Violetta

Nearing completion…

Located in Redfern East, this dilapidated heritage-listed Victorian terrace with period detailing required extensive intervention to resolve a previous owner’s brusquely executed renovations, and to extend its rear footprint to accommodate an open kitchen and living area. Tackling the project in two phases to accommodate the family’s more pressing requirements and budget, the initial work involved a loft conversion to provide an addition bedroom for the family of five, plus the creation of two generously sized bathrooms with ample storage solutions.

The second stage included the provision of an additional bedroom on the first floor to enable private bedrooms for all three children. Its rear wall – an expanse of glass – abuts a raised rooftop planter straddling the x metre width of the house’s rear extension, filtering surrounding views of high density developments with its fertile vegetation whilst providing a raised garden outlook from the newly landscaped garden below.

Nature is evident at every turn. Fundamental to the new design is the light-filled rear extension with a radically raised gradient ceiling measuring four metres where it meets two gigantic steel pivot glass doors stretching across the rear width of the house. This generous height enables views of the sky above the neighbouring tenancies, relieving a sense of enclosure. Connecting this open area to the existing house is a hallway punctured with towering arched glass French doors. Framing a planted garden within the easement, they grant the illusion of additional space extending to the boundary wall whilst ushering in natural light sources. Directly opposite, a new mid-level balustrade landing on the L-shaped staircase acts as an indoor balcony to appreciate the allure of greenery.

Completed: 2019

Builder: IBW Constructions - Stage II / Burmah Construction - Stage I

Photography © Simon Wood