A historically sound but derelict townhouse—the triumph of a three-year roots-to-rafters renovation—No.8 was practically dismantled, buffed and bettered, then pieced back together. From the street, the only signs of modernity are its masterfully remade heritage features: a new roof, repointed brickwork, sash windows, and a lime-rendered facade all doing their bit to preserve the traditions of this inner-city conservation area.
But inside, the transformation is palpable. Hand-sketching, holistic rendering, and zealous considerations of levels, volume, height, and light turned it into an archetype of radical restoration—a project so notable that it earned a coveted feature in The New York Times. With vantage points from front to back, custom timber doors, the new offer of indoor-outdoor living, and breakaway nooks that offer solitude, the 120-year-old terrace now stands as HUTCH’s flagship of architectural revival.
Turning what was a dingy building into a happy family home called for a softening—etching recessed niches for ‘disappearing’ pocket doors, curving corners to make ribbon-like corridors, forming double-height dimensions, and knitting tunnels of natural light into the very fibre of its updated blueprints. Even the split stairway was turned to sculpture, its curvilinear bannister winding up three storeys of restored pinewood floorboards. The effect is as though the interior has been chiselled from stone—a boxy, century-old home sculpted into a suburban sanctuary. Nature grows up around it, with dappling trees to the front and a miniature courtyard jungle at the back, planted with spotlit shrubs and Tasmanian fern.
