Brougham Place is a home, office and apartment in the dense inner-city location of Potts Point, Sydney. The formerly single mass dwelling was reworked as two buildings to allow a central courtyard to be introduced to the layout. Designed to engage with nature, but remain private, the rear three-storey apartment and garage shield the courtyard from overlooking neighbouring apartment buildings.
Expand ContentArchitecturally, the building presents as two concrete boxes sitting over a sandstone wall. Salvaged during construction and rough-cut by stonemasons to create a beautifully textured element, the sandstone wraps around the front façade and side lane to visually connect the buildings with the neighbouring vernacular. Above this plinth, the concrete boxes feature large openings infilled with multicoloured louvre blades in a palette drawing from the area’s heritage colours.
The living spaces feature travertine stone floors, while walls and ceilings are off-form concrete. This is complemented by white joinery, including the custom-designed coffee table with a hinged lid concealing a television. Timber detailing such as a cantilevered breakfast bench was selected to complement our client’s elegant antique furniture. The whole is enlivened by striking graphic patterns created when the Caravaggio pendant lights are moved using the large magnets that hold them to the metal reinforcement within the concrete soffit.
The larger front dwelling contains the owners’ home and office, with the workspace on the ground floor. Here, the life and noise of the street is filtered through a finely detailed steel screen and courtyard.
The rear building houses a garage with a single bedroom, two-storey apartment above. Clever planning sees stairs winding around the perimeter while the living spaces open onto north-facing balconies. The louvered façade controls light and views, and, as in the main house, reflects extraordinary colour into the rooms.
The central courtyard extends the composition of the internal planning to the outside, with planes of timber and concrete hovering over a reflective black granite plunge pool. It’s a simple place of calm and introspection, nestled between the two dwellings.
Through careful consideration of volume, scale and openings in relation to the surrounding built form, the site has been transformed to provide contemporary inner-urban living, while maintaining a distinct link to the history of the area.
2017 Commendatiin AIA NSW Architecture for Residential Single (New)
