Blade House

A clean central spine carries the eye from entry to outlook, flanked by sunlit courtyards and private recesses.

The existing structure – a neo-Georgian house on one of Sydney’s most enviable harbourfront streets – had grown tired and cluttered, with a compartmentalised plan and little regard for the vistas beyond its boundary. The client enlisted the expertise of architect KA Design Studio and interior architecture and design firm Atelier Alwill. During the peak of the pandemic, both practices were brought together not over coffee or site visits, but through online meeting links and email threads.

Despite the physical distance between all parties, the design process thrived. “It was our first time working completely remotely without ever meeting the client in person,” recalls KA Design Studio principal Sebastian Kaintoch. “We always rely a lot on a client’s body language when we discuss form and function. Sometimes the client will lean forward, touch something, look closer. But the lack of body language in an online meeting made that really difficult. We didn’t have those little off-hand moments before or after a meeting that help you get to know someone. But we leaned into the challenge and learned to read other cues instead.”

The circumstances surrounding the pandemic also layered a level of difficulty over Atelier Alwill’s approach, as the clients didn’t have the luxury of senses other than sight and instinct when it came to making interior selections. The textural decisions around finishes and furnishings were largely left to the design team. “The client was overseas,” director Romaine Alwill says. “We were all scattered and isolated. But the client was very trusting and happy to be guided in terms of the interiors. As a whole, we were all very respectful of everyone’s strengths within the project and that made a potentially difficult collaboration easy.”

For this project to be a success, clear communication was required. Rather than treating architecture and interiors as separate domains, the teams from KA Design Studio and Atelier Alwill worked in tandem from the outset. “We designed from the inside out,” explains Kaintoch. “Atelier Alwill helped guide the colour palette and their input shaped decisions on everything from lighting to joinery. It was truly a team effort.”

Even the landscaping – by Myles Baldwin Design – played a role in this choreography. A lush counterpoint to the home’s rectilinear form, the garden grounds the house in its site and blurs the boundary between indoors and out. From the terrace, the harbour shimmers in the distance, not as a framed view but as an ever-present companion to daily life.

There’s no denying the majesty of Blade House’s outlook. But the dwelling’s existing neo-Georgian structure made very little architectural sense and didn’t aim to optimise its view of the iconic harbour. Now, after the renovation, the house has a deliberate rhythm. A clean central spine carries the eye from entry to outlook, flanked by sunlit courtyards and private recesses. Downstairs, where the plan was formerly disjointed and narrow, a full-width rear opening floods the space with light and brings the garden, and the harbour, into full view.

“We weren’t afraid of contrast. You need that tension between soft and sharp to create a layered experience.”

“Every decision we made was determined by the sightlines,” says Kaintoch. “The house had big bulkheads everywhere. We stripped everything back. Anything that got in the way of the view was eliminated.”

The structural clarity of KA Design Studio’s architecture was softened by Atelier Alwill’s considered touch. Materially, the palette is poised. Soft timber, honed stone and neutral upholstery create an almost meditative calm that is deftly punctuated by bold accents of blackened steel, bronze fixtures and the occasional splash of colour. “Our job was to bring warmth and liveability to the spaces without dulling KA Design Studio’s precision,” says Alwill. “We weren’t afraid of contrast. You need that tension between soft and sharp to create a layered experience.”

For a home conceived in the thick of global uncertainty, Blade House offers a rare sense of assuredness. There’s no excess here. No decoration for decoration’s sake. Instead, there is clarity, control and a kind of lived-in luxury that feels neither stiff nor sterile. “It was a fine dance, adapting and balancing the expectations of the client, the strength of the architecture and the desire for warmth,” notes Alwill. “But that’s what gives Blade House its personality.”

This theme of adaptability runs through the entire project. Where many renovations and builds fall into a tug-of-war between old and new, Blade House instead reads as a reconciliation of styles, geographies and personalities. This thoughtful dialogue between classical inspiration and modern efficiency reflects the strength of the spirited collaboration between KA Design Studio and Atelier Alwill and their combined spatial understanding.