Reinstating Grandeur – St Huberts by Robson Rak
Drawing on its richly layered past narrative, St Huberts is infused with a sense of cohesion and purpose. Robson Rak reinstates the intended grandeur of the home’s origins through a focus on connection and craft, embedding highly functional and innovative elements throughout.
Every home has its stories entrenched within its walls and etched into its floors. Over its storied years since its initial conception in the 1880s, St Huberts has been the home to many, including a residency for a series of aspiring artists. Originally a singular home, the stately residence was endowed a new chapter in 1910, as it was transformed into four separate apartment dwellings with shared passages and a sense of community at its heart. The separation saw additional staircases for exterior access added while the home remained relatively unchanged internally. Recently acquired by a large family in 2017, the internal separations were removed, allowing the home’s original scale and stateliness to be reinstated. Through a careful and considered attuned attention to detail, Robson Rak fuses heritage sensibilities with modern insertions, sculpting an emerging generous and warm home.
Built by DDB Construction, together with landscaping by COS Design, St Huberts is framed by its curated garden settings to both the rear and front of the home. Acting as extensions of the interior – and as the key relief space between the privacy of the home and the public streetscape – the living elements create a softened border. Renovating and extending the existing, a key priority was the seamless integration of innovation and technology, ensuring the home echoed the familiar home setting over everything else. Balancing integration and amenity into custom joinery, the expression of the artisan is felt through the crafted work found throughout the home. In returning the structure to its original intent as a singular family home, reminders of its artist occupation are carefully concealed but the memory and the importance of the handmade remains.
As a gesture of the new, a central stair runs the height of the home and binds each of the levels. Connecting up from the initial entry experience is a custom mosaic that connects with the stair as a subtle and sculptural nod, anchoring the home. While the original detailing, cornices and plasterwork are restored, new elements are conceived from their own unique language and are founded on an enduring timelessness. Combining stone, marble, plaster, steel and timber, a shared and muted warmth carries through the home while a richness and layered approach ensures a respectful depth honours the history of the building.
