Lilywill Terrace, Balmain

Room to breathe

A wedge-shaped house on a pint-sized plot in a heritage area, with lots of character and needing a lot of love, now has room to breathe.

The renovation of the three storey house separates functions out to different floors allowing the clients to live comfortably with their adult children. The top floor forms a private suite with artist studio. The entry level contains the living, dining and kitchen, while the lower floor accommodates the bathroom, bedrooms and second living area.

Vibrant red balconies create visual connection between indoors and outdoors, a bridge between private and public spheres.

The verandahs replace a crumbling, multi-storey balcony structure. The contemporary structure, overlooking the harbour, is delineated in Venetian red, creating both the reality and the perception of greater space while opening the house to winter warmth and summer breezes.

The blinds, coupled with careful detailing and the vibrant red finish, create the illusion that the renovation is purely a series of balconies, in keeping with the original home.

Operable painted timber louvres, over three levels, open and close for privacy, respond to climatic conditions, blocking or allowing solar access and harbour breezes.

The design incorporates borrowed space - an internal meals room extends out onto the balcony, creating the sensation of outside dining; whilst shower recesses for two small, adjacent bathrooms project onto the balconies.

The internal heritage building fabric was retained as much as possible, including items that form part of the building’s story, such as printed “stained glass” bird inserts on doors.

Passive heating and cooling, sun control and cross ventilation were a high priority, resulting in no air-conditioning being necessary.

We worked closely with the local council, cataloguing internal spaces and details and carefully integrating new work.

Lilywill Terrace Gallery

Project info	Details
Team	Sam Crawford, Jarad Grice, Allen Huang, Ken Warr
Builder	Robert Plumb Build
Consultants	Structural Engineer: Structure Consulting Engineers Hydraulic Engineer: ITM Design Heritage Consultant: Weir Phillips Architects Hydraulic Engineer: ITM Design Landscape Architect: TARN Town Planner: Damian O'Toole Town Planning Quantity Surveyor: QS Plus Surveyor: CMS Surveyors
Council	Inner West Council
Photographer	Brett Boardman
Completion	2024