A Home Designed in the Spirit of Creative Sharehouses
Life of Riley is an alterations and additions project in Surry Hills that reimagines the Victorian terrace through narrative rather than restoration. Having lost much of its original character through ad-hoc alterations, the house presented an opportunity to approach the renovation with a more speculative lens.
The design centres on the idea of the home as a former creative share-house. The interior is conceived as a layered archive of past occupants — ceramicists, musicians, artists and craftspeople —and what each occupant may have left behind, each imbued with a story. Sitting at the core of the home, a continuous staircase becomes a spatial thread, drawing movement across the three levels.
The traditional approach to terrace renovations of maximising light in was in some ways eschewed for a more inward-looking atmosphere - the restrained white street-facing façade conceals a sequence of atmospheric interiors, balancing nostalgia with the spatial priorities of contemporary inner-city living.
