SRG House

The house is one of a pair of heritage-listed semis, built in 1972 on a steep waterfront site looking across the Parramatta River towards Iron Cove to the south, and Birkenhead Point to the west. Built at a 45-degree angle to the street, the semi zig-zags along the south boundary to side-step trees and sandstone outcrops. Its three-storey concrete pillar and slab construction was infilled with floor-to-ceiling fixed glass. The semis were designed by Sir Roy Grounds and delivered in sketch form to a friend of the family, architect Stuart Whitelaw, who drew up the homes for Sir Roy Grounds and his architect /sculptor son, Marr Grounds. Sir Roy Grounds used this semi for his Sydney pied-à-terre until his death in 1981. Following Sir Roy Grounds death both homes were sold. Little or none of the existing fabric remains and the internal fitout was either removed or replaced. The goal was to turn the two-bedroom house into a four-bedroom sustainable home that could also cater for multi-generational living by redeveloping the 1983 added garage into an independent unit for the grandparents. Improving environmental sustainability and performance was key to the design whilst opening up the building to private outdoor spaces. The existing awkward narrow grid was impractical to furnish and needed to be re designed. Five key interventions to the site achieved a radical transformation. 1. Restoration of the superstructure included peeling out the perished interior linings, stripping back to the original concrete structures and replacing all fixed windows with new, high-performance timber-framed glass. 2. Connecting to the landscape came through adding fixed and sliding sections to the new windows, opening the house to natural air and opening the kitchen and dining room to the cool south courtyard, forested with tree ferns. Adjoining the courtyard, a separate sitting room was raised up to level with the courtyard forming a seamless indoor-outdoor connection. 3. More space was created within the building by converting the original air-conditioning plant on the lower ground level into two courtyard facing bedrooms. 4. The single level garage was replaced by a new garage with a two-bedroom apartment above for grandparents. While internally linked to the main house via a glass bridge, this new building is its own entity. 5. The harsh geometry of the grid is softened with built-in furniture and joinery such as the curved dining banquette, that pushes circulation towards the outer window, increasing furnishable space. The unbearable fluctuating temperatures in the original building were due to the glass expanse predominantly to the south and west and the un-insulated roof. To improve thermal efficiency, whilst respecting the heritage listing, the redesign included significant new openings in the original glazing grid for air circulation, and all glass was upgraded to high performance. All facades were upgraded with high R-value insulation and the lower-ground level’s new concrete slab includes hydronic heating to allow the heat to rise through the building in winter. The new self-contained studio has a green roof, high-performance glass and strategically located windows.