Brick by Brick: SJB’s Adam Haddow Designs a Legacy Home for his Parents in Ararat.

The concept of downsizing often comes with some added baggage, although who knows why the idea of shifting your lifestyle to align more closely with your needs has somehow become reductive. Adam Haddow, director of SJB’s Sydney studio and all-time favourite son, proves this in designing his parent’s ‘right-sized’ (read: not down) home in regional Victoria.

Ararat House makes up a snug 153 square meters, very comfortably, of a less-snug 1,000 square meter site. Keeping the existing yellow-brick house in mind, this red-brick takeover perfectly complements the surrounding houses of Ararat, even with all the 1950s additions and reductions that, admittedly, have left some original identity up to the imagination.

The house represents slow living, and heroes local manufacturing and materials. It does not beg for attention but rather exists confidently in its own space, hugged by a hit-and-miss red brick curve and hidden (but only just) by the soft and natural landscaping that sprouts from all around. Peeking through, we see a soft-red render disguising the horizontal and vertical organisation of the brick pattern, but not completely.

Can Living with Less Result in More: Adam Haddow's Home in Sydney’s Surry Hills.

Designed by SJB director Adam Haddow, for himself and his husband Michael and their dog Eric, this home was an exercise in how to take a postage stamp site and do more with less, while achieving all the amenities of a ‘big house’.

The exterior is driven by the hatchwork of vertical and horizontal brick coursing, which carries through internally with some added interest thrown in the (pre)mix with the introduction of square brick faces and circular interventions. These rounded motifs take the form of voids and skylights in ceilings, circular tiling layouts by the front door and in the shape of the feature windows, softening what would otherwise have been a rather rigid brick structure. It truly does seem like a bricklayer’s dream (if you like your job, that is). This variation in brick colour, orientation and layout makes for an interesting home and creates opportunities for fun to be had.

Throughout, butter-yellow incisions in the walls and ceilings pay homage to the existing yellow-brick, and lighten the overall mood of the place. The kitchen plays with hues of green, only just opposite of the existing red on the colour wheel. The olive and forest green joinery is made to pop by the square white tiled splashback and challenged a little further by the double-barreled edge of the kitchen island, a fun stone installation with chubby wooden legs that becomes a play on the rich timber casework throughout the home.

New Line House: Studio Prineas Revives a 1960s Pettit & Sevitt Sydney Gem.

The project thoughtfully expands the original single-level home upward, maintaining architectural integrity while introducing modern amenities and meaningful personal touches.

Through the bedroom, an immediate sense of serenity is introduced as the muted moss-green carpet and walls suggest a haven and private sanctuary from the warmth of the rest of the home. The ensuite continues this zen-like quality, as it allows light to refract and reflect off the cool green tiles, and also introduces the indoor-outdoor shower, as it opens up to the private garden beyond.

The Ararat house goes one step further than the idea that it might only be occupied by Adam’s parents in their retirement, it is perfectly placed to become a home that stays in the family for generations to come, and welcomes grandchildren at all times. It is, as was intended, the perfect way to ‘right-size’ and encourage slow, local living.

From Modern to Contemporary: Snedons Landing Home by Rick Cook.

In Snedons Landing, COOKFOX founder Rick Cook has updated his 1970s modernist home. Originally designed by Charlie Winter, the renovation respects the home's "of the landscape" ethos while introducing contemporary elements.

[Images courtesy of SJB. Photography by Martina Gemmola.]