00:04Lofthouses are located in Piermont in Sydney, which is a suburb right next to the city.
00:17The lofthouses were designed to quietly sit in the street. From the outside they can almost be
00:23an old barn and they reflect the neighbouring houses in terms of their scale and roofline.
00:32Lofthouses used to be two parking spaces on the back of two existing terraces, each owned
00:37by different people. They wanted to turn them into single dwellings. On each site the units
00:44mirror each other with all the services back to back. Each house sits on an area of 35 square metres.
00:54The kitchen, the laundry, the TV unit, the stairs and the bathroom are all contained in a one metre span
01:02running the length of the lofthouses. Part of designing on an inner city site meant that we
01:08needed to do everything we could to get access to light. So at the back of both of the lofthouses,
01:14there's a little rear courtyard which also acts as a light well. The idea behind it is that it can
01:20become kind of quite lush and really forms that oasis feel. The light polished concrete floor creates a
01:29nice transition from the street into the house and also bounces light through the space.
01:36We set up like a warehouse style ceiling which not only contributes to the motif but also increases
01:44the ceiling height. The lofthouses contain a full-size kitchen with integrated appliances and everything
01:55hidden including the TV so when you walk off the street there's a sense of calmness in the space.
02:01The kitchen's deeper than your standard kitchen bench is approximately one metre deep which allows
02:07extra room to prepare food and that allows for the staircase and the bathroom to slot in the same band.
02:17Despite the fact we were restricted in the footprint we really wanted to create the biggest feeling of
02:22space possible. The first floor is set back from the rear wall to create a mezzanine level and allows light
02:31from the skylights above to filter through to both levels.
02:38We wanted the bathroom to fit in the same depth as the stairs and the joinery unit below it so
02:44as to
02:45maximise the floor area of the mezzanine level. We separated the basin from the actual bathroom into
02:53the bedroom space. To create a bathroom that's so integrated with the bedroom space we needed to
03:01make sure we could get water away as quickly as possible so we created a slatted timber floor inside
03:07the bathroom space. With the basin and the bedroom space we set it on a marble bench and the marble
03:13bench
03:13is designed at desk height. Behind the marble bench there's storage which could be used as like a
03:21medicine cabinet storage. So the wardrobe didn't impede on the space too much we angled it so that
03:29the depth of the wardrobe is softened in the room. The building code requires the uprights of a balustrade
03:36to be no more than 125 mils apart so by angling the uprights we give the illusion of them being
03:42spaced
03:43further apart increasing a sense of openness. Having the neighbours come together and doing the same
03:51project meant that there were efficiencies in terms of the cost of construction as well as planning approvals.
03:58This project is really designed as an example of a good infill project within our cities.
04:07As our cities grow we're going to have to densify and this is a way of showing how small footprint
04:15a house can be really livable.
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