Smee Schoff House is a contemporary single family home with industrial features designed by Sam Crawford Architects in Petersham, New South Wales, Australia. The project is a great example of how dedicated and engaged clients together with a challenging set of site constraints make for a rich and unique design outcome. Having considered several alternate and distinct design solutions it is now clear that this particular response to the site and design brief is the right one for our clients. Key constraints were: inconsistent council requirements for street-scape and heritage, the need to maintain the privacy and solar access of neighboring properties, multiple poorly devised and implemented alterations to the existing cottage, access to winter sun to the necessarily south facing living areas and views to the park and access to the winter sun available only to the existing bedrooms. The brief also included an atypical requirement for an eat-in kitchen and an melded dining/ lounge/ music room.

Our clients have a wonderful art collection, and their own unique style, which contributed to the industrial/ craft aesthetic of the new work.

Recycled bricks are used extensively for environmental and aesthetic reasons, on both internal (painted) and external (bare-faced) walls. Black painted, lightweight steel framed windows and doors accentuate the very tall brick walls of the central court and dining room. Exposed, over-sized recycled timber beams scale the 4.5m high ceiling of the dining space. Timbers recycled from demolished portions of the building and our client’s cherished Scandinavian hand-painted ceramic tiles are incorporated into new joinery work.

The design sits on a clear continuum in our work; of pushing for maximum thermal comfort with minimal ongoing energy use. This involves a relatively large upfront cost; in the provision of substantial thermal mass via exposed concrete slab floors and brick and reverse brick veneer wall construction, coupled with solar powered/ gas boosted hydronic underfloor heating, contributing to ongoing and long term energy savings. A central courtyard, between the old and new, provides winter sun to otherwise south facing living areas.

The construction team from Buildability, led by foreman Matt Raap, were a major factor in the success of the project.

Photos: Brett Boardman Photography