‘I wanted to yodel’: How renovation transformed three awkward homes

The cyclical nature of design trends have long been evident in architecture. Styles deemed passé by one generation will be revived and reinvented by the next, who see beauty and opportunity. These three properties show how the positive attributes of a house, such as location, orientation and connection to garden, can be capitalised on to transform “ugly ducklings” into comfortable, contemporary homes.

Architect Brian Zulaikha and artist Janet Laurence share their time between an apartment in the 1960s Gazebo building, a modernist edifice in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, and a house just outside Berry , south of the city. The couple were looking for a tree change after selling their home in inner-Sydney Balmain and settled on a rolling verdant plot at the foot of Woodhill Mountain.

On the 20,000-square-metre property there was a faux colonial-style homestead, completed in 1990, which had a mish-mash of ideas, including bullnose verandahs and rust-coloured painted timber gable ends. “I love great 1960s and ’70s architecture but when I first saw the kitchen, I wanted to yodel,” says Zulaikha, who thought the heavy, pine-knotted joinery was more suited to a Swiss chalet. “But I could see the ‘bones’ and the way all the doors opened onto the return verandah.”

Laurence also wasn’t put off by the décor, initially focusing on the garden. “I thought there were elements of a Japanese temple, the way each room responded directly to the garden,” she says.

While the existing garden wasn’t exactly to her taste, including its large dose of hydrangeas and roses, she could see how these species could be combined with native grasses and shrubs to create a more contemporary area. Stainless-steel wire used for the balustrades on the verandah was easily removed and replaced with cascading rock beds, mediating the change in level from the deck to the garden.

Known as the Tree Change House, it received a commendation from the Australian Institute of Australia (NSW regional chapter) this year in the Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions) category. It has been completely reworked within its concrete blockwork and rendered brickwork, with new steel roofs over the home’s two separate but interconnected wings.

The main part of the house was conceived like a “stream”, with stone paving on the floor all the way from the front entrance to the rear terrace. Tallow wood in its natural state was used for the joinery, the floors and the chunky timber rafters, with Zulaikha suggesting it has a “nuts-and-berries feel” (created by exposing materials to provide a rustic aesthetic; a style associated with a number of well-known Sydney architects from the 1960s, such as Ken Woolley and Bruce Rickard). Laurence’s art is also now integrated within the architecture, with glass art framed in timber adjacent to the front door, welcoming guests upon arrival.