Cart 
In most traditional family homes, you’ll find each room has a singular purpose; there’s a few bedrooms reserved for sleeping; a living room just for sitting; and a kitchen for cooking.
But this renovation by Architect George in Sydney’s inner west offers something a little bit different.
‘This is our client Jay’s permanent home,’ design director Cameron Deynzer says.
‘Jay co-parents four children. Sometimes Jay lives in the home on his own, and at other times it’s him and his four children. The flexibility of accommodating one or five people in the home was a key part of the brief.
‘He didn’t want a five-bedroom home that would be half empty most of the time.’
The existing property was tired, but habitable, and its structurally sound brick walls allowed Architect George to minimise demolition. Instead, the team focused on carving out new multipurpose spaces within the long and narrow 95-square-metre footprint that could adapt to suit the owner’s changing needs.
Inspired by the unique brief, the floor plan was designed as an enfilade, with a series of interconnected groups of rooms arranged in a row, where each room opens into the next.
Now on the ground floor, the front door opens to a room that is both for ‘sitting’ and ‘sleeping’, setting the tone for the creative house that unfolds beyond.
This is followed by a dining space, an art studio with a built-in bed and joinery, a skinny hallway with a bath and a bathroom on opposite sides, before opening up to an expansive kitchen and living zone leading directly to the garden at the rear.
Velvet curtains and sliding panels close off these loose ‘rooms’ from others when privacy is needed.
‘At all other times, the home is essentially a single room with a singular central axis providing circulation down the middle and occupied spaces at the edges,’ Cameron adds.
Jay, an artist, requested the use of natural timbers, with dusty pink and amber colour tones, which was brought to life through the textural tiles that dominate the kitchen and wet spaces. Everywhere else, the walls are painted a soft cream for a cohesive, calming effect.
Above the existing brick perimeter walls, Architect George added a new polycarbonate addition that encloses the upper level, housing the two main bedrooms and an additional bathroom.
‘The polycarbonate lid provides diffused natural lighting through the entire day, regardless of outdoor weather conditions. It was selected in order to bathe the home in diffused natural lighting all day long,’ Cameron explains. It also serves as a transparent roof above the void in the main living rooms.
Cameron says he’s proud of how the resulting House in Erskineville challenges the norm of segregated rooms to foster family relationships in a meaningful way. And with all its quirks, it’s not your average home — but for the owner, it’s something much better.
