A Delicate Intervention – Villa Amor by Arent & Pyke

Finding a welcome balance between delicately weaving the new with the old and transforming a formally rigid home to align with a contemporary vision is no easy feat. Arent & Pyke achieves just that with Villa Amor through careful, considered series of interventions and insertions.

Nestled into Sydney’s east, Villa Amor sits among similar-era homes of richly layered heritage and crafted detail, each playing their own integral role to the inherent character of the area. As an important contributor to the architectural language and reflection of the time it was conceived, the home was in need of both a delicate revision a slightly more transformative approach. Finding the comfortable balance between the two, where a preservation of historical and handmade elements also ensures the narrative of the home can continue into the future, was key. While the home yearned for a bold transformation, Arent & Pyke and Claire Delmar gently layered elements to achieve the multifaceted brief.

As one moves through the home, each space reflects its function, with more open and lighter spaces conjured for the active living and gathering areas, and darker, moodier versions for the passive sleeping and retreat areas.

Originally built in 1928, the existing apartment retains the familiar art deco stylings, geometric detail and curves of the period. A time of expression where linework became more experimental and broke away from the previous British influences, the era was a point when art, architecture and fashion were flourishing and entering a new phase. Fittingly, an approach of contrast was adopted as a contemporary reinterpretation of the bold gestures of the original home, where layered elements add richness and textural diversity through the spaces, all linked through a shared love of colour and pops of saturation.

As one moves through the home, each space reflects its function, with more open and lighter spaces conjured for the active living and gathering areas, and darker, moodier versions for the passive sleeping and retreat areas. Objects of their own personality are then dotted throughout, both as a celebration of their makers and of the formal and sculptural addition they bring to the home. Creating a balance between the old and new, the subtle and the bold, was key, and through a considered and collaborative curation, this was able to be achieved. The materiality and palette also play with a similar equilibrium, with felt, velvet, timber, stone and saturated colour all working in harmony with one another.

Fittingly, an approach of contrast was adopted as a contemporary reinterpretation of the bold gestures of the original home, where layered elements add richness and textural diversity through the spaces, all linked through a shared love of colour and pops of saturation.

The measured approach underpinning Villa Amor sees the shaping of a unique and individualised residence. Arent & Pyke celebrates the home’s current owners and their narrative, while also allowing the original detailing and handcrafted elements to coexist in the same space, successfully and delicately weaving the past, present and future.