Apartment. Finger Wharf

by Architect Prineas

Modern apartments set within Sydney’s iconic 1915s Finger Wharf in Woolloomooloo.

Design for the project was centered around the idea of making the most of Sydney’s glamorous city pad and its extraordinary harbour setting.

The original layout and design of the apartment; built in 2000, was compromised of low ceilings throughout, and a bedroom/media room which had no connection to the view outside.

There were also domestic scale doors throughout, generic architectural detailing and a poor physical connection to the balcony outside. Owners sought to address these issues, while completely re-thinking the design approach to the apartment’s interiors.

This included an architectural redesign by Architect Prineas, to change the general reconfiguration to the interior of the apartment, as well as the replacement of a single sliding door, with multiple sliders which would lead out to a balcony.

A new timber platform was added, which extends right into the apartment, helping to overcome issues of the existing divisive threshold, in conjunction with a reconfiguration of the sliding doors.

This new level then changed the dynamics and language of the apartment, creating a language of a more intimate interior theme, whilst also providing a more generous connection between the interior and the balcony, and the view of Sydney beyond.

The minutiae of daily life are concealed behind dark panels giving the apartment interior the theatricality and sophistication of a luxury hotel.

Contrasting touches of unexpected materiality and luxe detail are picked out as walls are re-imagined as pivoting screens that fold flush in open or closed positions, allowing the apartment to effortlessly take on a number of reconfigurations, becoming a larger and more open space.

The interiors strive for a level of ambiguity where a door can be a wall and vice versa.

Within the language of screens and walls, a theatrical motif is developed of an over-scaled handle – a cue to reveal a threshold to bathrooms, bedrooms and storage.

The design relies on a high level of detail and craft in order to achieve the essential element of surprise and ambiguity, allowing the clients a sense of opening up and rediscovery of its elements each time they come home.

Photography by Chris Warnes & Katherine Lu.

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