Italianate House, Surry Hills
By Renato D'Ettorre Architects
This project involved the restoration and modification of a heritage-listed three-storey Italianate-style c1890's terrace house and 1860’s sandstone stable in inner Sydney. The concept was to translate the recent 1990’s office fit-out into a modern-day residence preserving the historic style of the building while inserting a brave and very contemporary atmosphere inside.
The substantial alterations & additions project comprised four components: the three-storey terrace house for the family, the historic sandstone stables converted into guest quarters to eventually accommodate ageing parents, restoration of rear stone fences and a new concrete carport with landscaped roof terrace and swimming pool.
Due to the low heritage significance of the terrace home’s rear wing total restructuring was possible where the most dramatic design intervention took place.
The introduction of the impressively engineered double-height brick vault to the restructured rear wing seemed an appropriate element for the Italianate style of the house. This brings to modern design such elements of historical grandeur that gave rise to the notion ‘the arch never sleeps’.
The building's main historical features such as ornate marble fireplaces, main staircase, and entry glass panelled door and sidelights were brought back to life contributing to the beauty of the new residence.
Materials favoured were salvaged bricks, terracotta tiles, white Carrara marble and white stuccoed walls.
The existing building's generous size permitted additional spaces beyond the client’s needs and expectations allowing the introduction of the multi-use conservatory on the second level of the home rear wing. The conservatory has been treated as an outdoor living area with potted trees. The expansive double glazed roof acts as a heat bank to disperse hot air through the upper levels of the house in the cooler months and can also act as a drying area during wetter periods.
Completed 2018
Awards
- Australian Interior Design Awards 2019: Best of State NSW Residential Category Commendation Residential Category
- NSW AIA Architecture Awards 2018: Commendation Houses Alterations + Addition
- Houses Awards 2018: Commendation House Alterations + Additions over 200m2
- Trends International Design Awards 2018: Winner Architect Bathroom of the Year 2018 + Highly Commended Kitchens
- Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2018: Highly Commended Single Residential
- Think Brick Awards 2018: High Commendation New Entrant Award + High Commendation Horbury Hunt Residential Award
- Architecture & Design Sustainability Awards 2018: Highly Commended Interior Architecture Award
Photography: Justin Alexander and Simone Bossi
Professionals used in
Italianate House, Surry Hills
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Renato D'Ettorre Architects
About the
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Practice Background
Renato D’Ettorre Architects is a small firm of architects capable of undertaking residential high-end projects. We achieve this by having a core team and sourcing team members when projects call for extras at the documentation stages.
Renato is the Creative Director and is responsible for all conceptual designs, with a rigorous review at each stage of the project.
In 2011, Solis on Hamilton Island receive the AIA “National Architecture Award for Residential Architecture”, the most significant residential architecture award in Australia, along with the “Robin Dods Award for Residential Architecture” from the Queensland Chapter of the AIA.
GB House, Sydney was the recipient of the coveted AIA “Wilkinson Award”; in 2019, the most significant residential architecture prize was awarded in the state of NSW.
In 2021, the international publication, Platform included GB House in the “Best International Houses” Design Festival exhibition in Venice, Italy in conjunction with the 17th International Architecture Biennale.
40Up was an international travelling exhibition of ‘Australian Architecture's Next Generation’. It starting touring in 1999.
Philosophy
As a practice, we draw inspiration and references from areas as wide as possible. Ignoring our five-thousand-year-old history, in our opinion, is responsible for generating abstract and superficial buildings.
We believe each project presents an opportunity to search for the possibilities of architecture and the challenge of bestowing specificity. Avoiding tendencies for preconceived solutions which in turn is formulaic in design approach and which prevents rigorous research, exploration and uncovering historical significance inherent in every site. Once the attributes of the site are understood the design direction becomes clear; only then can the architecture have the potential to achieve a meaningful presence and has a sense of something permanent.
Architecture’s permanence is not only manifested in the construction and material durability but also in social and cultural durability. Acknowledging and respecting traditional precedents by avoiding mimicry. We seek to create an authentic design that transcends time by connecting to the past and reaching into the future through the exploration of new treatments and techniques. Our architecture is ultimately about creating timeless living which appears neither antiquated nor forcefully bound to a modernistic style.
Our fundamental objective is to generate the emotions; humanist qualities to move the senses whilst moving through the form, exciting spaces but also the unexpected. For us, architecture must have a sense of place and beauty in its immediate context.
At the core of every project is the search for clarity, necessity, and order through means of selections and orientation able to significantly bring together relationships between the external and internal, materials and spaces, the public and private.
We believe in the power of architecture in which we can take shelter, purify the mind, find peace, and emerge enlightened and strengthened by the experience.
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