way — from energy systems to materials — and how they shape the way you live day-to-day?”
We have a home which boasts of double glazing, all electric, using a heat pump for in- floor heating, concealed blinds, rain water recovery system, induction cook top, concealed split system in all rooms and fans in all rooms, solar hot water, large skylight with operable louvres which provides a very comfortable light filled thermally comfortable home which we appreciate on a daily basis.
How did you dream up a design that still feels so open, calm and connected to the outdoors? We love the way the courtyard and skylights flood the home with sunshine — was that always part of the vision?
Yes, the idea of an internal courtyard with a tree, a large skylight in the centre of the house, a light well in the south and a view of the park were part of our brief to AM. Basically, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted because both of us had a lifetime of experience in living in and building dwellings where lifestyle and comfort are very important. This enabled us to be very clear when briefing AM, combined with our knowledge of their practice and the tools and skills they brought to the project. The 3D modelling and virtual reality during the design process were invaluable.
Shop Marija and Bryan’s Curated Collection
You’re both deeply creative, and there are so many pieces of your own artwork, sculptures, and little treasures scattered throughout the home. Which room do you love the most, and why?
The room we love the most is the living area because the light and views give us a sense of being in nature. We look through the front windows and see the park, we look into the courtyard and see an intimate light-filled, quiet space. This room not only has a view of the outside world and nature, but it also celebrates the work in which we are both engaged.
Marija, your sculptures are everywhere, bringing your art into every corner. Many of them are female figures — can you tell us why you focus on women, and what these pieces mean to you in the context of your home?
The focus on women in my art practice goes back to a project I completed for my honours. This was an investigation into the relationship between three generations of women who were born in three different countries. Following on from this, I had a solo exhibition (3 x 25) featuring female figures made from a range of materials. After my mother’s death in 2018, I sought the solitude of my studio for a year, processing my grief. During that time, I made female figures representing my experience and understanding of my mother’s life and journey. The work talks about the strength, tenacity, resilience, history, creativity and grace of the amazing woman, and the outcome was another solo exhibition, “A Woman’s Journey”. The 22 pieces collectively told a story; however, each figure was embedded with its own narrative. I was deeply moved by how this exhibition was received - I found that many women identified with the works and then shared their stories, which was the springboard for my next solo exhibition, “She said - I’m Moving On”. I worked with clay to make another body of work in response to these stories. So my work is currently about women and their stories, which I am collecting for my next exhibition in 2026 (a collaboration with Bernadette Pilli).
Bryan, you’ve had an incredible career journey, from creating revolutionary spiral staircase designs to now crafting ceramics by hand. Can you take us through that evolution? What sparked the shift from steel to clay, and how does it feel to work in such different materials?
I like this question because it provides me with the opportunity to say, that the experience I have had through many different jobs, in many different manufacturing environments, with a design mind, led me from the discipline and control required for volume manufacturing and marketing to the creative world of ceramics, where I am able to work with my hands in a free forming organic world, where shape, colour and style is individual and functional.
Bryan you have designed and built spiral staircases for decades, but we can’t help but ask about your own bright yellow staircase! What inspired that bold choice? Was it a nod to your love of design, a creative experiment, or just something that makes you happy every time you walk past it?
Bryan. Thank you for this question. I celebrate the many decades I have built and designed spiral staircases, but I cannot take the credit for the choice of having a bright yellow spiral staircase. I wanted a helical staircase with a glass balustrade. The inspired choice which we have here was made by my sculptor wife, which I reluctantly accepted, but every time I walk past it, I salute the decision.
Shop Marija and Bryan’s Curated Collection
Bryan and Marija, you are both makers — do your creative worlds overlap at home, or do you each have your own domains? Have you ever collaborated on a piece or even a space together, where your styles mix and spark new ideas?
Our creative styles and art practices are entirely different; however, we do collaborate on the design of our home and its environment. We do offer feedback on each other's works and help out in practical ways, eg Bryan makes the plinths for my works, and I help Bryan with his mould making.
