Annandale Terrace Addition with Pool

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Stephen Crafti, architectural journalist and writer, said; "This semi-detached Victorian cottage in Annadale conceals a striking contemporary home. While it’s only five metres in width, typical of many cottages, it benefits from having a depth of 40 metres – sufficient room to create a family home for a couple with three children.

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Broe and his team retained the front three rooms of the cottage, using these spaces as a study/home office and two bedrooms. However, beyond the modest façade, with its wide parapet, is a two-level addition, with generous steel and glass doors framing the living areas that open to the eastern-orientated back garden. Given the modest width of the site, every manoeuvre has been considered to the nth degree. Rather than simply opting for a rectilinear glass box, as found with many renovations, here the spaces have been manipulated to bring in the garden aspect, which includes a swimming pool and a protected alfresco dining area. A slither of a courtyard, orientated to the north, was included to form part of the living areas. And to strengthen the connection to the outdoors, the large glass and steel doors can be fully retracted – blurring the division between indoors and out.

The use of joinery was paramount in the design, given the elongated dimensions of the property. Rather than the usual arrangement, there’s a continuous wall of built-in joinery in the kitchen, stained black and extending to the dining table – the latter joining the Carrara
marble island bench. And given the length of this kitchen/dining area, the bank of joinery includes a generous built-in pantry, a sophisticated wine fridge along with a study nook, the latter which can be fully concealed when not being used.

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Broe was also keen to integrate the past with the present. In the Annadale house, for example, are exposed brick walls from the Victorian period, with one of these containing a porthole-style window that was previously concealed in the roof space/attic. However, the house also responds to contemporary living, with the main bedroom on the first level benefiting from a curvaceous black timber-batten screen – operable to allow for light as well as providing privacy from neighbours. Given the dual access, there was also the opportunity to provide a detached brick building that functions as both a garage and a gym – a place to wind down at the end of the day, or perhaps inside on one of the customised built-in chaises that transform this home into something beyond the expected."

Text by Stephen Crafti