Parkscape House

A new lease on life was granted to this corner lot terrace for our clients seeking to make an inner-city lifestyle change.

While celebrating the traditional character of the original house, our renovation injected a distinctly contemporary touch into the newly designed spaces.

The renovation works included extending the ground floor to the boundary to allow for a new rear living room, kitchen and powder room, and a new second bathroom, laundry and master ensuite on the first floor. New joinery was added to the upstairs bedrooms and attic space.

The terrace adjoins a small park and is located on a wedge-shaped lot that narrows significantly from the wide street frontage through to the rear. This presented the challenge of making use of all the quirky corners and still creating generous, functional living spaces.

The modern, rounded parapet form added as a result of lengthening the first floor is a repeated motif in the interiors. The curved detail is carried in the first-floor rear window, the ceilings of the first-floor bedroom and the bathroom mirror and vanity, with a smaller echo in the joinery where the fronts peel away to reveal a contrasting colour finger pull.

The shape of the property also restricted landscaping opportunities, leading the architectural design to borrow vistas to the adjacent park and introduce a small green roof over the ground floor rear extension. Glimpses of the green roof garden can be seen from the rear living spaces, creating the feeling that the terrace is merging with the parkscape just next door.