Pride of place

Designed by Rob Nerlich & Kate McMahon, mcmahon and nerlich

From the architects:

The setting

The challenges of the site were significant for this project, with a small south-facing Victorian cottage wedged within a tiny row house, dark and dim – without the spark of life that results when you welcome direct sunlight into your home. 

We responded to the challenge inventively, through the demolition of the formerly dark rear works and the introduction of a new kitchen addition that pulls away from the main cottage below to align on the rear boundary – also achieving an upper main bedroom and a unique courtyard that allows an abundance of light and results in a completely transformed home that can expand and contract. 

The configuration of the main ensuite bathroom unlocked the design. 

The ensuite

It is the ensuite that is the key element allowing the plan to resolve itself. 

The bathroom takes up the space of the narrow area next to the stairs, slightly overhanging the courtyard, allowing form to express itself. 

The roof rakes down towards the bath wall, and creates a lantern effect for the kitchen below as it continues its downwards fall.

The ensuite bathroom celebrates the very act of bathing through 2 principles;

• To chase natural daylight.
• To be informed by a poetic approach to the narrative of bathing – from transition from bedroom, to arrival at the vanity, to a shower nook and generous built-in bath that enjoys an outlook to sky above and roof garden below via a double-hung sashless casement window.

The roofline allows form to rake down holistically – bedroom to ensuite (upper) to kitchen (lower). 

The innovation challenge was to detail the central courtyard with a series of sliding and stacking doors that move completely out of the way, creating one beautiful, generous space. 

Space, light and views

A sense of this space is obtained from the ensuite, glimpsed through the view of the roof garden beyond the vertical window. 

The window merges with the overhead skylight, detailed with deep timber reveals – one bathes under the stars. 

The verdant roof-garden next to the ensuite window reinforces connection to both the immediate and borrowed landscape on this compact site.

The design overall responds poetically to the brief, informed by neuropsychology, place and memory, with expressed repetition of structural and timber elements below, which you get a sense of with views to the main bedroom and roof garden from the ensuite bath. 

Material and tonal poetry

It was important that the ensuite provided a contrast to the timber materiality of the bedroom, yet reference earthen, terracotta and honeyed tones to provide connection to place and a feeling of warmth and grounding as a contrast to the liberating act of bathing in the natural light, under the stars. 

The wall and bath hob tiles are a unique specification of terracotta tiles in a staccato pattern, contrasted with a white textured wall tile and sparking pearl-like mosaic feature tile. 

The honeyed vanity stone and timber joinery elements complete the material palette. 

Above all, the light from the skylight merging with the window is remarkable and provides a sense of retreat, meditation, and calm.

In summation

The brief was to turn a tiny one-bedroom south-facing mid-row terrace into a home to both accommodate the client alone, and host her adult children and new grandchild on stays from abroad. 

The design achieves so much more than this, with a sophisticated palette of tiles and a wow-factor skylight that makes bathing the highlight of the home.

Story by: Trendsideas