A Verdant Anchoring – Redfern House by Anthony Gill Architects

Tucked between the terraced townhouses of an inner Sydney suburb, Redfern House by Anthony Gill Architects is a carefully considered study on living within a garden. As a refurbishment of an existing house for a landscape architect, and by way of a collaborative and iterative design process, the family home is a collection of spaces anchored around the dense and lively planting of a luscious gardenscape.

“The site is interesting in that the original terrace is very vertical,” explains Anthony, when discussing the context of the project brief. The four-storey townhouse – three levels above and one level below ground – located on a long and narrow site, consists of several spaces stacked and arranged tightly around a steep and winding stair. On the lower ground floor, an existing lean-to structure was to be demolished and replaced with a new enclosure containing living spaces, a horizontal volume balanced against the verticality of the townhouse. Almost as if to bookend the new extension, a new two-level structure contains a studio space and access to a beloved private laneway.

“The roof garden is the project,” says Anthony, describing the defining element of the building.

When speaking about the design narrative for Redfern House, Anthony explains the importance of opportunities to introduce the landscape into the living spaces of the home. Designed for a landscape architect and his family, the architecture is strictly centred around the experience of the garden at the heart of the home. “The roof garden is the project,” says Anthony, describing the defining element of the building. “The space between the house and the studio was to be densely planted,” he says, explaining that the replacement lean-to needed to be capable of supporting this design outcome. The solution is an elegant concrete structure – seemingly suspended between two volumes – carrying a heavily populated garden and filling the site with a cornucopia of plant life.

The roof garden is made possible through an effective structural strategy; a concrete roof form provides sufficient soil depth for planting to thrive. Anthony reflects on the design outcome when viewed from above as “unexpected and beautiful”. From the vantage point of the ground level in the main house and the second level in the studio, a garden appears to flood the space between the two main volumes of the home – the existing house and the studio. Only three apertures nestled in between the plants and shrubs allude to the occupation of the spaces below. Within the new kitchen and living spaces, the skylight penetrations in the roof form invite the outside in, washing them with natural light.

The roof garden is made possible through an effective structural strategy; a concrete roof form provides sufficient soil depth for planting to thrive.

From the interior of Redfern House, the garden functions as a critical part of the material palette. Spaces within the existing townhouse have been refurbished to provide flexible occupation for the future changes of the client’s growing family and, where possible, have been opened up to receive generous views to the roof garden. A modest staircase connects the floors of the house to the kitchen and living spaces at the lowest level, and here, occupants are led through the long and narrow extension to arrive at an interior courtyard that is teeming with greenery and caught between the living spaces and the mass of the studio. Beyond this space, the small tower containing studio, laundry and bike storage anchors the rear of the site and cultivates a private paradise between two forms, enhanced with a conscientious selection of materials.

The raw concrete of the new roof is complemented by textured plaster and white-painted brickwork – a canvas against which the garden takes pride of place. Natural timber finishes are applied throughout and at various scales to soften the clean volumes of the concrete. Timber screens cover windows and openings from the street, and the same timber batten treatment curtails and curates views from within the home out to the planted internal garden. Elsewhere, the softness of the timber is used generously to finish floors, walls and stairs. The kitchen, crafted with stainless steel appliances and benchtops set within timber joinery, culminates in a warm and functional space fit for use by a growing family.

From the interior of Redfern House, the garden functions as a critical part of the material palette.

Redfern House has the privilege of being set within a surrounding context of densely planted neighbourhood gardens, a circumstance Anthony describes as being rare for the area. “The project borrows from this; the outlook is green” he says. The success of this home, however, is not only in its capacity to draw influence from its neighbours but is also in its contribution to the surrounding garden environment. Through a robust and collaborative process with the client, the landscape prevailed as the most important element of Redfern House. “The garden is unexpected and generous,” Anthony says, “benefitting the client and also the neighbours immensely.”