The Lacuna House embraces a typical suburban brief – to create a haven away from a busy work-life and a safe home in which to raise children and live life. In doing so, the design realizes these common aspirations with a subtle overlaying of functional and aesthetic requirements to create new spaces, flows, and internal views while combatting the negative aspects of the site’s context. By focusing on the lacuna of the site – the unfilled spaces or gaps – the design reconciles built form with the landscape, and places a new pool as the connecting element that brings the site together. Located on Sydney’s leafy north shore, poor local planning decisions had overtime allowed two neighboring properties to compromise the setting for the inter-war dwelling.

A property with a high brick wall abutting the southern boundary had created an unsightly and unwelcome sense of enclosure. To the west, a neighbor’s second-story addition with a bank of windows overlooked the rear yard. Further, the rear yard of the site was unsightly, containing a ramshackle shed, overgrown garden, and cracked excessive paving. It was, therefore, no surprise that our clients desired a family home with generous spaces for outdoor living. Retaining the large rear yard for kicking a ball around and playing cricket was essential, so too was the need to provide an adaptable house for a family with two small children and regular visitors from overseas. Our design scheme introduces a new rear addition to the original cottage, with the soaring roofline and expansive stacked glazed doors to make the most of sky and treed views.