CREATING A GARDEN THRESHOLD

Stone House

Location

Bondi, Sydney

Completion

2007

Type

Residential

Traditional Custodians

Bidjigal, Birrabirragal and Gadigal

Our strategy for the existing stone house was to propose the new addition as a lightweight enclosure that maintained the continuous strip of garden from front to back. Essential to creating this play between inside and outside was retaining the existing stone wall with all its openings and thresholds revealed from the new interior.

Initial Sketch

Existing Site

Initial Sketch

Existing Site

The new rear façade was developed as a lightweight wrapping element that framed and connected the existing stonework to a reworked coastal garden. The new kitchen and living room were conceived as a third type of space on the site, distinct from the weight and enclosure of the stone interior and the openness of the garden, creating a thickened threshold that allows both spaces to be enjoyed within a light and open interior.

To have the most minimal impact on the beautiful existing stone interior we set ourselves the challenge of not allowing the stair to form a diagonal line against the rectilinear patterns of the stone walls blocks and mortar joints - a stair made of floating blocks of timber that expand and contract as they move around the existing opening in the stone wall – creating a range of possible functions for the bottom stairs.