Rethink | A Subtle Statement

from est Magazine Issue #38 | Evolve

by est magazine

The Power of Five

Rethink |A New Perspective

Four Australian architects and designers each pursue an existing home’s renewed potential through adaptive reuse and mindful reinvention.

WORDS Sophie Lewis | PHOTOGRAPHY Katherine Lu, Rory Gardiner, Shannon McGrath, Ross Honeysett

A Subtle Statement

Tribe Studio

DESIGN Tribe Studio | BUILD Ballast Construction | PHOTOGRAPHY Katherine Lu

Tribe Studio reshaped the identity of a single-storey 1940s Sydney home for a family of four into a far from ordinary suburban home. The Tribe Studio team focused on a courtyard-style addition to frame the garden, so the living spaces can spill from indoors to out.

An antidote to poorly sewn box-like additions, Tribe Studio principal Hannah Tribe says they took the best parts from the existing home’s strong bones and put them in a modern context. “The clients were keen to preserve the character of the building while enlarging it, but not keen to simply graft a modern extension out the back,” Hannah says.

This was a subtle undertaking, so from the street, the new addition is part of the layered gable terracotta-tile roof lines. The stepped roofline becomes faceted ceiling layers inside, highlighted by the void in the kitchen and dining space. Subtlety strikes again in the extension’s honest material palette, where recycled tuck-pointed bricks and walnut joinery call on the honest interwar palette.

This project gave us the opportunity to add volume, with subtlety, while retaining heritage character. Repeating the tiled roof gable and stepping it up in layers allowed us to include a new first floor under it, without visually altering the roof logic.

– Tribe Studio principal Hannah Tribe