After adding a fourth level by excavating the cellar to create a laundry and entertainment room, the designers focused on the central staircase as a key element that allowed visual connection between the levels.
Its lack of risers and glass balustrade allow light to penetrate the upper and lower spaces — maintaining an openness characteristic of 1970s architecture, and one of the most visible references to the home’s original design.
Project Type:
Townhouse
Location:
Sydney, Australia
Architect:
Tom Mark Henry
Photographer:
Pablo Veiga
CONTEMPORARY IDENTITY
Contemporary materiality and detailing also speak to the new identity that Tom Mark Henry crafted for the home, and its residents — a growing family of five.
Classic materials and textures (timber, stone, rendered walls and v-groove ceilings) were paired with textured marbles and ribbed glass in a mostly pared-back, neutral scheme against which a few bold elements serve as punctuation points.
VISUAL SIMPLICITY
The kitchen-dining area offers direct access to the garden, highlighting its role as the core of the home.
This relationship is accentuated by new, full-height steel-framed doors, and a limestone floor that flows past the threshold and into the paved courtyard, essentially doubling the ground-floor entertaining space.