House James

Set in the leafy Sydney suburb of Gymea, House James reworks an existing single-storey cottage through a programme of alterations and additions. The brief asked for low-maintenance, simple living to suit a busy work and family life, and the design answers it on an irregular suburban lot with a warm, sunny home that plays with both form and scale.

Honest, tactile materials run throughout, used simply but with intent. At ground level the spaces are intimate and entirely private from the street, opening instead to the established garden. A wrap-around deck, adapted from the traditional Queenslander, threads between inside and out as a place of arrival, gathering and entertaining.

Above the ground-floor plinth, the first floor reads as a bare sculptural form. Its windows hold a regimented arrangement, subservient to the modular panel layout, yet they frame a shifting sequence of views across the neighbourhood tree canopy and the sky beyond.

The site extends to 708 m2, with the home itself measuring 200 m2 across two levels, completed in 2021.

Architecture by Berresford Architecture. Photography by Andy MacPherson. Engineering by Greenview Consulting. Builder: Clockwork Construction. Interior styling by Koskela.