Year: 2025
Photography: Hamish McIntosh
Builder: Rosato Projects
Country: Gadigal Land
House in Surry Hills II transforms an early 1900s Federation semi-detached home into a contemporary family sanctuary through a sensitive approach to texture, spatial planning, and the nuanced understanding of place.
Designed for a young family, the brief centred around creating a space that reflected a relaxed, modern lifestyle while maintaining a strong connection between the past and the present. The transformation needed to foster seamless indoor-outdoor living and enhance the home’s potential for entertaining, all while preserving the original charm and structure of the building.
The project preserves and restores the Federation detailing that gives the house its unique character. The rear, once dilapidated, was stripped away to make room for a more expansive and flexible space. The result is a harmonious balance between indoors and outdoors, skilfully integrated into a dense, urban environment.
A steel and timber ‘veil’ wraps around the new edges of the addition, offering urban privacy and managing the interplay of natural light. The integration of courtyards and internal lightwells provides light and fresh air, expanding the sense of space while connecting the indoors with the outside world. The courtyard is a visual extension of the living area.
A 600mm-deep rear balcony, designed not for occupation but as a visual extension of the first-floor bedroom suite, houses garden planters that will grow lush vines, adding natural texture to the rear façade. It provides sun protection to the floor-to-ceiling sliding doors below, enhancing the home’s connection to nature while offering practical benefits like shading and privacy.
A seamless flow between the indoors and outdoors enhances the spatial possibilities of the home. The new addition blends with the existing house in a way that respects its vertical proportions and detailing, with moments of subtle transition between old and new.