A dark and enclosed Sydney terrace is made bright and open
WORDS KATE JONES PHOTOGRAPHY KATHERINE LU
When Ryan Matthews bought his first home near the business district in Sydney, Australia, he did so with a view to undertaking a renovation. ‘I’ve worked in construction as an engineer for most of my career, so a refurbishment was something I wanted to do,’ he explains. ‘I was the only registered bidder for the house at the auction sale, which certainly worked in my favour as I got it for a good price.’
Built in around 1910 on a sloping site, the single-storey terraced property had steps between its split levels, and a layout with a separate kitchen, living room and bathroom at the rear. ‘There was a good opportunity to create an open-plan living space including a kitchen and dining area,’ says Ryan.
Ryan, 34, hired architects Dain McClure-Thomas and Luke Carter, directors of a nearby practice familiar with the local conservation area planning constraints. These included restrictions on changes made to the front exterior and stipulations that any rear extension must not reach above the roof ridge line to avoid it being seen from the street. The architects complied with both directives in their design for a two-storey rear extension with a new bedroom, en-suite shower room and study nook on the first floor, incorporating a lightwell and rooflights to make the spaces look bigger and bright. ‘Although there are limited places to add windows in a terraced home, as the house’s footprint is relatively small, I wanted to keep it light and make it feel as big as possible,’ Ryan explains.
Despite taking care to follow planning guidance, the project plans met with some objections. The council requested a change to the fall of the single-pitch roof – from one side to the other instead of front to back. It also opposed the width of the first floor spanning from boundary to boundary and wanted it to be of brick construction instead of the intended lightweight timber.
After negotiations, the roof and the width of the upper level follows the authority’s recommendations. But the architects pushed back on the request for brick. ‘Using brick on the first floor would have been more work and more engineering for Ryan, and at a cost,’ says Dain. ‘So it’s a lightweight timber construction finished in fibre-cement cladding.’ The extension’s ground floor is built with brick that’s painted white to complement the original construction.
Work began in July 2021, with Ryan and his partner Gemma, 32, who is an a
