ZZ Top House McMahons Point, Luxury Sydney Real Estate, NSW Home Photos, Australia Building Design Images
ZZ Top House in McMahons Point
16 May 2022
Design: CplusC
Location: McMahons Point, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Photos: Murray Fredericks and Michael Lassman
ZZ Top House, NSW
In ZZ Top House, it’s hard to tell if you’re inside or out. The topsy-turvy design deliberately confounds perspective by bringing in the outdoors. Natural light pours into the sky-high living spaces through zigzagging louvres and skylights to create a captivating inside world where the home’s beautiful details are the view.
The site
How do you create visual interest inside an unusually long and inward-looking site with zero outlook bounded by two warehouses? That was the challenge in updating this dual-frontage Victorian terrace house in McMahon’s Point, Sydney. Inspired by two ideas, the geode and the zigzag, architects CplusC designed a soaring yet approachable living space that delights the eye without views to the outside.
A living geode
With no outlook to work with, CplusC’s design for ZZ Top House takes cues from geodes, rocks that contain hollow cavities lined with jagged crystals to create dazzling inner worlds.
In the same way, the home opens from an unassuming exterior to reveal a fascinating space inside. Bold 3.8-metre-high louvres and skylights admit light and the outdoors to this secret world, creating a beautiful symphony of light and shade nuanced by season and time of day. An accordion rhythm compresses and connects the vast spaces, wittily expressed by a recurring zigzag motif explored in the floors, the louvred windows and even the kitchen bench.
The design
CplusC’s design for the four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom home retained the entire original terrace house, transforming most of the ground floor into a massive living area flowing from inside to out. Moving the entrance from the front façade to the side of the building gives instant access to the rear living spaces for an arresting first impression. At entry level are the kitchen and dining rooms, with lofty louvres, skylights and vertical lighting cavities emphasising the big airy spaces. One level down, the living room transitions to the undercover outside living space and garden. A firepit and custom benches are the perfect place to enjoy an illuminated mural projected onto the massive warehouse wall by night.
Turning the house inside out
For guests entering, there’s always a double take: are they inside or outside? The design dissolves the feeling of being indoors with ample use of glass inviting the outside in. The effect is heightened by the external elements that look into this private world, with the original arches, rear terrace house balcony and exterior terrace walls creating abundant visual interest inside. These outdoor reference points conspire with the extraordinary volume of the living spaces to create a light and open feeling. It’s like living outside.
Sustainable
CplusC designed and built ZZ Top House with the integrated sustainability features the firm is known for. The house has a 10kWhr solar system supported by Tesla battery storage and uses cross-ventilation, thermal mass optimisation, insulation and passive solar strategies to achieve near zero electricity bills throughout the year.
Recycled floorboards, dry-pressed bricks and restoring rather than replacing heritage features reduced the project’s embodied energy while creating an endlessly interesting interior.
ZZ Top House in McMahons Point, NSW – Building Information
Architect & Builder: Clinton Cole – https://cplusc.com.au/
Project size: 523 sqm
Site size: 435 sqm
Completion date: 2021
Building levels: 2
Project Architect: Carmen Chan
Project Manager: Christina Cheng
Architectural Assistant: Hayden Co’burn
Architectural Assistant: Matt Reid
Foreman: Barry Bradley
Leading Hand: Nathan Krstevski
Structural Engineer: Partridge
Plumbing: JH Gordon
Electrical: D2E
Doors and Windows: Windoor
Joinery: Sydney Kitchen Co
Painting: Orange Painting
Brick Laying: Brazil Construction
Glazing: Balmain Glass
Structural Steel: Tenze
Roofing: Flash Metal Roofing
Setting and Plaster Works: Mick Williams Plastering
Landscaping: Bell Landscapes
Photography: Murray Fredericks and Michael Lassman
ZZ Top House, McMahons Point Sydney images / information received 160522 from CplusC
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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