What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The house provides a model for adapting existing housing stock into share housing for elderly people who want to live independently, but not alone. The front rooms and garage walls suggested two masonry bookends. Between these we formed a newly configured courtyard house. The courtyard is drawn into this steel and glass pavilion, creating an ‘interior’ that extends from one boundary wall to the other. The curved ceiling suggests an imaginary line, drawing in the commissioned artwork by Janet Laurence.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
To reuse the existing structure, recycle existing materials and employ natural and/or re-salvaged local material wherever possible in the renovation of this narrow, single-fronted ‘period’ terrace. Four rooms spill off the main entry corridor; each looks out onto a separate courtyard space. These spaces and the journey between them involve a series of contradictory yet symbiotic conceptual interconnections between light and dark, interior and exterior, and old and new. The dark painted ‘treacle’ of the street front and internal courtyard reference the original walls, whilst the interior refit and rear extension appear in luminescent white, symbolic of new intervention.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The rediscovery of the fine proportions and elegant simplicity of an old, freestanding home in Balgowlah Heights. The exterior has been brought back to a version of its original form with a slate roof, rough cast rendered walls and new timber joinery. A balcony has been reinstated at rear to the water side, as has an entry vestibule on the street façade. Windows have been re-proportioned with new timber joinery. A large open plan living-dining-kitchen area opens onto a terrace and the balcony. Spectacular harbour views are enhanced with detailed flush skirting and full-height pivot doors.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
In this project a distinction was made between old and new: the ‘old’ retains period features; the ‘new’ addresses the functional requirements of a modern family home. The philosophy examined traditional Moroccan decorative tiling patterns and architectural forms and reinterpreted those ideas as contemporary symbolic architectural references. Continuous linear forms, curved shapes and strong grids formed the backdrop for a decorative quality. Colour was applied throughout, and new materials, opal acrylic and laser cut graphic vinyl film, provided innovative solutions.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The precision of the photographic industry applied to the building industry… the owners are producers of detailed and difficult commercial photography, often required to construct complex equipment and sets. The pièce de résistance of this home is the entry sequence – once the front door is opened the visitor is offered an expansive view of the lap pool. This unexpected entry experience is mood altering, a glimpse of the fantastic, a slice of celluloid film made real.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
This project is about form and how the form is animated by the brief requirement, which was to house a pianist and his piano.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The brief: a holiday home that could be occupied by several families. The original fireplace in the living area has been clad with bluestone and is the full height of the structure. The three bedrooms have individual bathrooms, private sitting areas and open directly onto the decks. An undercover balcony runs the full length of the house. A feature wall incorporates recycled oyster sticks and demolished boathouse timbers. Timber louvres open on the western wall to provide sunlight and ventilation.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
On an elevated bushland site with rolling views to the north, Wall House presents a deceptively mute block on approach. Spaces are organised and anchored from the Wall, which unfolds as one moves through the house. Each interior space becomes a framing device for a new, subtly individual angle outwards. Level changes are also strategically placed to demarcate specific living zones as well as contributing to the sense of journey the inhabitants encounter as they navigate the Wall.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The aim of the renovation was to modernise and enhance the home’s formal areas, but retain their Victorian character. While appreciating the embellished Victorian features, the client wanted a simple, modern approach. Reproduction elements from former renovations were replaced, highlighting the difference between modern alterations and the house’s previous life. The existing layout of the house remains intact, with new openings between the formal dining and living areas. A restrained approach was adopted with muted colours and textures. Simple forms and lines were introduced, with ‘quirks’ in the joinery elements to emphasise the client’s briefing particularities.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
To create a home that embraced and intertwined the old with the new, ensuring each room was treated with its own intimate look and feel. Dark timber flooring and basalt stone were used in conjunction. Clean white walls were the perfect backdrop to additions whilst intense colour palettes were applied to existing walls. A balance of contemporary and antique furniture was used to achieve the melding of the existing home with the later renovation.

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What is the ‘big (IDEA)’ behind this project?
The partial demolition and upgrade of an existing Victorian worker’s cottage and provision of a contemporary addition. Inspired by Geoffrey Bawa’s courtyard houses, the layout involves a series of figure-ground relationships with two central courtyards mediating three built elements. A central mirrored courtyard acts as a powerful interstitial space and a metaphorical bridge of history between the front and rear dwellings. Continuity of material and colour is integral to the sense of flow and movement, blurring notions of interior and exterior. Colour coding and variation, with the infusion of wild card colours, both distinguish and combine languages of two periods.

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