30 Adelaide Street

This project is the restoration of a one bedroom house designed by the practice in 1998 and completed in 2001, which had been unsympathetically altered by a previous owner. A rooftop bedroom has been removed to reinstate the original louvred roof terrace and numerous internal alterations have been reversed. The two storey yellow joinery element links the levels physically and visually and is offset against a neutral palette of white walls and ceilings, silver anodised aluminium, grey rubber and white epoxy flooring. The design of the interior of this house is all about the clarity of the space, the double height volume linking the different levels and it's strong focus on the link between interior and exterior.

The interior design of this house is conceptually linked to the architecture, lightweight, open, blurring the junction between inside and out. Colour is used boldly for one major element against a neutral background of silver, grey and white. Comfortable without clutter, clean and bold, clarity of space and form. In particular the relationship of the interior to the north facing rear courtyard makes this an exceptionally enjoyable space to live in, with the mezzanine bedroom also visually connected to the courtyard.

The site, located in Sydney's city fringe suburb of Surry Hills, presented an opportunity to develop a small multi-level urban house which responds to its mixed context of small terrace houses, warehouses and the 1960s Readers Digest Headquarters. The house forms a bookend to a row of Victorian terrace houses in the manner of a traditional corner shop or public house, many of which still exist in nearby streets.

The primary objective was to restore the house to it's original design, removing the rooftop bedroom and reinstating the roof terrace, removing a second wardrobe unit from the mezzanine that formed a corridor and destroyed the spacial concept of the mezzanine bedroom. Reinstating the garden to the rear courtyard and removing a roller shutter door that had been added to provide car access. Numerous air conditioning units, water features and slate cladding were also removed.

The cost of the restoration work was a relatively modest sum of $157,000.00, but represented 50% of the original 2001 construction cost of $320,000.00. This is indicative of how much damage had been done to the property by the previous owners' alterations and additions.