The house acts as a central gathering place for a family of five who during the year, are dispersed around the globe, to come together and relax in their rare downtime together in Sydney. The heritage bones of the houseThe heritage bones of the house, of which the clients had previously restored when they originally purchased the property, called for an addition that could sit quietly yet confidently alongside the stately beauty of the original Victorian details. A sense of authenticity in materiality and form was therefore important to the clients from the initial conversation of the project.
The addition was conceived as a series of intimate spaces that felt comfortable, private and sophisticated. The family are generous hosts and a primary concern was to create a seamless transition between the kitchen, dining and the courtyard. It was important that each individual space responded practically to the way the family lives and travels, from the abundant storage to unique various touches that make this home personal to them.
Key Design Features:
The house sits within a row of 5 Victorian semi detached houses in a heritage conservation area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Tackling a modern renovation within a heritage context has its challenges, however we kept and restored the original heritage fabric with extra external details featured in sleek black steel and black metal cladding. The interior heritage details have been kept and maintained but at the rear a previous renovation had already stripped these details. The intention of the rear interior was to reference some of these heritage features, including the large skirtings to a height of 900mm detailed with the horizontal grain of the black veneer to the brass handles.
The ground floor addition has a sense of grandeur with 3m high ceilings and full height doors and windows accentuated by black steel reveals. The rear doors slide into a cavity providing an seamless transition from the interior to exterior punctuated with a black frame in steel and granite flooring.
The kitchen is designed to be an open kitchen with space for guests to gather around the island. On first approach the kitchen might look quite small however is large with separate integrated fridge and freezer, side bar with coffee machine, full height pantry and separate drinks cabinet which are all concealed in the side storage area.
Materiality:
The detailing and choice of materiality speaks to the clients’ love of sophisticated materials that have a richness in texture and emotion. The dark muted palette was conceived in part to the heritage of the house but also offers a sense of timeless and warm minimalist luxury, a sentiment that has carried over from the clients work in Dubai and Russia.
The materials have been restrained to stone, timber veneer, brass and steel with the attention to the detail of the junctions in the materials and the grain of the materials. Vertical and horizontal grains in the veneer give a subtle texture to the space separated by the decoration of the brass handles in a brushed finish.
Technology:
The house has quite a few automated and technological components with external electric blinds for sun shade against Sydney’s hot western sun, electric skylights with rain sensors and electric internal blinds, external electric awning to create a covered area in courtyard on hot days and all sound system and speakers integrated (for entertaining).
