The owners of a double storey Terrace House in Sydney’s Surry Hills approached Paul Brace, Director of Jackson Teece for help to create a contemporary family home. The brief was to demolish a cluster of previous poor quality additions to the rear of the house and to extend the living / family spaces , create a new kitchen and ground floor bathroom, extend upwards to create a third story together with a general refurbishment of the existing Terrace.
The site is an unusual 'wedge' shaped block; which is rare for Surry Hills, giving the property a large rear yard where the site at its widest is12.6m across. Extensive vegetation including existing mature trees presented the opportunity to create a new living / entertaining space which sits in the garden environment rather than a direct extension of the house. A new glass pavilion was proposed which links to the existing house and creates an entertaining courtyard separating the two volumes. A continuous piece of American Oak joinery lines the Eastern side of the house linking the pavilion to a new stair within the terrace itself. This joinery contains the kitchen, laundry, storage, wine cellar and a concealed bathroom. The new pavilion has full height operable glass doors to two sides and nestles centimetres away from the exiting trees.
The palette is one of polished concrete floors, glass, steel timber and subtle directional lighting. New windows and doors are clear finished cedar adding warmth. The bathrooms a clad floor and walls in a warm grey limestone with storage joinery in American Oak. The upper levels were refurbished, a new bathroom and bedroom created, with an upper story attic space looking down over the rear yard.
The house is a complex plan, offering a multitude of place to relax or entertain, with the kitchen as the central focus point serving both the existing terrace with its formal dining room, the external courtyard & garden as well as the new family room style pavilion.
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