Architecture Wednesday: The Bakery in Sydney

I love when a new house is created out of an entirely different space, and this house in Sydney, Australia, is exactly what I’m talking about.

The Newtown property is made up of two adjoined early 20th-century buildings; it was originally a commercial bakery and a corner store—and even later, a garment factory—before it was reimagined as a five-bedroom home. But while the interior has become new and modern, yet still retains some of the original floors and spaces of the bakery and shop, its façade—which still reads W Dribble 1922 and 1909, respectively—is an assortment of original brick, steel and chimneys.

Inside, however, the building has been reconfigured over 8,000 square feet light-drenched living spaces spread across two floors that retain their soaring volumes and industrial feel—albeit softened by polished concrete floors with underfloor heating and a soothing monochrome color scheme. Wooden rafters and painted metal trusses are reminders of the building’s storied past though a more modern free-flowing floorplan is now reconfigured for domestic use.

The large kitchen is outfitted with customized, hand-painted cabinetry and a giant island that merges with the living room; black metal-framed windows and doors have been custom-made, while demolished brick walls were hand-scraped and reused for new walls; there is also original timbers and exposed brick and layers of patinated paint throughout the home.

One space that I would die for is that library, with floor-to-ceiling shelving stacked with 30,000 books. There’s also a moody office, several bedrooms, his and hers dressing rooms and bathrooms—which could easily be reimagined as his and his. The home also includes a music room, an artist's studio, an entrance atrium  and, outside, an internal garden with a heated saltwater pool, lush greenery, including plantings for bees and birds as well as a vegetable garden and gravel pathways.

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The Spaces

Architecture Wednesday: Old Warehouse to New Quirkyhouse

Yeah, I know … another conversion project; but I can’t help myself; I love the reuse, recycle method of design and architecture of taking something old, and probably closed up and shuttered, and creating something new.

Plus, there’s a giant tooth inside this one; seriously.

First, I love the interiors; the eclectic design and architecture; the tiles and the skylights; the trumpet light; the reclaimed wood and the soaring ceilings; that closet. But then there, right in the middle of the floor is a giant tooth … or, as the architects dubbed it, a ‘man cave,’ though it’s really a bedroom with an ensuite.

The ‘man cave’ is a sculptural carbon-fiber pod with a semi-gloss finish of resin-faced foam separated into two spaces: the bedroom, with the bed sculpted from the wall and a leather — yes, leather-clad floor — and an ensuite, which incorporates a shower area, built-in vanity, freestanding basins and bathtub sculpture.

It’s like the best of both worlds … a lot of something old, recycled and reused and redone, with a touch of something from the future.

HomeDSGN

Don't $%#@ With A Gay's Rainbow

Down Under, in Sydney, Australia, a Rainbow street crossing had been painted in one of the city’s gayborhoods to commemorate the 35^th anniversary of the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

But, the city wasn’t too keen on the Rainbow so one night, in the middle of the night, road workers moved in and laid new asphalt over the crossing. NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay said it was becoming a safety hazard because people were laying down on the road to have their picture taken, and also says the city failed to renew the crossing's special permit after a one-month trial, leaving Gay with no choice but to remove it. 

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore however, who was part of a public campaign to keep the crossing, said the move was an "aggressive act".

But the removal of the short-lived rainbow crossing seems to have spawned a movement to chalk them up on the roads, which is now garnering international attention. Rainbow pedestrian crossings are popping up across Sydney to protest the NSW Government painting over an iconic one in the city's gay district.

Proof positive that you never, ever, take away the Gay’s Right to Rainbow.

Civil disobedience never looked so colorful.