New South Wales
Two main underlying principles informed the development of this project: revive and reutilise. The former configuration of the site had a typical nineteenth-century arrangement of a shop on the ground floor and a residence on the upper with a variety of flimsy lean-to’s filling the backyard. This project increased the programmatic potential through multiple uses by making better use of the entire site.
The corner shop has been re-purposed as a retail space, above this an independent residential unit, and then to the rear a new multi-storey dwelling that provides a façade and activation to the side street. This approach is an example of the conceptual framework – programmatic diversity, density and opportunity have been increased while a once blank streetscape has been revitalised. Ultimately the project is about sustainability, doing more with less, reusing a site, reusing materials and better using an existing well connected place.
This is a little house freed of the small house typology. With a footprint of 30 sqm and a Jacques Tati-esque façade of recycled and broken brick, the house playfully engages with the street through the arrangement and geometry of openings. Punched and cut into the brickwork the windows camouflage the interior section so that the immediacy of the street does not dilute the intimacy of the interior.
Ultimately the house is about sustainability, doing more with less, reusing a site, reusing materials and better using an existing well connected place.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
