First a home, then an office, and now a home again. Like any 19th-century Georgian villa, this house has gone through several transformations in the past 100 years, but none more dramatic than the changes over the past four years.
The house, which is located in a sought-after area near the inner city, was remodelled four years ago by Fearon Hay Architects to provide commercial office space. But with a change of owners, the house needed to revert back to a family home.
Interior designer Leonie von Sturmer of Von Sturmer Design says the new renovations had to accommodate the dramatic changes made when the house was converted to open-plan offices with glazed interior walls.
"The new owners appreciated the scale and proportions of the double-height interior, which literally opens up in front of you as you walk through the front door," von Sturmer says. "But they also wanted a more comfortable Raffles-style family home."
The designer says the lower level of the house, which opens to a terrace at the rear, was an obvious choice for the living space. The semi-cantilevered upper floor, which is at street level, therefore needed to accommodate bedrooms and an office. But this also posed a challenge.