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#RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE PROJECTS

Darlinghurst Terrace by Sam Crawford Architects

After thirty years at home in this two-storey terrace house, an artistic pair sought renovations to prepare for a few decades more.

When you love a home and have lived there for 30 years, why would you ever leave it? Darlinghurst Terrace’s owners, a photographer and a musician, asked Sam Crawford Architects to set them up for a few more decades of living in the home they loved by smoothing out its wrinkles. Adding only one additional square metre of space, the architects focused on creating a set of rich ground-floor rooms ready for the clients to solely occupy and establishing a cohesive language of joinery, fixtures and fittings throughout the two-storey Victorian dwelling.

Before the renovation, the clients loved their garden but would find themselves tucked into a tiny corner of their kitchen so they could view it (and enjoy the natural light it let in). The architects have made these pleasures easier to access by freeing up the whole rear section of the house at the ground level. They removed a tightly planned bathroom and laundry, setting them further back to create a courtyard with a large, glazed, tilt-up opening. Picture windows now run along the terrace’s long side edge, looking onto a garden of large ferns and other tropical plants. The new kitchen is still where the clients spend much of their time; its central, brass-topped bench is their favourite spot. The solid party wall to the north-east has become a continuous storage spine for the home on this level, accommodating the kitchen joinery, dining room seating and art, and laundry (at the transition to the original stairwell).

The original house was a bit wibbly-wobbly, with sloping floors and stepped ceilings. The thickened storage wall has helped the smoothing process, concealing wall irregularities and new structural supports. And the language continues in the bedrooms, bathrooms, sitting areas and workspaces, drawing links between the new and existing elements. Use of spotted gum and blackbutt for the joinery produced a rich textural base for the clients’ diverse art collection.

The clients wished for the bathrooms to be like jewels. They already had a tile for the project: a stretched marble hexagon in several grey tones. This has been stitched into the kitchen and the bathrooms, where it is matched with a plain, rectangular, white tile. A curved wall, clad in brass, is a special surface within the ground-floor bathroom; this wall reflects light from the side garden.

The architects, meanwhile, reflect on the clients’ tangible enjoyment of the new work. On one visit, they hear about colour gels being applied to the skylights for a photographic shoot; on another, the clients admit that while they encourage the patina on the brass taps, they love to finely polish their kitchen island bench to enjoy its gorgeous lustre.

Products and materials

Bathroom Internal walls

Kekule hexagonal tiles in St Moritz Dark and Light soapstone and Carrara soapstone from Skheme; brushed brass sheet fixed to curved wall; Zetr Flush Carbon power and switch face plates in ‘Aged Brass’.

Bathroom Flooring

Kekule hexagonal tiles in St Moritz Dark and Light soapstone and Carrara soapstone from Skheme.

Bathroom Joinery

Solid spotted gum and blackbutt from Australian Recycled Hardwoods with spotted gum and blackbutt veneers from Briggs Veneers.

Bathroom Lighting

Flos Mini Glo-Ball.

Bathroom Tapware and fittings

Astra Walker Icon shower and basin tapware in ‘Eco Brass’.

Bathroom Sanitaryware

Catalano Zero+ 40 round bench-mounted basin and Sfera rimless wall-hung toilet from Rogerseller; Caroma Teo 600 wall basin.

Kitchen Internal walls

Kekule hexagonal tiles in St Moritz Dark and Light soapstone from Skheme; Zetr Flush Carbon power and switch face plates in ‘Aged Brass’.

Kitchen Flooring

Kekule hexagonal tiles in St Moritz Dark and Light soapstone and Carrara soapstone from Skheme; Blackbutt floorboards from Boral.

Kitchen Joinery

Solid spotted gum and blackbutt from Australian Recycled Hardwoods with spotted gum and blackbutt veneers from Briggs Veneers in clear Tung oil; folded brushed brass sheet over MDF benchtop.

Kitchen Lighting

Flos Smithfield Ceiling and Fort Knox Wall Mini.

Kitchen Sinks and tapware

Astra Walker Icon sink mixer with swivel spout in ‘Eco Brass’.

Kitchen Appliances

Miele Vitroline Obsidian Black pyrolytic oven; Pitt gas cooktop; Qasair undermount rangehood; and Liebherr integrated fridge.

Kitchen Doors

Ultrascreen Magnum pleated single retractable insect screen.

Credits

Project

Darlinghurst Terrace

Architect

Sam Crawford Architects

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Project Team

Sam Crawford, Justine Anderson, Allen Huang, Ken Warr, Christine Guan

Consultants

Builder: SQ Projects

Hydraulic engineer: InLine Hydraulic

Joinery: Hoffman’s Interiors

Landscape architect: Sue Barnsley Design

Mural artist: Sonia van de Haar, Lymesmith

Structural engineer: Partridge

Aboriginal Nation

Darlinghurst Terrace is built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

Site Details

Project Details

Status: Built

Category: Residential

Type: Alts and adds

Materials and textures were chosen to meet the brief for a "jewel-like" quality.

Details

  • Darlinghurst NSW 2010, Australia
  • Sam Crawford Architects