Houzz Tour: A Topsy-Turvy House With a Secret
When you can’t look out, you look in. Such was the design solution for this unusually long Sydney home with no view
In ZZ Top House, a renovated double-fronted row house in Sydney, Australia, it’s hard to tell if you’re inside or out. Designed by Clinton Cole and Carmen Chan at CplusC Architectural Workshop, the topsy-turvy design deliberately confounds perspective by bringing in the outdoors. Natural light pours into the sky-high living spaces through zigzagging louvers and skylights to create a captivating inside world where the home’s beautiful details become the view.
Its owners, a couple with three children, including one still living at home, appreciate natural and exposed materials such as timber and raw concrete and wanted a home that catered to specific activities. Read on to discover what the architects did.
Its owners, a couple with three children, including one still living at home, appreciate natural and exposed materials such as timber and raw concrete and wanted a home that catered to specific activities. Read on to discover what the architects did.
Before: How do you create visual interest in an unusually long and inward-looking house with zero outlook, flanked on both sides by a pair of warehouses? That was the challenge the architects faced when updating this dual-fronted Victorian row house.
The female client is a geologist, and for the redesign, the architects took their inspiration from two sources — geodes (rocks with hollow cavities lined with jagged crystal that create a dazzling inner world) and a zigzag motif. The architects drew on this inspiration to design a soaring yet approachable living space that delights the eye without the need to rely on outside views.
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First floor
In the same way as a geode, the home opens from an unassuming exterior to reveal a fascinating inner space. Soaring 12½-foot-high louvers and skylights bring light and the outdoors into this secret world.
An accordion rhythm compresses and connects the vast spaces, wittily expressed by a recurring zigzag motif in the floors, louvered windows and even the kitchen counter.
In the same way as a geode, the home opens from an unassuming exterior to reveal a fascinating inner space. Soaring 12½-foot-high louvers and skylights bring light and the outdoors into this secret world.
An accordion rhythm compresses and connects the vast spaces, wittily expressed by a recurring zigzag motif in the floors, louvered windows and even the kitchen counter.
Second floor
The owners had several must-haves for the new design, including indoor and outdoor living spaces with room to entertain, play mahjong and enjoy quiet time together as a family. As avid scuba divers, they also needed an area to store and clean their gear. Ample, integrated storage was another priority, and the house needed to be fully automated and sustainable in its design.
The owners had several must-haves for the new design, including indoor and outdoor living spaces with room to entertain, play mahjong and enjoy quiet time together as a family. As avid scuba divers, they also needed an area to store and clean their gear. Ample, integrated storage was another priority, and the house needed to be fully automated and sustainable in its design.
The architects retained the original row house, transforming most of the first floor into a massive living area that flows from inside to out.
The living room transitions seamlessly to a covered outdoor living space and then onto a garden, which features a fire pit and custom benches where the owners project an illuminated mural onto the massive warehouse wall at night.
The living room transitions seamlessly to a covered outdoor living space and then onto a garden, which features a fire pit and custom benches where the owners project an illuminated mural onto the massive warehouse wall at night.
Moving the front entrance to the side reduced the perceived length of the home and made more effective use of the normally wasted side-entry path.
“The house opens around you the instant you enter. There’s no trekking down a corridor past bedrooms to get to the living spaces,” says Cole. “This creates an arresting experience for everyone who walks in.”
“The house opens around you the instant you enter. There’s no trekking down a corridor past bedrooms to get to the living spaces,” says Cole. “This creates an arresting experience for everyone who walks in.”
The design dissolves the feeling of being inside in several ways. Exterior elements, such as brick, are used indoors, and the outdoors is viewed from every angle through generous windows and open spaces. The result? A light and connected interior that makes the outdoor-loving owners feel like they’re living alfresco.
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New to home remodeling? Learn the basics
“The site is extraordinarily deep and our concept for it was expansive, with a dramatic cathedral ceiling that goes from 17 feet to 26 feet high,” Cole says.
“To stop it from feeling too vast and drawn out, we looked for ways to compress the space. We settled on an accordion concept to distract the eye and connect all the living spaces while keeping them distinct. It’s expressed as a zigzag motif, which you see in the angled louvers, the brickwork, the brass floor detail and the custom kitchen countertop.”
“To stop it from feeling too vast and drawn out, we looked for ways to compress the space. We settled on an accordion concept to distract the eye and connect all the living spaces while keeping them distinct. It’s expressed as a zigzag motif, which you see in the angled louvers, the brickwork, the brass floor detail and the custom kitchen countertop.”
Before: The house deliberately confounds perspective. It feels like you’re outside. The owner enjoys watching guests grappling with what they see: “Their eyes widen, their mouths open and they gaze up, trying to figure out if they’re inside or outside,” he says.
Exterior elements, such as the original archways, rear balcony and the exterior walls of the surrounding warehouses, are visible from inside the house, giving the home a topsy-turvy edge.
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The home is fully automated, which means everyone in the family can control lights, locks, ceiling fans, air-conditioning, music, underfloor heating, solar power and the CCTV surveillance system with a few taps on a smartphone.
Sustainability was a key focus, as it is with every project the architectural practice undertakes.
The house features a 10kW solar system supported by Tesla battery storage, enabling near-zero electricity bills throughout the year. The design creates a comfortable environment that minimizes the need for heating and cooling by optimizing cross ventilation, thermal mass, insulation and passive solar strategies.
The house features a 10kW solar system supported by Tesla battery storage, enabling near-zero electricity bills throughout the year. The design creates a comfortable environment that minimizes the need for heating and cooling by optimizing cross ventilation, thermal mass, insulation and passive solar strategies.
The project’s embodied energy was reduced by using recycled floorboards and dry-pressed bricks, and restoring rather than replacing the original heritage features, such as the front balcony, balustrade, locks, cornices, gutters, downpipes, boundary walls, windows and doors.
This principle of reuse helps the additions and alterations harmonize with the original building and creates an endlessly interesting interior. For example, the feature wall above the dining table is the outside wall of the original house. Likewise, a preserved back-terrace balcony has an outlook into the interior dining space, which was once the side courtyard.
Storage has been cleverly woven throughout the home, including open shelves in the underside of the kitchen-dining floor as you step down into the living area.
Most of the renovation budget went to the first-floor kitchen, dining and living area renovation, including extensive structural works required to create the dramatic ceiling heights.
Toward the back, the first-floor interior merges into a covered, indoor-outdoor entertaining space, which flows almost seamlessly into a bricked back courtyard.
The house is flanked on both sides by warehouses, making clever design a must when it came to bringing in light and warmth.
To minimize the need for further renovations, the home was future-proofed for later life stages.
To foster aging in place, the bathroom features handrails and discreet custom-made grab rails as well as higher toilet seats.
House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with three children, one of them living at home
Location: McMahons Point, New South Wales, Australia
Size: 3,401 square feet (315 square meters), four bedrooms and 2½ bathrooms
Designers: Principal architect Clinton Cole and project architect Carmen Chan at CplusC Architectural Workshop (architecture and interior design) and Bell Landscapes (landscape architecture)