W
elsh and Major Architects doesn’t seem to have a
predictable tactic or a recognizable style that the architects
apply to every project. Even if it did, every site is different
and every client is different. Each design that Christine
Major and David Welsh produce must fit within the quirks and
intricacies of each project’s specific circumstances, its literal and
figurative topography. The physical topography of the site was one
defining characteristic of the Annandale House project.
The slope is extreme, falling almost two full storeys from the
main street to the rear lane. An existing single-storey weatherboard
cottage occupies the main street address, spanning the full width
of the narrow site. Broadly speaking, Welsh and Major’s additions
are comprised of three blocks that step down the site, each smaller
than the last, overlapping slightly like the segments of a telescope.
The nested forms begin with a full-width, two-storey block that
contains the main bedroom upstairs and living areas below, and
step down to a single-storey galley kitchen and finally to a stair
and an entry vestibule that meets the rear lane. They also step away
from the northern boundary, running hard up against the southern
boundary to maximize the opportunity for winter light to enter the
courtyards and interiors.
03 The smoked oak and
marble kitchen opens
up to a long terrace.04 A light well, which can be
covered by a retractable
glass roof, gives the
house “space to breathe.”02 With its bespoke brass
handle and formal street
number, the laneway
entry has become the
house’s main entrance.
Like many houses that squeeze a lot of rooms into a tight urban
site, the project is quite inwardly focused. Welsh and Major chose
not to extend the cottage directly. Instead, they demolished the
existing assortment of additions and created a gap in between,
allowing the old and new some breathing space. The family of
four-plus-dog wanted a calm vibe for their house in the dense,
inner-western Sydney suburb and one way to do this was to leave
some of the site “empty.” The gap is not programmed to function
as “entertaining” or “outdoor dining” or anything specific, but is
simply to be experienced as open space. A walkway that extends
from the corridor of the existing cottage flies over the top of it,
as the ground level drops away. A semi-mature fiddle-leaf fig was
planted in a hole in the new concrete slab and the whole space can
be covered at a moment’s notice by a mechanically powered sliding
glass roof, creating an indoor/outdoor ambiguity.
Council requirements, like the client brief, comprise some of the
“figurative topography” of the project. In this part of Annandale,
the council wanted to preserve all existing weatherboard houses.
This included Welsh and Major’s site, even though little of the built
fabric was original. In response, Welsh and Major has highlighted
the cottage’s last remaining “heritage” feature – its house-shaped02