OLD WORLD, NEW CHARM
A contemporary addition to a stunning historic home shows that old and new can sit together beautifully, and provide a comfortable home for modern living.
A contemporary addition to a stunning historic house shows that old and new can sit together beautifully, and provide a comfortable home for modern living.
Stting on the waterfront in the Sydney suburb of Woolwich, this sandstone estate was recently evolved by Tanner Kibble Denton Architects to include a contemporary pavilion addition. The refined refurbishment of the original estate home offers a contemporary envelope and grand aesthetic.
Named ‘Arden Lea’, the historic home was built by noted stonemason John Aspinall for his son – lawyer Herbert Moore Aspinall – in the late 1800s. Originally a vast estate, in 1968 Arden Lea was subdivided and sold off in seven lots – however, the main house retained its deep water frontage plus a generous 1,756m2 in land size.
Located on the Parramatta River, the home takes advantage of the steep level change from the street to the water’s edge, embracing the natural vista and accessibility to water. The deep waterfront is a paradise for any boating enthusiast, with a jetty, mooring poles and boatshed.
John Rose, project director at Tanner Kibble Denton Architects says, “The addition of a lightweight modern pavilion relieves the pressures
of modern living from the original house, incorporating an open-plan kitchen, living and dining space with immediate connection to the level lawn, deck and pool, for indoor/ outdoor living.”
The old and new elements are connected by a delicate glass-framed walkway. This transition zone allows the original eastern sandstone wall of the heritage building to become a feature of the new pavilion.
ORIGINAL MATERIALS
Central to this project’s success is the clients’ balanced appreciation of art and architecture, both modern and historical, which inspired the design response for this family home for five. Modern influences and harmonious proportions are evident both in the existing house and the new steelframed pavilion.
An internal palette of warm timber materials, cool concrete, original sandstone and natural soft furnishings provide a clean yet expansive backdrop for the clients’ art and artefacts. This is a home where beauty abounds, but in a very user-friendly way.
The interior uses fixed design elements as much as furnishings to create the timeless style – such as the soaring pressed metal ceiling and marble fireplaces in the original sandstone home, as well as timber panelling and built-in cabinetry in the new pavilion.
While there weren’t major changes made during the construction process, there was a lot of fine-tuning during the three-year design development and construction project. “If there was one area that the scope increased in during the project, it was the amount of upgrade work needing to be done to the old house to bring it up to 21stcentury living requirements” says Rose.
No extension of this scale is without challenges, and Rose says, “Obviously, the heritage nature of the old house meant we had to plan its reconfiguration very carefully”.
Other design challenges included creating a sense of arrival from the street down to the house, introducing a garden area between the house and the water, designing around the views from the public realm, and protecting the tree in the new garden court that is so much a focus for the new pavilion.
Rose says, “The brief needed extra area to what was contained in the old house and thus, we needed to design an extension that sat beside the old house in harmony.”
The completed project is a masterpiece, being shortlisted in the Houses Awards 2019. Rose was particularly satisfied with the scale and simplicity of the new wing; and how it relates to the historic house, new garden, deck and pool areas. “[I’m happy with] the integration of contemporary design aesthetic of the new wing into the old house and how they co-exist in harmony,” says Rose.
Other starring features include the polished concrete floors and natural timber elements of the new wing, which complement the traditional stone walls and painted timber of the old house. The door system for the pavilion is also an impressive feature, being motorised but allowing manual operation; and there are also flyscreens concealed within fine pockets at each end of the door runs that provide very good cross ventilation. Additionally, Rose says, “the driveway gate is the only one of its kind in Sydney. It was developed via prototyping with Ogis Engineering. This system opens up the use of sliding gates on narrow sites.”
ARRIVING AT SUCCESS
While creating a sense of arrival was originally thought to be a challenge, the result ended up as a feature. “The whole new arrival experience [we are happy with],” says Rose. “The Corten steel, new sandstone stairs and timber boarded-off form wall – and how the conflict between a formal arrival via a new contemporary front door into the old house, versus a casual arrival into the new pavilion, was defined.”
The homeowners are very happy with the design too, particularly with the casual living beyond the historic house. The reconfiguration of the attic area works for the clients as well, as it both maximises use of the space and provides a luxurious parents’ retreat with peaceful river views.