Waverley (Under Construction)
Balancing Heritage and Modernity: Adaptive Reuse with Contemporary Addition on a Challenging Site
Located on a steep, triangular site, this project involves the restoration and adaptive reuse of a freestanding heritage-listed timber cottage with a metal roof. The design retains and restores the original structure while removing a series of unsympathetic additions built over the past 130 years. In their place, a new ecologically sustainable dwelling is introduced, designed to respect the heritage significance of the existing building and provide a contemporary home suited to future living.
Design Response
The proposal resolves the steep site through three terraced levels, each with a distinct function that integrates architecture and landscape.
- Upper Terrace
– Heritage Entry Level
The east-facing terrace, defined by the street and the existing cottage porch, reinstates the building’s heritage character. Indigenous coastal planting surrounds the cottage, framing the original façade and offering subtle glimpses of the new additions beyond. It provides a home for vegetable beds, chickens, rainwater harvesting, a community book swap and a shaded outdoor room to view the neighbouring park. - Middle
Terrace – Living Platform
Positioned three metres below the upper level, the middle terrace is cut into the slope and retained with sandstone walls that provide both structure and thermal mass. It contains the new open-plan living, kitchen, and dining areas that connect to a landscaped garden terrace. Above this level, a lightweight pavilion which accommodates bedrooms and bathrooms. This pavilion is designed to appear as a floating volume over the landscape. - Lower Terrace
– Garage and Green Roof
The lowest level contains a garage, concealed by a green roof that extends the outdoor living spaces of the middle terrace. The landscaped roof provides additional garden area while visually softening the built form within the urban context, and provides privacy from the adjacent rear street.
Sustainability Features
- Passive solar orientation and design
- Low-E, acoustic glazing and high insulation levels
- Sandstone walls providing effective thermal mass
- Energy-efficient lighting, fixtures, and appliances
- Solar panels with battery storage and EV charger
- Rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation
- Native and edible landscaping promoting biodiversity and food growing
- Recycled timber, reclaimed brick, and local sandstone
Project Team : Matt Day, Lachy Whitford
Builder : Tim Lambert Constructions
Structural Engineer : Cantilever Engineers
Landscape Architect : Even Spaces