Legacy, Expanded – Annandale Terrace by Sam Crawford Architects

Annandale Terrace sees its latest iteration add a contemporary layering of openness, building on the structure’s heritage to elevate it to a modern context. Sam Crawford Architects focuses on a restrained approach, creating a minimal foundation of comprising elements to allow a prized collection of art to be celebrated.

Whilst retaining its nostalgia and warmth, Annandale Terrace is both expanded and opened from within to encourage the introduction of more natural light and to increase the overall perception of space. Having already been altered in its past to adjust to changing family needs, the five-metre-wide property needed an attuned efficiency to enhance flowing movement. Sam Crawford Architects instils an overall muted and neutral palette to enhance a feeling of openness whilst also reconfiguring the interior.

Whilst retaining its nostalgia and warmth, Annandale Terrace is both expanded and opened from within to encourage the introduction of more natural light and to increase the overall perception of space.

Located in its namesake suburb, the existing floor plan was maximised to allow for the best articulation of family life. Taking this a little further after replanning the internal spaces with more of an open plan focus, an additional 2.5 square metres was added. The envelope of the house is reworked from the inside out, seeing the existing wall of the dining space pushed outward and a new study be carved into the attic space. Creating access to more natural light allowed for a pivotal shift in how the home felt and allowed for an ease of flow between inside and out.

By opening the roofline and inserting skylights, the structure, despite its narrow footprint, is illuminated throughout the day. The introduction of an open stairwell made of perforated metal connects the lower level and newly formed attic space, with this puncture in the form also creating an aperture to light the lower level. With a prized art collection, taming and neutralising the existing encasing walls and surfaces was key to allowing those collected pieces to each be given their own moments throughout the interior.

Sam Crawford Architects instils an overall muted and neutral palette to enhance a feeling of openness whilst also reconfiguring the interior.

Whilst retaining nods to the past was key, the new spaces within Annandale Terrace echo a calming retreat of a contemporary nature. Readied for the years ahead, and despite its limitations of size, Sam Crawford Architects uses a lightness to bind and connect the home.