Expanding Delicately – Crown Street Terrace by Studio Arkive
Maintaining a connection to its ornately detailed past, Crown Street Terrace is reworked internally through a contemporary lens to create a more flowing sense of movement within. Studio Arkive overlays an enhanced liveability to the home by focusing on connections and a more open planning approach, allowing the original heritage details to remain as reminders of its origins.
With the original home crafted through a handmade approach, the new works were reimagined with a similar delicacy. Forming part of a row of Victorian-era terraces along the same street, the Surry Hills home retains connections to its past, while a carefully considered reconfiguration from the inside out ensures a continued relevance for its owners. As an early example of inner-urban living, where increased densification meant sharing flanking walls with neighbours and stacking amenity upward, Crown Street Terrace spreads the functions of the home across several levels. As a result of this approach, homes of the era are generally void of natural light, particularly within their centres, and rectifying this was a core objective for Studio Arkive.
Forming part of a row of Victorian-era terraces along the same street, the Surry Hills home retains connections to its past, with a carefully considered reconfiguration from the inside-out
By extending outward and opening the internal form of the home through the introduction of skylights above, light is brought into the existing form more easily. The enlarged openings and passageways for air to fill the home also ensures an alignment with the lifestyle of Sydney – one focused on living outdoors. The newly formed landscape design by Dangar Barin Smith creates a key destination to the rear of the home, allowing the interior to spill out into the prized outdoor area. The space becomes a room of its own, encouraging natural ventilation and an enhanced connection to natural light into adjoining rooms, throughout the day and across the seasons, encouraging an inside-outside connection.
A mostly neutral palette is given animation through subtleties in texture, while a lightness ensures the home feels proportionately more generous than it is. As a terrace home, and with limitations on the ability to extend the available footprint on the site, the approach was one of enhancement and elevation. Newly inserted elements and joinery sit comfortably amongst the existing and more detailed elements, allowing the various eras of the home to coexist in a harmonious light. Across its four levels, the old and new interact through a weaving of elements together – curved and linear forms intersect as a reference to the curved arches within the original home.
