I'm Steve Koolloos. I'm a co-owner of MCK Architects and I'm here at Taroela. Taroela
is what I would describe as an invasive renovation of an existing heritage,
semi-detached dwelling, with some wonderfully contemporary additions. One of the charms of
Kirribilli is that it has an ever presence to the harbour. It's this wonderful little hamlet.
The streetscape to this particular property is
quite traditional and I guess a big part of our project was to retain that.
We try and look at the existing dwelling not as a constraint, but as an opportunity.
When one enters Taroela from the street front, there's a wonderful charm to that late 1800s style
and texture. You have this wonderful experience where you get through the bones of the old home,
and you have that wow moment, where we move from an enclosed, textured style to something that is
clean lined and embracing natural light in a way that old homes generally don't.
We have a kitchen now that engages with the backyard, not turns its back
on it. The spaces feel larger by creating a seamlessness from the inside to the outside.
So we've embraced the idea of an arch and its softness and the way we can take a building
element and bend it. Ceiling that is a lid that we've now just bent up to allow the
natural light to enter that new space. It really has a dialogue between old and new.
My name's Adam Smith. I'm the director and co-founder of Toki Construction.
It's very unforgiving concrete, you only really get one crack at it.
You know the planning and the process is so important. The garden curved concrete ceiling
here, we actually built a scale model of that and that helped us template the curved section and
all the elements to get the shape and execute it the way we did.
There's many heritage items that we restored while on this project. It actually adds a bit
of flavour and it takes a different approach. There's a lot more planning that goes into it.
Craig and Chloe have a wonderfully eclectic collection of furnishings and artworks
and they also have a great sense of fun. Around every corner there's a little surprise
and sometimes colour, sometimes its quirk. I love to think at night, when everyone goes to sleep,
all these little bits and pieces are talking to each other.
The four storey void, it's a wonderful space, it articulates the old from the new. It still has
that moment where you stop, you look up, and you see the sky. It's a great pause in the building.
Leading up from the ground floor is the original stair that was brought back to life and there's
a contemporary carpet runner that starts on the ground floor and leads all the way to the attic.
Moving up a level, are the primary bedrooms and bathrooms and facilities.
We have effectively kept the footprint as it were on that level,
although we have added a small deck that the two boys share off their bedrooms. It's not a large
space, but it's enough just to present them with an inclined garden and a since of privacy and a
wonderful glimpse of the borrowed landscape of the neighbours properties. Moving up from there, we
embraced an old roof space that was dysfunctional, and the very top floor is a guest room which was
a wonderful attic space and probably has the best views of the neighbouring context.
We've opened that up and embraced a lot of the textural heritage of that space.
At the rear of the site is a new double garage, which flanks the new swimming pool. Above that
space, we've been able to build a private roof terrace and a garden and it's a wonderful moment,
it's like a villa on a Greek island where you may have a small, tight context but it allows you to
get up and stick your head up above the rest of the buildings and see the sky and feel the sun.
The site is not large, but there is a large amount of space in the front which was
untouchable. Here there was a great opportunity to create a beautiful garden.
That garden then wraps around the western side of the building
and the greenery is embraced from all the rooms and as it continues to grow and sink its teeth in,
it will become more present and the neighbouring buildings will start to disappear.
I think the difference with Steve and MCK is the way they involve all parties,
they accept ideas and let us challenge decisions. When the relationship between
the architects and the owners and the builder is strong, you'll get a strong outcome. One
of the great powers of architecture is its ability to make people stop, think
and make people wonder, "what's beyond that?", and I really like that.