A house at Hunters Hill |
Working with owners who shared an interest in modern Scandinavian and Japanese housing design, in this project we could explore the ways in which a small, austere inter-war house, set in a Conservation Area but of no individual significance, might be re-imagined and re-presented as a contemporary family home. The addition of an upper level is a common strategy for improving and enlarging smaller cottages in Sydney’s older suburbs, but few are successful in their impact upon houses and streetscapes. Parody, misappropriated details, or incompatibility and obtrusion are frequent outcomes. This project secured Council consent without difficulty.
Within a timber-clad and gable roofed form using end windows and skylights (but no side openings), new bedrooms, a shared bathroom and study are placed above the original cottage whose plan has been adjusted and opened to the rear garden. The ground floor exterior - originally face brick but painted - has been newly rendered and painted to partner the dark-stained, lapped cypress boarding of the new upper level. Beautifully made sliding sash windows, doors and screens complement the careful internal plywood linings and the simple, but finely wrought fit-out and joinery trim.
Builder : Textbook Constructions (Michael and Jack Scott)
Engineer : David J Hall
Joiner : Branches Pty Ltd
Photography : © Lindy Kerr
Within a timber-clad and gable roofed form using end windows and skylights (but no side openings), new bedrooms, a shared bathroom and study are placed above the original cottage whose plan has been adjusted and opened to the rear garden. The ground floor exterior - originally face brick but painted - has been newly rendered and painted to partner the dark-stained, lapped cypress boarding of the new upper level. Beautifully made sliding sash windows, doors and screens complement the careful internal plywood linings and the simple, but finely wrought fit-out and joinery trim.
Builder : Textbook Constructions (Michael and Jack Scott)
Engineer : David J Hall
Joiner : Branches Pty Ltd
Photography : © Lindy Kerr