Trinket Box—Terrace Transformation on Small Newtown Site

Designing and building any size of house requires priority-based decision making, but it is particularly pertinent when the house and budget are small in scale. Dean Williams, director of Architect George, prioritised outdoor space and bespoke details over size in the alteration and addition of this house in Newtown, Sydney. He created a greater sense of space and light by enhancing the flow and sightlines to the courtyard, and he incorporated custom features to personalise the house for the clients.

The owners had lived in their 1910s terrace for three years before renovating. The house was small, with the living, kitchen, dining and bathroom/storage on the ground floor, and a pull- down ladder to an attic bedroom. The rear courtyard received northern sunlight throughout the day, however a wall between the kitchen and dining room obstructed the light, view and access to this courtyard, making the house feel even smaller.

The clients engaged Architect George to improve the view and access to the courtyard where they could comfortably entertain, and to add a second storey with two bedrooms and a bathroom. “The clients wanted a house they felt connected to and that was designed specifically for the way they want to live. They valued uniqueness over size or scale and wanted the house to represent their personality,” says Dean. Keeping the house small also meant the brief could be more easily achieved with the budget, and it would provide a more sustainable outcome.

Dean removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create one large open space that flows out to the courtyard.
The bathroom, which sat to the west, was demolished and a new bathroom built to the east, allowing a clear view from the front
of the house to the back of the site. This alteration reduced the ground-floor footprint by two square metres, and increased the outdoor area so that it’s nearly equal to the internal footprint. But in doing so, it created a greater sense of space by enhancing the natural light and outdoor connection. A new garden next to the dining area and kitchen also functions in this way, bringing light deeper into the plan.

The bathroom culminates in a curved shower wall with green tiles that shimmer beneath the skylight. “The bathroom is
like a sculptural object so that it feels like it’s part of the courtyard and garden,” Dean describes. He used the tiles only
for the shower, exposing the brick construction elsewhere, to create the uniqueness the clients desired within their budget. “Keeping a house smaller helps keep it more affordable. Then you can splurge on a nice material when you don’t need a lot of it or use it only where needed,” Dean explains. This also helped keep the house more sustainable, as the renovation retained the brick walls, minimised in-ground works, simplified construction and limited new materials.

The kitchen sits at the centre of the house, transforming a circulation area into functional space. The joinery is simple and streamlined, with the fridge, pantry and storage beneath the staircase and the narrow, moveable island providing sufficient benchtop for cooking and entertaining. “A lot of design decisions were based on how small something could be and how to push the boundaries for their size and functionality,” Dean says.

Working with different dimensions helps optimise space, while complementing the scale of the house. The staircase and doorways are narrower than standard; stair risers are at maximum height to compact the footprint; upstairs ceilings are at minimum code height; and thresholds to the courtyard and bathroom have a fine edge while their depth subtly extrudes the length of the house.

The attic bedroom has been retained with the roof structure lifted to insert a skylight. A bathroom is in the centre, and the
main bedroom is at the rear of the addition with a view over the courtyard, green roof and beyond. The client was sentimental
about a stained-glass door, so Dean incorporated three coloured panes into the balustrade in front of the glass doors. There is
also a narrow door that provides access to the roof garden. This is the first house in the row of terraces to have a second storey, and viewed from the laneway it sits quietly amongst the other houses and the dense and varied urban fabric surrounding it. “The new addition is lightweight and deliberately singular in colour and simple in form so as to not further overwhelm the surroundings,” says Dean.

Working within a constrained space and budget, Dean’s decisions had to be carefully considered to provide the best amenity to the owners while being cost-effective. “The clients chose to live in a small house because they wanted to prioritise nice materials, details and bespoke elements, and still have a home designed specifically for them and the way they want to live,” he says.

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