Light Opening – Sydney House by Cavill Architects
An art deco period home expanded to better capture its generous site, Sydney House focuses on openness and connection to enhance the experience of everyday life within its walls. Cavill Architects maintains the original as a source of inspiration for a contemporary interpretation of the existing geometries, encouraging a newly defined outlook guided by a sense of privacy and calm.
Having known and lived in the area for many years, and having occupied the house for some time to understand how they could best live within it, the owners of Sydney House saw the potential in balancing a retention of the existing with an expanded footprint. Nestled in the picturesque surrounds of New Farm in Brisbane, the reworked home redefines contemporary living for the energetic family of five, ensuring a link to the past remains. Prominently located on a corner allotment, the north-easterly frontage was a key asset that the design team wanted to highlight and take advantage of, enhancing connections to the surrounding context while also maintaining the rhythm of the streetscape. Through a measured approach, Cavill Architects carves out new areas to align with various functions while ensuring a level of flexibility remains for the years to come.
The interior philosophy centres around a core principle of optimisation. While the original room proportions were restrictive in a contemporary setting, the shapes already defined were then reworked to integrate storage and openings, overlaying a more generous and open sensibility. Key to this new planning was the sequencing of the journey through the home and between the spaces, guiding movement while also ensuring an outward connection to the landscape was a consistent presence. Compression and release are used as gestures that hint at the shift in function and zone use without the need for a more defined formality, avoiding an interruption of flow.
Together with the original front garden entry moment, which is lovingly preserved, a secondary and less formal side access point is made more defined, creating a hierarchy and increasing permeability. Weaving the landscape into both the interior and as a softening boundary to the built elements was also formative, encouraging the outdoor spaces to become rooms and the in-between areas to act as transitionary places of refuge, still connected to the elements. The exterior sees the multi-level home shaped by its robust brick and masonry outer shell, clearly creating a sense of privacy once inside, with the additional thermal mass working to also retain heat and coolness as needed. The overall silhouette is then punctuated with openings that bring natural light in from above and through the surrounding vertical planes to both reduce energy use and connect to the existing context.
From a place of adoration for the existing home and its unique character, Sydney House is given a light touch to ensure a preservation of its history is woven amongst a new openness. In directing views out and up, Cavill Architects ensures the home is animated by the elements, much as it will inevitably be enlivened by its residents.
