House Tour: Home Transformation From Concrete To Contemporary

Today we are in New South Wales, Australia – albeit virtually – to explore this gloriously contemporary home. The owner and architect had a clear vision for a modern, bright and beautiful abode and transformed this space from concrete to contemporary.

An unlikely meeting

The architects from Kontista + Co were called upon to bring this design to life. However, it was no ordinary meeting, as the homeowner simply knocked on a door of a house he loved and was welcomed inside by the architect himself. Together, they would become a great team to convert this home into a very special place.

Owner Drew simply stepped inside architect Daniel’s abode and was pleasantly surprised by the design style he so desired for his own home. Drew explains that the home is situated in a heritage conservation area, which meant they were able to gut the interior, just keeping the façade and streetscape of the house.

Drew came with his own paper sketches and ideas, but ultimately, he relied on the professionals to ensure that his house would be a strong, functional and magical space.

“Daniel added a little bit of seasoning on top, but he was the original inspiration and the person who executed the drawings, so I sort of slotted in the middle there.”

Finding a Connection to Nature

There was no garden; every square inch of the house was concreted, including random little additions such as a concreted external laundry, concrete steps, and so on. “There was even a barbed-wire fence on the back,” Drew recalls. “It looked a little bit like a South American prison – it actually looked hectic,” he jokes.

But the abundance of concrete worked in Drew’s favour. “Because it was completely concreted, our floorspace ratios of what we were allowed to build were greater,” he explains. “[According to Council], if there’s already a precedent on site – say they had a massive garden in the middle and you wanted to develop the site a bit more, you would have to maintain the same amount of green space. This had zero green space, so it defaulted back to minimum requirements.”

The renovation was done in stages because the terraces rely on each other for strength. Excavating the garage meant having to underpin the adjacent properties. “We gobbled up plenty of time doing that, but it allowed us to create this two-car garage in a location very close to the city.”

The end result is a beautiful contemporary home with a minimalistic interior that is bold and monochromatic. We love everything about this special retreat!

Via