00:03For the design of Hidden Garden House we were particularly inspired by Japanese
00:08temples and the hidden gardens and special places that you find in really
00:13dense cities like Tokyo. When you're living in the middle of the city there's
00:19this hustle and urgency and energy to the life that happens around you. So we
00:25liked this idea of in the middle of Darlinghurst in Sydney's bustling heart
00:28providing this place that would bring peace and quiet and calm to our clients'
00:33lives.
00:40This terrace house is located in Darlinghurst which is an inner-city
00:43neighbourhood that's quite dense just on the fringe of the Sydney CBD and it's
00:49characterised by a lot of small terrace homes, pocket parks and really charming
00:54streets.
00:57The original house was built in the 1890s and it was originally workers'
01:01accommodation as was really common in this neighbourhood at the time. More recently
01:06into the 20th and 21st centuries it was used as domestic housing.
01:12The house is the home to Laura and Ammon who are a pair of creatives alongside their dog
01:18and their cat.
01:22Our clients originally moved into the terrace and found it to be very dark, very damp and
01:27dilapidated. The original house was a two-storey terrace.
01:35The original staircase cut the terrace into two. Even though Laura and Ammon had an outdoor
01:41space it was quite heavily overlooked by all of the neighbours. The stair was moved to the
01:45edge of the house and so it sleeves in along one boundary and beneath it we managed to tuck
01:49in the laundry and some bulk storage. We've also included our little hidden garden so it's a
01:55courtyard that you can access from that easement laneway. The green roof sits where the previous
02:00deck was and crowns the new extension we have at the back of the terrace house. The bathroom
02:06was also relocated upstairs.
02:10You enter the house off this really charming Darlinghurst laneway. When you open the door
02:16you get to see the living room and the hidden garden in the distance. Behind the front door
02:23there's a series of little brass hooks designed and commissioned by Laura along with the door
02:28hardware as part of the house. Right beside the front door there's also a bench which can be used as
02:36a
02:37seat or also to house different objects. So at the moment it's home to Laura and Ammon's record player
02:43and speakers. In the front two rooms we put down some Victorian ash floorboards and they're a really
02:49light, bright, consistent timber and so they help bring some warmth to the space.
02:56Laura commissioned a custom sofa for the space so it's really well designed in proportion to the room.
03:04In one corner there's quite a petite bookshelf
03:10and above that is a swinging potence lamp that can be tucked away or pulled out depending on where
03:15Laura and Ammon would like their light positioned.
03:20Stepping up into the dining space the L-shaped bench wraps around to provide seating for a custom dining table.
03:29We worked with Laura and Ammon to design and commission a table that was a little bit narrower than normal
03:35but also quite long to fit the space.
03:40To the other side of the dining room we have the laundry which sits concealed beneath the stair.
03:47We also have a washer dryer which is really space efficient.
03:51Touched behind one of the fixed panels there's also some extra storage.
03:54So it really makes the most of all of the room that we have behind and beneath those stairs.
04:01Right at the edge the bench pulls to actually become the second step up to the kitchen
04:06and there's an original stone block which we found in the Holmes Foundation which firms the first step.
04:14Coming up into the kitchen we step onto the new part of the house.
04:18We floated the idea of Laura who's a ceramicist making some tiles for the house.
04:24So her handmade terracotta tiles are also present on the floor of the kitchen.
04:30In the passageway we have another custom design piece of furniture which is a day bed
04:35that has a timber base and Laura's also furnished this area really beautifully with a custom ceramic artwork
04:42that she made. The kitchen is the back of the terrace house and it's got a brass bench top and
04:53folded custom integrated sink.
04:57All of the cabinetry is Victorian ash veneer and we chose to not include any handles but instead
05:04do a shark nose edge pull on all of the joinery just to make it really sleek and calm and
05:08minimal.
05:10The gas stove sits directly on the countertop which gives it a really seamless minimal look.
05:16We actually have a concealed LED light strip and that washes this really beautiful soft light
05:21down the back wall. Laura and Ammon were very willing to I guess sacrifice some of the things
05:30that we often have in our kitchen so things like a microwave and a toaster and they didn't feel the
05:35need for a large pantry or fridge. The really nice byproduct of this was that we were able to keep
05:40all the joinery really low and really minimal. That also means that the kitchen is really uncluttered
05:45and that the countertop doesn't end up crowded out with a million appliances.
05:51It was a really deliberate decision on behalf of ourselves and Laura and Ammon to make the garden
05:57ornamental rather than a place that you would go out and sit in. It's somewhat counterintuitive but we
06:03often find that if you have less house and more garden our homes often end up feeling more spacious
06:09and that's just because you can sit inside at your dining room table or on your lounge and look out
06:15and get access to that light and greenery and sky. Because it has windows on all three sides it provides
06:22really beautiful soft natural light to all of those spaces so that they don't need to rely on any
06:27artificial lighting during the day. And then in the kitchen we have a big fixed piece of glass which
06:34is complemented by a fixed ventilation solid panel that can help with cooking and smells and all of
06:40that kind of thing. For the courtyard design we worked really closely with Kirsty Kendall who's an
06:47incredible landscape architect. The crowning feature is the Japanese maple which is a beautiful tree
06:53and one that changes throughout the seasons. There's a datum line that we have which expresses Laura's tiles
07:02and having those glazed tiles really enhances and complements the courtyard by drawing light and
07:07bouncing light around not just the courtyard but the interior of the home as well.
07:13We made a decision to raise the floor of the new extension so the kitchen is actually about 450
07:19millimetres higher than the previous kitchen and bathroom were. It allows us to drain the garden.
07:24The second thing it does is pulls us up closer to the light.
07:30The stairs are made from Victorian ash timber and they wind their way up and around and then arrive
07:36in at the edge of the bathroom and the bedroom. We also decided to place a small window at the
07:42top of
07:42the stairs so that the staircase would be bathed in really soft natural light. The bathroom sits to
07:51the left. The tiles used in the bathroom are a really simple Japanese sugi tile that were actually
07:58a wastage product that we found and they're also repeated down in the laundry as well.
08:05The toilet is tucked away into a timber block and the shower sits hidden behind that in a tiled shower
08:15niche.
08:18The basin is actually almost like a lab sink and it sits suspended off the wall with an exposed trap.
08:27We use brass tapware which has a really beautiful warmth and patina that tends to become more lively
08:33and beautiful over time. The bathroom cabinet is hidden away and it almost looks like it's part of
08:41the wall. When you push to open it it reveals the mirror and the storage. The new window infills the
08:52old
08:52opening left by the door. The hidden shower also gets to enjoy this amazing sliver of view across the
09:00green roof and two nearby terraces and greenery. The bottom half is polluted glass which makes it
09:06private but also still brings the light in and then the top half is operable so you can welcome in
09:12some
09:12natural air. The main bedroom space is a really simple room with a higher raked ceiling and it feels even
09:21more generous because the bed is quite low in the space. Beside the bed Laura and Ammon have installed
09:28these incredibly beautiful wall mounted reading lights so they can tuck up in bed and enjoy a book.
09:36The wardrobe contains a few different sections so there's a section where Laura and Ammon store their
09:41shorter and folded clothes and then a long hanging section but that space also functions like their
09:47linen cupboard their garage storing camping gear and things like that. There's a saying we like to
09:56paraphrase at Trias which is that the greenest building is the one that already exists. When
10:02we're working with existing homes we have the opportunity to reimagine and reinvent them.
10:07We can keep the character of the places that already exist and it's almost like we're adding a
10:12new chapter in that building's history. When we're designing small spaces something we always try and
10:17do is really minimise the material palette and the design decisions that we make. So of course you still
10:24want to have light and brightness and air happening in the building but it's also really important that
10:29it doesn't end up being too busy and fussy. Simplicity is absolutely key and so making sure that what we
10:36choose is really restrained and really calm and uncluttered makes for a far more calm living environment.
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