Hugo’s House

Glebe, NSW
2024

This project involved alterations and additions to one of a row of 6 identical Victorian terrace houses, which have a cross stair between the two original bedrooms on the upper level. The cross stair typology makes opening up the front two rooms on the lower level to form a large living and dining space more difficult, so it was decided instead to create more living space in a new rear extension. The former rear extension, containing the kitchen and laundry had a poor connection to the rear courtyard and was demolished to make way for a new extension, which also included a new bedroom on the upper level.

Located in a Heritage Conservation Area, the local Council wanted the new work to be clearly differentiated from the original house. The new work is expressed as a two storey lightweight, steel framed and clad structure, with steel framed windows, contrasting with the rendered brickwork of the original house. The new steel framed windows and doors open the house to both the rear and side courtyards, with the side courtyard landscaped along its full length with grey aluminium planters, due to the presence of a large concrete footing for the boundary wall preventing any excavation.

On the upper level the former rear bedroom has been converted to two bathrooms, one an ensuite to the main bedroom, which has a skylight over the shower to flood the windowless space with light. Cork flooring is used in the new extension of the lower level, to visually relate to the colour of the timber floor of the original house. Kitchen joinery is a pale grey to match the steel framed doors and has a mirrored splash back to reflect the planting in the side courtyard. Terrazzo tiles and Japanese finger tiles have been used for bathrooms, with the terrazzo tiles also used in the rear courtyard.

Builder: MIH Built
Photographer: Clinton Weaver
Stylist: Tess Strelein