Know Your Limits

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 23, 2005

Jenna Reed Burns

The art of saying no ensures projects with a tight budget stay on the rails.

The house Hunters Hill

Completed March this year

Cost $250,000

Architect Gerard Reinmuth and Niki Douglas, Terroir, 92792226

Heritage architect Wayne McPhee & Associates, 98100566

Builder Acclaim Building Management, 95570700

Structural engineer Simpson Design Associates, 98106911

The aim To make a larger, more workable open-plan living area, including somewhere to sit in the sun.

Most of the sandstone Victorian houses in Hunters Hill have been renovated at least once since they were built. Some, like this one, are onto their third renovation.

This double-fronted, freestanding house on the western side of Hunters Hill was built during the mid-1880s. The current owners bought it a few years ago - it had been renovated in 1982 and again in 1995. Despite a new second storey with two extra bedrooms and a bathroom in faux-Federation style, the house still felt pokey.

"The brief wasn't to do whatever we wanted and see what it cost," recalls architect Gerard Reinmuth, of Terroir. "They were a young family with a budget. Redoing upstairs was discussed early on, but we kept shrinking the project to the core, asking what was it that they really wanted."

Instead of the oft-repeated scenario of an architect encouraging the clients to do more, Reinmuth spent his time saying no.

"We'd rather say you can't have that, because it means the project actually gets delivered to budget," he says. "The clients had drinks a few weeks ago for everyone involved, and to everyone's shock they actually said, 'This was just such a good process we can't wait to do it again.' And I think that's pretty rare in Sydney."

NARROW FOCUS

Keeping a tight rein on the owners' wish list confined the extent of this renovation to the ground floor. The two front rooms were left untouched and are used as bedrooms. The wall between the next two rooms was removed to create one room, with a sitting area on one side and a formal dining area on the other.

Two openings lead into the new rear section, built within the house's existing footprint.

The rear section of the house has been reconfigured to create one large, open-plan kitchen, dining and sitting area. During a previous renovation, a bull-nose veranda was added to the back, blocking direct light to the interior. Instead of removing it, Reinmuth decided to extend the interior out to the edge of the veranda.

"It was a bit like blowing up a balloon inside a box. We expanded as far as we could."

The kitchen was moved across the room to fill an opposite corner, with a new laundry leading off it. Next to the kitchen is a casual dining area with glass doors on two sides.

"The clients wanted somewhere to sit in the sun and we gave them a sunny corner.".

The ceiling plane is interrupted at the room's far end by a shallow, incised feature that's almost cruciform in shape. Secreted in its dark charcoal lining are downlights.

The two longer arms extend across the width of the room, linking the kitchen to the casual eating area, while the two shorter arms, offset from each other, are above the bench. Each arm measures only about 120mm in width and depth.

"The ubiquitous downlights have become such a scourge," Reinmuth says. To avoid that, they mapped where they wanted the lights and designed an object that brought them together.

BETTER STORAGE

Rather than retaining the clients' array of cabinets, bookcases and tables, the architects decided to incorporate as much built-in cabinetry (in a mix of solid Tasmanian oak and dark olive-grey laminate) as possible.

A credenza runs along one wall of the room and houses video, hi-fi and computer equipment.

On the opposite side of the room, shelving around the doorway leading into the laundry provides display space for vases and other objects. A similar unit fills one section of the bathroom wall. As project architect Niki Douglas explains, it was originally accessible from the other side of the wall, offering a space for the television.

"By reversing the niche where the TV was, storage was provided where it was needed - in the bathroom," she says.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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