Glass Book House in Sydney by Sibling Architecture.

The front façade of this demure federation-style home wouldn’t necessarily spark great interest on first inspection. However, one may begin to guess the special home that now extends behind its outer face if they looked closely enough – a small whisper of what lies beyond stands quietly in the form of stacked glass bricks next to the front door. Sibling Architecture has sensitively brought new life to the red brick and corrugated iron homes that dominate the streetscape, creating a residential building that brings a contemporary conversation to a quiet street in Sydney’s Tempe.

Glass Book House is described by the architects as “a retreat from the outside world”, a place where their client, a retiring English literature academic, can lose themselves in the simple joyful act of reading. The home is designed as a sanctuary revolving around a seriously extensive book collection, where “the individual act of reading structures the two-storey addition”.

The lower ground level contains the kitchen and dining space and is open to the original dining room, while the upper level of the extension contains a study and bookshelf that extends down to the kitchen floor below. Every communal space is flanked by the two-storey bookcase, the tales now living on its shelves becoming active participants in all the cooking, eating and entertaining.

The glass block rear façade stands as a different interpretation of the red brick that surrounds the property on both sides. Its semitransparent form brings filtered, indirect light deep into the home, creating the perfect conditions for reading.

Kitchen joinery and an additional blue stair connect to form a single sculptural element. It’s somewhat industrial voice acts as a counterpoint to the warmth of timber pieces and terracotta-coloured floor tiles, bringing material complexity to the scheme.

By night, the façade becomes illuminated from within, the activities inside distorted into a moving blur of colour. Passers-by can’t help but wish they were included in the narrative that exists within its glowing shell.

Related: Bricks Decoded: The Return of Glass Blocks.

[Images courtesy of Sibling. Photography by Katherine Lu.]