Gold Street Residence

Known affectionately as the Little Pot of Gold, this project began as a fairly typical addition to a heritage-listed terrace house, but its rare site turned it into something far more unusual. The long western boundary runs directly along a leafy park, and the property has street frontage at both front and rear. That exposure, which some earlier buyers had seen as a liability, became the design's greatest opportunity.

Working to a limited budget on a tight site, Sarah Kahn Architect was briefed to update a tired terrace into a modern three-bedroom, two-bathroom home for its young owner. The priorities were natural light, the special views of the adjacent park, and useable outdoor space connected directly to the interior. Heritage overlays required the front section of the house, including the bedrooms and chimney, to be retained. The existing lounge and a series of rear additions were demolished to make way for the new work, and the completed house actually reduces the overall footprint on the site, freeing up a larger private rear garden and a new north-facing deck.

The addition holds a bathroom, a concealed laundry and an open living, dining and kitchen space at ground level, with the master bedroom, ensuite and study above. Within a small footprint, light and volume are maximised through double-height spaces and voids. High-level windows capture the surrounding roofscapes and frame the Brunswick views the owner loves, while wide glazed sliding doors and full-width windows at ground level connect the interior to the rear garden and deck, making the modest rooms feel much larger.

The new form is designed to contrast with the retained house. A robust red brick wall along the park boundary provides privacy and acts as a plinth for a pale grey timber-clad first floor. Reading as double height along the western edge and raking down to single height where it meets the neighbour to the east, the upper level becomes a sculpted, carved volume that appears to change shape as you move around the park edge. That external gesture is echoed inside, where the ceiling rakes dramatically through the double-height living space to emphasise the large park-facing windows. Finishes are deliberately simple and cost-effective: white-painted interiors maximise light and space, feature walls of natural plywood and dark-painted timber frames add contrast, and a pop of the owner's favourite teal appears in the kitchen joinery alongside white, black and plywood. The result is a home with a very public face onto the park that still feels like a private sanctuary within.

Project size 122 m2 on a 183 m2 site. Completed 2020 across two levels.

Architecture by Sarah Kahn Architect (Sarah Kahn and David Ascroft). Built by PM and R Constructions. Photography by Tatjana Plitt.