This family owns a Sixties builder’s house in Wonga Park that needed some work. The house had survived through a number of alterations but a mid ‘80s ‘octagonal’ number was not working for them. The house occupies a prominent site in the area at the crest of a hill, overlooking a valley of Federation featurism.

The new sections are of a different world but they respectfully play with the existing. A roof slope continues through in a different material, a terracotta roof hip switches into a black wall with metre square plywood shingles. The lightweight additions were latched or hinged onto the masonry house at two points, then were pivoted and scaled to suit the brief and the sun and views.

The original brick house was restored where it wasn’t demolished, with matching window profiles, doors and roof tiles. From the driveway entry the extension peeks above the existing roof and on the new elevations old render walls occasionally show through. The internal spaces are more intertwined, mixing aesthetics and linings between old and new.