A
ltering a house, particularly a terrace house, is seldom an
all-or-nothing exercise – it’s about building on the existing
architecture to cater to a contemporary lifestyle, without
erasing the layers and memories of what came before it. Most
of us believe that the present, and indeed the future, is ours. But
it isn’t as simple as that, particularly when you’re dealing with a
heritage-listed terrace that draws a lot of its strength from being a
part of a whole – in this case, an unusually long, intact row of terrace
houses in Sydney.
When I met architect Anthony Gill on site, he pointed out that
while the street dips and rises along its length, all the upper floors
of the terraces in the row sit at the same level. The height of the
ground-floor rooms varies greatly from terrace to terrace, and the
ones in the middle of the row have ground-floor ceiling heights
of nearly four metres. It is one of these terraces that Anthony has
reimagined as a contemporary house for a family of three.
The benign Sydney climate lends itself to living a life outdoors
nearly all year round; however, accessing it in any meaningful
way while maintaining a suitable level of privacy in a terrace less
than five metres wide posed quite a challenge. Heritage constraints
meant that the front rooms of the terrace were essentially left alone,
while the rear wing of the house, along with the rejuvenated rear
courtyard, was reassembled as a contemporary counterpoint that
is mindful of the climactic opportunity in a way that the original
Victorian terraces weren’t. Together, these old and new components
combine in consonance to become an inspired set of contemporary
living spaces.
The small backyard has been reconfigured as a pair of spaces
within one. The first half of the yard, immediately adjacent to the
house, is configured as an outdoor dining/sitting area. The original
outhouse, sitting about halfway along the length of the yard, serves
as a kind of threshold point to a new outdoor bathroom featuring
the original loo, which screens the rest of the house from a shower/
bath area complete with a steel-framed basin and mirror vanity.
The rear wing of the terrace has been reimagined in recycled brick.
New dining and kitchen spaces are located on the ground level, the
03 Bespoke brass shelving
sensitively complements
the kitchen’s robust
masonry elements.02 A rich bathing space on
the upper floor opens
up to a verdant garden.
former opening out onto a small brick-lined courtyard that also serves
the sitting room in the main section of the terrace. All the interior
walls are made from painted bagged brickwork, the texture of these
surfaces acting as a material ligature between the robust external
finish of the recycled brickwork and the finer interior elements:
joinery components of recycled hardwood, brass, tiles and terrazzo.
A moulded timber profile inspired by furniture seen by the client
during a recent trip to Japan and the bespoke brass metalwork
assembled to form the shelving cradle over the kitchen bench are just
two of a series of sensitive details that complement the more robust
masonry elements forming the chassis of the house.
A preference to avoid using steel lintels led to the creation of an
arched doorway, designed to sit in conversation with the circular
pivot window that focuses light into the study, a small room at the
top of the stairs generously lit from three sides. That arch serves
as a portal into a wonderfully rich bathing space – lined with dark
tiles and a timber ceiling, the space features an enamel claw-foot
bath and opens out to a verdant garden, protected from the rear
laneway by a hit-and-miss recycled brick screen that simultaneously
provides privacy and natural light to the bathroom. Externally the
patterned brick permeates the solidity of the masonry form, allowing
the strength of an honest brick building to be read while creating
subtle shifts in light across the surface that negate any tendency to
be overbearing. The result is a built form that is both tough and
light, the planting adding a touch of unexpected lusciousness to the
overall building composition.
The diversity of spaces in this house – indoor rooms, outdoor
spaces and those in between – create a robust conversation about
what this house was, as well as what it would like to become. As the
suburb the house sits in undergoes change, so too does our idea of
what a contemporary house should be. The surety and safety that
a home provides should ideally be tempered with generosity and
wonder. Anthony Gill has managed to do this, and in doing so has
put forward an example of how we can protect and reinterpret our
built heritage, and adapt it sensitively and creatively for the future.02