The house, a Victorian terrace in Birchgrove, was originally created, as were many such buildings, off a formula, a pattern that foreshadowed something similar beside it; not the neighbour it had for 100 years, a garden-strip.
The idea is to bi-furcate that garden-strip but concurrently reminisce a house. The garden becomes two living rooms; formal and informal. The tree as centre-focus of the formal garden sets the house to a form that renews its urban presence and creates a transparency of both intent and form. White form and soft space is read in calm light.
The other garden is where children can play.
A room is extended on the first level to present to the north and a low form of structure enables the garden to flow through the living space from the front of the house to the rear and lets the sky do its work above.
Project Design Team
Angelo Candalepas - Director
John Wilkin
Alex Dirks
Awards
AIA NSW Architecture Award for Birchgrove House (2014)
AIA NSW Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions) (2014)
