The brief was simple: create a spacious family home and future investment property in the heart of Manly, NSW.
Like all simple things in life, it is the complexities underlying them that drive the outcome.
Situated on a heritage-listed site measuring less than 200m2, with multiple neighbours, a shared laneway and an agreement to design and build simultaneously with the adjoining neighbour, this project set a challenge. Not only in terms of design but also logistics, timing, project management and collective focus on the common goal.
As the design stages evolved it became clear that the heritage significance of the semi lay not in the building itself but in who had built it. This pair of semi-attached cottages were the original homes of the Sly Brothers, who in the early 1900s pioneered Surf Life Saving in Australia at Manly Beach, less than 200m away.
Our imperative was to celebrate the essence of the home’s past and complement it with the modern, minimalist elegance of its new owners and their young family.
Creative design thinking was essential to provide four bedrooms, two large bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry and as much storage as possible into 150m2 of floor space. This is a working example of modern, spacious living on a small footprint.
From the street front the addition is scarcely visible, hovering delicately over the cottages’ existing ridgeline with just a single strip of glazing hinting at a space within. Inside, the exposed brick and timber panelling lining the walls of the original cottage are a textural reminder of the past. Midnight blue joinery in the kitchen and living room contrasted with bright white walls open the space imbuing it with volume and visual impact. High ceilings and large sliding glass doors leading to the rear courtyard take full advantage of the northern aspect, flooding the living areas in lustrous light.
The rear façade presents a stark contrast to the front not only in shape, but also in colour and scale. Maintaining a unified aesthetic with its twin cottage but unique in design, the upper storey of the addition gently recedes, revealing a spacious, sun-soaked, private balcony off the parent’s retreat. Battened timber screening provides privacy and a playful display of light and shadow throughout the day.
Materiality was refined to a simple palette of clean white internals with midnight blue accents, wrapped in a unified dark exterior.