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