Oye Mi Canto House

Oye Mi Canto House is an alterations and additions project to a terrace house in Newtown, a leafy pocket of inner Sydney, on a narrow 187 m2 site that backs onto the Carriageworks cultural precinct. The heritage-significant street facade and front bedroom are retained, while the rear building line is extended and an internal courtyard introduced, reorganising the home into three distinct pavilions.

The front pavilion holds four modest bedrooms and two bathrooms beneath the existing gable roof, with a first-floor extension giving a young family of five room to live comfortably as the children grow. A courtyard planted with native Australian vegetation separates this private pavilion from the shared living pavilion, with a hallway linking both to the courtyard itself. Beyond drawing light into the centre of the site, the planting screens views to the neighbouring home. Living, dining and kitchen spaces sit together under a striking skillion roof, making efficient use of the tight 148 m2 floor plan. A third pavilion stands at the rear as an open-air artists' studio and covered outdoor room, an Art Shed tied to the living pavilion through shared form, material and proportion and used for both making and entertaining.

Construction detail is bespoke throughout, built to near-zero tolerance so that every square centimetre earns its place. A corrugated galvanised iron ceiling in the living pavilion meets frameless glazing on all sides, reading as a single sheet floating above the space while admitting generous daylight. Louvred windows release summer heat and a thermal-mass concrete slab holds the home cool in summer and warm in winter. Timber-framed sliding doors open the kitchen and dining area fully to the north-facing courtyard and Art Shed, and a second set meets at a corner of the courtyard so that, opened together, the living pavilion connects through to the front of the house. A custom-formed concrete step links the living space to the hallway, where recycled wide-format Kauri pine floorboards meet spotted-gum treads and risers on the new stair. Western Red Cedar shiplap, stained dark, lines both the courtyard face of the building and the internal wall of the new hallway, giving a warm, honest palette with low maintenance.

A galvanised steel planter bed forms the roof of the hallway, carrying greenery from the courtyard's front edge through to the rear and offering an outlook of planting in the foreground and industrial Carriageworks beyond from the upstairs bedroom. A stainless-steel mesh balustrade to the stair and upper hallway lets a skylight funnel daylight down the stairwell. A second internal skylight, raked to match the roof, forms half the ensuite ceiling and floods an otherwise dark bathroom with light. In the bathrooms the tight floor space is worked hard: the two shower zones are divided by a black-laminated glass wall rather than a solid partition, and laundry joinery sits flush within the main bathroom to conceal the washer and dryer. In the living pavilion a central joinery unit turns kitchen facilities to the rear and an entertainment unit to the courtyard, dividing the space so children and adults can each use it without disturbing the other, with hardwood plywood casing making the joinery robust against a young family's wear. Adhering to close Council scrutiny while pushing the site's potential raised several build challenges, managed through close coordination between CplusC's building and architectural teams and their subcontractors to hold the design intent to a high standard.

Architect and builder: CplusC Architectural Workshop. Project architect: Clinton Cole. Architectural assistant: Hamish Bresnahan. Project manager: Christina Cheng. Construction manager: Will Bradley. Photography: Murray Fredericks.