An existing three level terrace house has been converted into two apartments, one for the owner on the upper levels and one on the lower level, that is let separately. The site falls 10 metres from the street to the rear lane and has a panoramic view from the rear stretching from St Vincent’s Hospital in the south to Edgecliff in the east. An existing separate entry from the street to the lower ground floor allowed for the self-contained one bedroom apartment, with the rear yard half a level below that again and a further one and a half levels to the rear lane.

This provided the opportunity to construct a two car garage below a split level rear courtyard. The existing house highlighted some of the shortcomings of the Victorian era terrace house type, in which all major rooms address the street and ancillary functions are relegated to the rear wing, with in this case, a single 1200 mm x 800 mm window taking advantage of the dramatic view. The living areas were on the street level, with bedrooms on the upper level and kitchen and dining room on the lower ground level. There was also a large unoccupied roof space. The primary concept was to reorient the house to the rear of the site and to invert the original arrangement, with the living spaces moving to the upper level and bedrooms to the street level.

There was a desire to dispense with cellular rooms in favour of a large open plan living space extending out onto a roof terrace to the rear and to the existing verandah above the street, while extending vertically into the roof space to create a double height living area, with mezzanine study. The dilapidated rear wing was demolished and a new exposed steel framed wing built, which incorporates a steel spiral stair, allowing access to the rear garden and garage from the roof terrace without disturbing the occupants of the apartment below. A cantilevered joinery unit runs the full length of the upper level, being kitchen bench at the northern end and display shelf and storage in the living/dining area.

A thickened wall above this joinery unit conceals lighting and the range hood, which is ducted up the disused chimney. The kitchen opens to the front verandah, and is divided from the main space by a three quarter height joinery element, clad in timber veneer to differentiate it from the structural walls, and which reads as a piece of furniture. The main spaces double as a gallery for the owner’s collection of Asian artefacts and contemporary artwork to complete the transformation from Victorian terrace house to urbane, modern apartment.

Material Used:

1. Timber flooring - Blackbutt

2. Hardies - Facade Cladding - Compressed Fibre Cement sheet

3. Timber Joinery - Victorian Ash

4. Vola - taps - KV1

5. Bega - External Lighting

6. Erco - Internal Track Lighting

7. Fisher & Paykel - Kitchen Appliances

8. Spiral Stair - Galvanised Steel

9. Structural Frame - Galvanised Steel

10. Capral - Aluminium Windows and Sliding Doors - 889 Series