Sheppard & Rout offices

ALTERATIONS AND EXTENSION BY SHEPPARD & ROUT, 2015

This late-Victorian central-city villa has been home to the architectural practice of Sheppard & Rout since the mid-’80s. It’s a superb chance to see how you can retain an older building and be true to the essence of that history, while adapting it for a different use and adding a contemporary extension. The 1900s villa is light, bright and generous — it feels modern yet grand. The new pavilion is quite different; a single-storey, gabled form clad in dark-stained timber, it extends beyond the width of the house to frame the site and garden. They sit together in harmony, and much of what allows this to occur is their respective elegance and the contrasting ways their spaces are used. A garden wraps around the house, making it a beautiful place in which to work.