Meeting Challenges With Restraint – Palmer Street by Brad Swartz Architects

Opening up the bones of a heritage-listed 1860s row house in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Palmer Street rises to meet its many challenges. Brad Swartz Architects’ respectful sensitivity to the home’s context and history creates a retrained layering of heritage and contemporary elements.

Set in its adjoining row of four, Palmer Street sees the reconfiguration and reinvigoration of the heritage-listed row house. The accompanying restrictions afforded the new works an array of associated challenges, and the resulting home is a play on restraint. Working neatly within its defining boundary walls, there is a respectful sensibility to the surrounding context and the home’s history and storied past. Brad Swartz Architects’ approach was inspired to allow natural light to permeate the internal zones. Layering texture and depth, combined with introduced punctuations and translucencies, the design breathes new life into the existing building.

Working neatly within its defining boundary walls, there is a respectful sensibility to the surrounding context and the home’s history and storied past. Brad Swartz Architects’ approach was inspired to allow natural light to permeate the internal zones.

Through expressing the original, the introduction of deliberately muted materiality allows for the addition of a warming timber element to sit naturally against the stone and layering history to create continuity between the old and new.

Working within the envelope of the unalterable façade and exterior walls, Brad Swartz Architects instead concentrated on a series of interior feature elements to convert the existing into a restrained contemporary space. Within its mere 65 square metre footprint, the home sits oriented west-east and, like many structures of the time, access to natural light internally was limited. Deep-set masonry walls were built based on qualities of durability and protection but were not focused on admitting light or creating visual connections to the outside. Counteracting this then became one of the primary objectives of the design – to introduce opportunities for light to enter deep into the home through punctuations and layered transparencies.

Built by Align Constructions Pty Ltd, together with joinery by Coastline Kitchen, Palmer Street pivots around two key design elements – the hero steel stair by Steadly Steel and skylight by Tilt Industrial Design bring all of the contributing interventions together. The internal replanning allows for each zone to better connect and naturally flow from one to the other. Along with opening and uniting the pockets internally, the expression of the original heritage features allows a contrast to naturally emerge against the more contemporary and clean lines. Allowing for the reversing of the original stair to open and connect the dining and living, the custom joinery and kitchen was realigned along the party wall, creating a free-flowing conduit to the rear courtyard through an operable façade.

Built by Align Constructions Pty Ltd, together with joinery by Coastline Kitchen, Palmer Street pivots around two key design elements – the hero steel stair by Steadly Steel and skylight by Tilt Industrial Design bring all of the contributing interventions together.

The palette sees a minimal approach, further reinforcing the element of restraint. Through expressing the original, the introduction of deliberately muted materiality allows for the addition of a warming timber element to sit naturally against the stone and layering history to create continuity between the old and new. Optimising its existing high thermal mass through the comprising masonry elements, the introduction of operable elements allows passive heating and cooling to be operator-controlled.

Beautifully expressing its storied past, through Brad Swartz Architects’ injection of both light and air, Palmer Street’s next chapter can dutifully commence.