Birchgrove House | Carter Williamson Architects

A bold new interpretation of its context, Birchgrove House is in conversation with its natural environment as well as its history. Sweeping folds of concrete, glass, brick, and steel are softened by warm timber and vibrant marble to create a forward-thinking tectonic experience of light, shade, and spatial ambiguity.

The original sandstone cottage was painstakingly restored, with a delicate white steel staircase encased in patterned brick stitching it together with the contemporary addition. The project negotiates a steep waterfront site as it cascades down across several levels from the street to the harbour. Tasked with celebrating the joy of small family rituals as well as bigger social occasions, it spreads itself across a series of spaces that scale effortlessly. Its planes are pinched and pulled in a series of flourishes. punctuated with a cluster of soaring voids to allow old and new to coexist in a unified, optimistic future.