Number 50 by Black Rabbit Architecture + Interiors

“The greatest challenge was integrating these new structural elements within the confines of the existing fabric, while keeping the brickwork feeling light and delicate.”

Conscious of scale, Black Rabbit skilfully worked to the footprint of the original dwelling, with just a modest sunroom addition bounded by the walls of the existing home. Planned around a central living hub, the house is arranged to provide areas of retreat and gathering. “Zones are both connected and separate, allowing for flexibility as the young family’s requirements change over time,” says project architect Sean Humphries. To the rear, a once-siloed lean-to has been reinvented as a heightened raking space for cooking, entertaining, homework and family time. Outside the black-timber-framed doors, a covered outdoor fireplace of Bowral blue bricks surveys the expanse of the secluded backyard.

Respectful of traditional construction systems, additions are predominantly of lightweight timber framing, with steel portals forming skillion roofs over the new volumes. “The greatest challenge was to integrate these new structural elements within the confines of the existing fabric, while keeping the brickwork feeling light and delicate,” says Humphries. The asymmetric gable roof of the reimagined living wing responds sympathetically to the proportions of the existing. Continuing the same acute pitch, new interventions are defined by profiled metal cladding with cleverly discrete gutters, punctuated by skylights and clerestory windows that selectively frame treetop views. These playfully weighty charcoal additions are distinct from the formality of the interwar vernacular.

“The projected poolside window seat is where the client’s childhood bed once was – he’d always enjoyed looking out of the window up at the treetops when he was a kid.”

Resolved around the rusty hues of the heritage fabric, Black Rabbit has neatly woven contemporary with traditional in a harmonious coexistence. A reworked powdery white interior encourages indirect daylight into every zone. Honey hues of oak floorboards and book-matched veneer cabinetry imbue familial warmth and tonality, while pitch-dark ceilings feature in the private domains. An ode to the past, the chessboard tiled floor of the sunroom extension creates a continued dialogue with the original palette.

This is a family-centric home of the present yet it honours the past and memories in beautifully considered ways. “The projected poolside window seat is where the client’s childhood bed once was – he’d always enjoyed looking out of the window up at the treetops when he was a kid.” Similarly, a grand piano takes pride of place in the formal sitting room to the front of the house – an arm’s length to an open fire, as has been the unit of measure for as long as the client’s memory serves.

Bounded by the original earthen clay envelope, the architectural response demonstrates Black Rabbit’s eloquent approach to adaptive replanning.

Bounded by the original earthen clay envelope, the architectural response demonstrates Black Rabbit’s eloquent approach to adaptive replanning. Respectful of its context, insertions are careful to reside in tandem with the 1930s character. A modest reinvention of a family home, spaces are organised for coming together, productivity and repose. For the clients – Nick and Jude, son Max and two rambunctious felines – this is a place that will continue to evolve, a timeless Adelaide home for future generations to build upon.

Architecture and interior design by Black Rabbit Architecture + Interiors. Build by DimCo. Landscape design by Greenwell Landscapes. Landscaping by Polgreen Landscaping.