Back to Front House

The client’s brief was to provide an appropriate main entry to the property from the rear lane, open the living spaces to the rear courtyard, extend the original attic to form a new main bedroom, with dressing room and ensuite bathroom. Being in a Heritage Conservation Area there were significant planning constraints and the local Council stipulated that they wanted a later brick rear extension to the sandstone terrace house retained and the new work setback 900mm so that the chimney was retained as a free standing element and that all new work should be clearly differentiated from the original.

The new staircase, topped by a full length skylight, allows daylight to filter down through the delicate open treads to the lowest level. The new 3 level tower linking the two original sections of the house provides the additional bathroom required for the former attic, introduces northern light and natural ventilation to all levels of the house and provides a new front door to reconfigure the entry sequence from the rear lane, where a new steel gate and privacy screen provide an appropriate main entry from what was previously the back of the house.

The renovation of this property allows the inhabitants a direct connection between internal spaces and both front and rear courtyards, significantly increased natural light and ventilation, upgraded bathrooms and kitchen and considerably increased storage. The new front gate and privacy screen provides them with a far more dignified and appropriate main entry to the property as well as privacy from the apartment building across the lane.

Creating a new main entrance from the rear lane was a critical part of the project. The design response was to create a 5.2 metre high steel portal, in place of the old back gate. This portal contains a new entry gate and privacy louvres above, as well as accommodating a new street number, mail box and intercom within the steel column. Inside this portal is a new landscaped entry courtyard, with the kitchen opening out to the courtyard through bi-folding steel doors, substantially increasing the sense of space within both kitchen and courtyard. At the end of the courtyard is a large new front door, forming the lower section of a three storey glazed link that separates the new steel clad tower from the original sandstone house.