The project brief was to maintain and preserve the lovely big rooms at the front of the house, while radically transforming the kitchen and bathroom at the back into a wonderful contemporary space, seamlessly blending the inside and outside living spaces.
CLIENT BRIEF
This project involved the total renovation of a very dark terrace house. The existing house had all of the normal dysfunctional aspects of most terrace houses - it was dark, falling apart, aesthetically outdated and the planning was very poor, due to the series of poor quality additions at the rear, including kitchen, bathroom and laundry. The bathroom blocked the living areas from the garden and there was no real connection between inside and outside.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Careful planning entailed reorienting the layout of the house. This increased the usability and flow of movement through the space. The poorly located bathroom at the back of the house was moved into the center, and the kitchen expanded to the boundary, leaving a small courtyard in the middle of the house.
An innovative outdoor room was created between the kitchen and courtyard, using a hardwood structure and motor operated louvers which close to form a roof when it rains.
As with all our projects, special attention was paid to updating the technological systems in the house, such as lighting, power, switching, audio, back to base alarm, state of the art kitchen hardware and appliances.
All of our projects are carefully specified so that hardware is good quality, works beautifully and lasts for 50 years instead of falling apart in two.
A state of the art commercial kitchen was designed to be the new heart of the house and the exposed steel portal frame is celebrated by the use of the colour red.
before
after
before
after
THE TEAM
Location:Surry Hills, Sydney
Existing House Type: Terrace House
Principal Architect - Danny Broe
In-house Interior Designer - Jessica Zavaglia
Builder: LRC Construction
Engineer: Partridge Partners
Floor Area: 149.49m2
Structure: Masonry, steel frame
Facade: Spotted Gum Australian Hardwood
Other Materials: Clay bricks, timber floor and windows, polyurethane kitchen, metal roof