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the beautiful views to the beach, to the south of
the Sydney harbor, we brought sunlight in and
connected to the garden. It became about seven
careful cuts into the building. It was our way of
editing the duplex into a single house.
Was there a masterstroke moment?
Not exactly that, but the huge central void with the
new skylight brought light all the way down to the
ground floor through the new staircase. It’s also a
bigger house now with fewer rooms that flow much
better.
The operable windows are a revelation.
Upstairs is now the living area because it offers the
best views and we’ve installed pivot windows onto
the old sun-room. It still functions like a sun-room
but is now more fully connected. We removed the
balcony walls so that it’s almost as if you sit on a
very large enclosed balcony rather than living-room.
Those windows offer a huge opening and views
across the valley of Manly and beyond to the ocean.
What are the operating principles behind the
windows?
They’re motorized and open at the press of a button
and pressed again the y lock into position. We partly
used the motorized windows because of wind loads.
The crank-shaft of the mechanism braces the
windows firmly in place.
Are they wind-speed rated?
They’re engineered to handle a one in a hundred
year winds.
Is it a customized system, or off-the-shelf?
They’re customized frames and assemblies but
the glazing is basically off-the-shelf Viridian
ComfortPlusTM.
How quickly did the essential design occur to you?
It was a very quick project. Only a few months all
up refining the design to suit our clients’ needs.
Originally the living room was planned for downstairs.
There was a bit of a process to work through that
with the clients, to make sure the scheme was what
they wanted because it wasn’t what they asked for.
Were there surprises?
Yes, because our clients hadn’t imagined the
house we proposed. What surprised me was how
we could transform a house with so few incisions.
It really has just seven holes cut into that pair of
houses and it’s a complete transformation of how
you could live. It invented whole new light qualities,
connections within and opening to the garden
context. What’s interesting is that it still appears
to be the old heritage house it always was.
The quality of light available through a series
of openings – rather than a single hero facade,
can result in a very beautiful quality of light.
That is something often not grasped and probably
explains the benefit of those seven incisions
and skylight/windows.
I agree. It was much less about one big gesture
and more about seven openings that were treated
specifically and differently. One is a fixed window
that acts like a kitchen splash-back that frames a
tree. That window almost foreshortens the effect
of the tree foliage. It’s as if the foliage is part of
the kitchen via that transparent splash-back.
Was the bigger challenge technical or creative?
The technical challenge came working so quickly.
We were on-site for only a few months and hadn’t
fully sorted construction details. We figured it out
with the builder with demolition underway. We
worked closely with the builder and those details
come together rapidly.
Sometimes working on the fly isn’t altogether bad.
It was a great way to work. And fun. There was an
established relationship between the clients and
builder, so they really trusted him, and the three
of us worked hand-in-hand the whole way through
construction. It was always the three of us in
discussion about the details we presented on-site.
What was the main design driver?
The spaces will provide for many uses over the life
of the building. Even though the cuts in the building
are quite specific, we’ve avoided in-built furniture.
We’ve tried to create robust, flexible spaces for a
variety of uses.