A Cryptic Estate by Luigi Rosselli Architects and Atelier Alwill

Balancing conservatism and unexpectedness, A Cryptic Estate reworks a significant, late-Victorian home in Sydney’s Lower North Shore with a series of diverse and captivating spaces, which are mostly concealed below ground.

First designed by English architect Walter Liberty Vernon in 1889, the original house had pedigree. Keen to expand the home’s footprint with a living space, garage, lap pool and wellness area, the client enlisted long-term collaborators Luigi Rosselli Architects and Atelier Alwill to develop a sympathetic response to place. The home’s charming, well-preserved features inspired the design team to develop a contemporary overlay to support the lives of the owner and his adult children while maintaining sensitivity to the residence’s original scale and character.

Heavy, stone-clad arches surround the 15-metre lap pool, inspiring Romy Alwill of Atelier Alwill to consider the space as an “underground crypt,” recalling Peter Zumthor’s 7132 Thermal Baths in Switzerland.

“The property’s heritage status and a previous subdivision that halved its size left minimal scope for additional floor area at ground level,” recalls Evan Howard, senior associate at Luigi Rosselli Architects. As a result, an informal living pavilion forms the home’s only horizontal addition, gently connected to the existing house by a glazed link. The architecture nestles into the site’s hillside topography, softened by a rooftop garden and landscaped courtyards by Dangar Barin Smith, the latter surrounding the kitchen, dining and living spaces. This gesture crafts “a casual environment for day-to-day life with ample daylight,” describes Howard, while monolithic sandstone walls, a gently vaulted timber board-formed concrete ceiling, polished concrete floors and warm oak joinery impart a calm ambience – a contrast to the more formal spaces of the original house.

A central staircase, housed within the glazed link, affords access to the rooftop garden and the wellness and pool levels below – enlivened by washes of natural light via trafficable skylights and glass stair treads. Heavy, stone-clad arches surround the 15-metre lap pool, inspiring Romy Alwill of Atelier Alwill to consider the space as an “underground crypt,” recalling Peter Zumthor’s 7132 Thermal Baths in Switzerland. Descending into this dramatic volume, animated with Ceppo di Gre marble, “you are immersed in an unexpected world of rich teals and cool greys lit by skylights washing the tiled and plaster walls with daylight,” muses Alwill.

The home’s muted colour scheme combines cooler blues and rich timbers in the front section, shifting to lighter and warmer tones in the contemporary pavilion and lower levels, finished with a careful curation of furniture pieces and the client’s covetable collection of art and antiques.

While the original home has been largely maintained, a series of modifications improve its legibility and functionality: the conversion of the existing kitchen into a bedroom and powder room, the integration of a bar into the formal dining area and the addition of a lift. An existing timber staircase has been retained and renewed, directing movement to the bedroom level above. Here, a previous bedroom addition has been converted into a generous main ensuite enveloped in Ceppo di Gre marble, offering a moment of private respite. An attic study nestles into an existing roof cavity, with a bespoke skylight by Tilt Industrial Design capturing sweeping views across Sydney Harbour.

Given the diversity of the home’s spatial qualities, “creating a palette that transitioned between the contrasting atmospheres and enlightened the journey was key,” says Alwill. The home’s muted colour scheme combines cooler blues and rich timbers in the front section, shifting to lighter and warmer tones in the contemporary pavilion and lower levels, finished with a careful curation of furniture pieces and the client’s covetable collection of art and antiques. “It’s a large house with many cues architecturally – from Victorian features to Arts and Crafts to absolute Modernism and, of course, the signature ‘Rosselli-isms’ –requiring us to balance its nuances with a sense of flow.”

From the street, A Cryptic Estate’s Victorian character remains the focus, with little to suggest the existence of the home’s pavilion or evocative subterranean additions.

From the street, A Cryptic Estate’s Victorian character remains the focus, with little to suggest the existence of the home’s pavilion or evocative subterranean additions. Thoughtfully shaped around the property’s site constraints, heritage qualities and the homeowner’s personality, Luigi Rosselli Architects and Atelier Alwill have tailored a spatial narrative that evokes the senses. “Rather than considering the house in vignettes or elevations, we embrace the opportunity to be an interpreter, or biographer, of the client’s story,” reflects Alwill.

Architecture by Luigi Rosselli Architects. Interior design by Atelier Alwill. Build by Pimas Gale. Landscape design by Dangar Barin Smith.