Opposites Attract in This Extension to a 1960s Bungalow
When a 1960s brick bungalow gets a lofty, modern extension, the result is a home that speaks of the past and future
Georgia Madden
27 February 2019
In this Q&A series, we turn the spotlight on one thought-provoking renovation or extension each week. Here, Christopher Polly, director at Christopher Polly Architect, shares the journey of refashioning a cramped three-bedroom, one-bathroom 1960s bungalow in Sydney. The result? A striking, contemporary extension and a home with two distinct personalities.
Images by Brett Boardman Photography
Answers by Christopher Polly, director at Christopher Polly Architect
Who lives here: A couple and their kelpie, Ian
Location: Woolooware, NSW
Original size: 124 square metres
Size after extension: 182 square metres
Architect: Christopher Polly Architect
Structural engineer: SDA Structures
Hydraulic engineer: ACOR Consultants
Surveyor: Junek & Junek
Landscaping: Fig Landscapes
Answers by Christopher Polly, director at Christopher Polly Architect
Who lives here: A couple and their kelpie, Ian
Location: Woolooware, NSW
Original size: 124 square metres
Size after extension: 182 square metres
Architect: Christopher Polly Architect
Structural engineer: SDA Structures
Hydraulic engineer: ACOR Consultants
Surveyor: Junek & Junek
Landscaping: Fig Landscapes
Gained:
- A double-storey addition with a new 60-square-metre living room, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, and a flexible 22-square-metre space on the first floor that can be used as a sitting room, guest room or study.
- A new rear terrace and garden courtyards situated between the old and new parts of the house.
- A new internal laundry.
- Two new bathrooms, one of which is the master bedroom’s ensuite.
- New landscaping to the front and rear yards.
What was the house like originally?
A single-storey 1960s yellow-brick bungalow with three bedrooms and one bathroom.
A single-storey 1960s yellow-brick bungalow with three bedrooms and one bathroom.
Ground-floor plan
What problems did this project address?
What problems did this project address?
- Small living and kitchen spaces, with no dining room.
- A badly planned interior in the existing house.
- A poor connection to the rear yard and its setting.
- Inadequate natural light and ventilation.
- A lack of privacy from adjoining neighbours who overlooked the original house.
First-floor plan
What was your brief?
To creatively transform a compact three-bedroom dwelling with a tiny living space and no dining area into a three- to four-bedroom home with expansive living and dining spaces, and a strong connection to the landscape. This would give the owners significant extra room to grow into.
What was your brief?
To creatively transform a compact three-bedroom dwelling with a tiny living space and no dining area into a three- to four-bedroom home with expansive living and dining spaces, and a strong connection to the landscape. This would give the owners significant extra room to grow into.
Shown here, a side elevation
What were the clients’ must-haves?
- Three to four bedrooms.
- A main bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and walk-in wardrobe.
- An internal laundry.
- A new, enlarged living room, dining room and kitchen with plenty of volume and height.
- A large rear terrace that felt connected to the new interior spaces, the site and its setting.
- A flexible room or space that could be used for multiple functions, such as a study, guest bedroom or second living area.
- An outdoor shower for post-beach hose downs.
What exactly did you do?
- Added a new double-storey pavilion housing a living room, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor, and a flexible 22-square-metre living and sleeping space on the first floor.
- Retained and renovated the original house with new flooring, paint and electrics.
- Turned the original bathroom into a new ensuite for the master bedroom.
- Replanned the retained third bedroom.
- Extended the original front hall.
- The original tiny living room and kitchen (with no dining area) were replanned to accommodate the new extended hall, and a new bathroom and laundry.
- Put in new vaulted skylights to brighten the extended hall, new bathroom and laundry.
- Replaced the original windows with new low-e glass windows that work together with the new openings of the rear addition to passively ventilate the interior.
- New insulation in walls, ceilings and roof to improve the home’s thermal performance.
- Removed an original sunroom, external laundry, rear porch and a large fibro garage.
How does the new addition sit beside the original home?
The original dwelling and the new garden pavilion are spatial and material opposites.
The front house is single-storey, cellular and private with an extant yellow-brick character. The new pavilion is double-storey, voluminous and public, with an intentionally singular grey-metal expression in counterpoint.
The original dwelling and the new garden pavilion are spatial and material opposites.
The front house is single-storey, cellular and private with an extant yellow-brick character. The new pavilion is double-storey, voluminous and public, with an intentionally singular grey-metal expression in counterpoint.
How are the two areas connected?
An intermediary link folds sharply from a carefully considered junction at the old house to meet the new double-storey volume.
An intermediary link folds sharply from a carefully considered junction at the old house to meet the new double-storey volume.
Where did most of the budget go?
On the signature elements of the new addition, including the concrete wall, crafted rear profile and sculpted step element at the rear, plus its custom steel-beam that contains pockets for insect screens and external roller blinds.
On the signature elements of the new addition, including the concrete wall, crafted rear profile and sculpted step element at the rear, plus its custom steel-beam that contains pockets for insect screens and external roller blinds.
What challenges did you have to work around?
Achieving the clients’ entire wish list in a highly inventive manner, within a modest footprint and budget.
Achieving the clients’ entire wish list in a highly inventive manner, within a modest footprint and budget.
The landscaping was designed by Fig Landscapes
Why do you think this extension works so well?
While it creatively accommodates the owner’s spatial requirements and improves amenity, the new pavilion also enables multiple sightlines across interior spaces to its setting, makes numerous connections to light and sky, and provides generous access to exterior areas.
While it creatively accommodates the owner’s spatial requirements and improves amenity, the new pavilion also enables multiple sightlines across interior spaces to its setting, makes numerous connections to light and sky, and provides generous access to exterior areas.
How would you describe the new addition?
Contemporary, crafted, bold and expansive.
Contemporary, crafted, bold and expansive.
Key features
- The design for the new pavilion creates a strong visual connection between the old and new parts of the home.
- The generous, double-storey pavilion is filled with light and air, and has multiple sightlines across the interior space, while being connected to the sky and garden.
- New work is built from a restrained, pre-finished and robust low-maintenance materials palette that will last the distance.
Interior materials palette
- Burnished concrete slab with a satin-matt sealer on floors in the new pavilion.
- In-situ formed concrete with a raw finish on the living room wall.
- CSR Gyprock plasterboard painted in Dulux White on White on the walls and ceilings.
- Hoop-pine BB plywood (an exterior-grade plywood) with a polyurethane finish to the kitchen, bathroom, ensuite, living room and first-floor joinery.
- Hoop-pine BB plywood on the kitchen ceiling and master bedroom wall, sealed with Cabots Cabothane Clear Satin sealer.
- Caesarstone benchtops and splashback in Sleek Concrete.
- Blackbutt flooring in the original house.
- Rockcote Marrakesh acrylic render wall finish on the new main-bathroom walls.
- Academy Tiles Everstone mid-grey porcelain tiles on the new ensuite floors and walls.
Exterior materials palette
- BlueScope Steel Colorbond Custom Orb cladding and roofing in Monument.
- In-situ formed concrete with a raw finish on the terrace wall.
- Alspec aluminium windows and doors framed in Colorbond Custom Orb in Monument with a powder-coated finish.
- Custom-designed steel beams painted in Dulux Monument over the exterior doors.
Tell us
What do you like best about this addition and renovation? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, like this story, and join the conversation.
More
Want to see more home transformations? Check out this Project of the Week: An Out-of-the-Box Solution for a Cramped 1920s Bungalow
What do you like best about this addition and renovation? Tell us in the Comments below. And don’t forget to save your favourite images, like this story, and join the conversation.
More
Want to see more home transformations? Check out this Project of the Week: An Out-of-the-Box Solution for a Cramped 1920s Bungalow
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I love the way you can see the original brick walls from the new kitchen/dining space and that the new plywood colour tones match beautifully with the existing yellow brickwork. I also love the stark contrast between old and new - I can imagine it being a beautiful and easy home to live in. Love it!
I think it’s fantastic. Very clean design, very tastefully done. Yes you could have put up another cookie cutter new home (not that you two would do cookie cutter I’m guessing! ) but you’ve been creative and have come up with something really different and interesting. The landscaping out the back is well done too and complements house perfectly. The pooch certainly seems to like it.
Congratulations! How lovely it is to see the very best of the modernist mid-century design (clean lines, expanses of glass, the use of plywood and angles) being used to refresh some of the more ordinary 60s design elements of the brick bungalow. I also love the way that the separate buildings allow windows to be featured at the back of the original building. This is a very clever addition.