Oxford Cottage

Oxford Cottage is the transformation of a century-old Queenslander in Woolloongabba, Brisbane, from a compact one-bedroom home into a four-bedroom house for a growing family. Bones Studio designed an extension that treads as lightly as possible on the original building, while the owners carefully restored the heritage cottage alongside the new work.

A battened transition space with translucent roofing links old and new, drawing daylight deep into what would otherwise have been a dark interior. Its lower ceiling marks the shift between the two, then opens into a generous living room where high-level windows frame views to the sky. With the property sitting inner-city and close to a freeway, acoustics and privacy shaped the layout of the bedrooms and living areas. The deck faces north and east, borrowing shelter and outlook from a mature Lilly Pilly on the neighbouring property.

Architecture by Chris Brandon, Bones Studio. Photography by Cathy Schusler.