Located in the inner city, this modest project is the first stage required to transform a 1900s workers’ cottage into a modern family residence.
This project is an example of how an ordinary residence, built modestly and of its time, can be easily and cost-efficiently adapted to serve a new generation of owners’ needs and aspirations without significantly altering the streetscape.
Stage 1 involved the refurbishment of the existing cottage in preparation for the Stage 2 extension.
In addition to simply refurbishing the existing building, the project included a new screen wall which reclaims the front yard as a sunny, semi-private courtyard, and creates a transition zone between the dwelling and the street.
The delicate timber screen wall mediates between privacy, security and openness. It provides a hint of the house’s presence in the streetscape, while filtering the occupants’ activities through its diaphanous skin.
Internal spaces have been stripped back, repaired, and unified with white paint finish. New doors between the veranda and the front room connect the interior and the courtyard. Fixed storage, which draws on the house’s original features, has been inserted into the chimney reveals. New pieces of loose joinery, smaller in scale and finished in Tas Oak, share similar details.
The landscape was designed to require little watering and maintenance.
Photos by Kate Burton
