ETHNE HOUSE

Ethne House presented a familiar tension: the considered dignity of original Federation fabric, and a contemporary addition already resolved above it. A striking angular steel form rises over the Randwick footprint, and rather than treating this as a constraint to work around, we took it as the generative force for the entire interior concept.

Our concept was Frame and Angles. Every decision, from the largest spatial relationships to the smallest joinery detail, traces back to that single organising idea.

A transitional corridor links the Federation original to the new extension, framing the approach to the dining room in the way a gallery might frame a threshold. The kitchen and scullery are held in a similar relationship, adjacent but distinct, connected through a considered reveal rather than an open wall. That geometry carries through underfoot in the feature floor at the threshold, a contemporary reinterpretation of chequerboard laid in two complementary marbles whose tonal difference reads from a distance and dissolves at close range.

The original Federation rooms were retained intact. The study and rumpus room preserve their cornices, architraves and tall doors, and we chose not to soften the distinction between old and new. The junction is clear and in its clarity, becomes part of the design's character. The new ground floor bathroom was calibrated to the same temperament as the original fabric, contemporary in execution but held in the same tonal register as the rooms surrounding it.