Sympathetic alterations and new additions to a terrace house have been meticulously planned to provide essential room, refuge and privacy for an artist couple and their growing family. Aside from meeting numerous client and council planning objectives, the new works amply resolve many requisite concerns around daylight access, cross ventilation, and material & energy sustainability.

The embodied energy and cultural value of the original front form are retained in its heritage conservation area while internally, the front lower and upper bedrooms are renewed with improved amenity and storage with the front secondary rooms transformed to accommodate generous kitchen, dining and bathroom spaces. New staircases vastly improve circulation, and a new attic level is sensitively inserted within the original form to provide dedicated office space that is flexibly adapted as guest accommodation.

At the rear addition, a new ground floor living area opens onto a generous landscaped rear garden, while a new main bedroom and ensuite bathroom are accommodated on the upper floor. The spaces embody durable, low maintenance materials predominantly comprising of low carbon burnished concrete, FSC-certified blackbutt timber joinery, wall & floor elements, and long life-cycle terrazzo overlays - while also employing a loose triadic colour strategy throughout.

It also incorporates thermally-efficient double glazing, and high levels of wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation - while integrating hydronic in-slab heating, an electric instantaneous hot water system, underground water storage for house and garden re-use, and a PV solar system for on-site renewable energy production and battery storage.

Date: 2024 -
Location: Redfern, Sydney / Gadigal Land

3D Modelling Visuals: Christopher Polly Architect
Surveyor: D&C Surveyors