Dodds House

Dodds House is Ian Moore Architects' careful restoration of a compact one-bedroom Sydney home that the practice originally designed in 1998 and completed in 2001. Years of unsympathetic changes by a previous owner have been unpicked: a later rooftop bedroom was removed to reinstate the original louvred roof terrace, a roller door was taken out of the courtyard wall, and a series of internal alterations were reversed to recover the clarity of the first scheme.

The new owner also asked the practice to furnish the house in full, choosing pieces that sit comfortably within the original architectural language and material palette. At the centre is a bold two-storey yellow joinery element. On the lower level it holds kitchen storage, an integrated refrigerator and the laundry; on the upper level it becomes a wardrobe. The element links the two floors both physically and visually, and reads strongly against a restrained background of white walls and ceilings, silver anodised aluminium, grey rubber and white epoxy flooring.

The furniture continues that logic of lightness. Jean Nouvel's 'Less' range supplies the coffee table, desks, bookshelves, storage units and bedside tables, joined by a vintage Eames segmented-base dining table with fibreglass arm shell chairs, Jean-Marie Massaud 'Kennedee' sofas and Alias 'Frame' outdoor seating. Each piece appears to float above the floor or rests on slender legs. The interior is conceptually tied to the architecture: lightweight, open and quietly blurring the line between inside and out, comfortable without clutter, clean and bold, with a real clarity of space and form.

Across two levels and roughly 104 square metres in Sydney, New South Wales, Dodds House shows how a small, considered home can be returned to its original intent and given a second life.

Architect and interior design: Ian Moore Architects (Ian Moore). Styling: Tess Strelein. Photography: Daniel Mayne.