Parnell House Renovation

Project Description :

This project involved major renovations and additions to an existing old house on a very small inner city property. The house was in a bad state of repair and had clearly been altered several times before to the point that its original Edwardian style had been completely lost. Because current planning controls would not allow a new building of the same bulk to be built, our client was keen to renovate rather than rebuild.

Our brief was to transform this house into a modern home for a professional couple with open plan living, spacious interiors and a new upper floor level. The concept that we developed essentially entailed gutting the main level of the existing house with a new mezzanine type floor added into the roof space to house a master bedroom suite. From the street, the house has been given a facelift with the entry relocated to the existing basement level off a new courtyard. However the street appearance gives no clue to the tentlike living-dining-kitchen space which opens to the rear courtyard with a completely glazed wall.

Because the side walls were both only 1.0 metre from the boundaries, there was little opportunity to place windows there. Hence, all major rooms, receive light and outlook from the front and rear only. The new stairwell and master bathroom are both lit from above with Velux motorised skylights.