Don’t be scared of heritage houses
Many homebuyers run a mile from buying, let alone renovating, heritage-listed homes.
Heritage can translate to high cost, high regulation and low return on investment, but according to one architect, heritage houses are easier to work with and more rewarding than people think.
“I think it does scare a lot of people off,” says architect and director of Glasshouse Projects Don Iannicelli.
“I think that people look at heritage places [and] put it in the ‘too hard’ basket. If you get the right information upfront, and you also deal with people that are … experienced in the heritage fields, it really isn’t that difficult.”
Iannicelli was tasked with restoring and extending of one of the oldest cottages in Adelaide.
His client wanted an historically sympathetic restoration for the front of his heritage-listed McLaren Street home, and a contemporary extension on the back.
“It was a very run-down little rabbit-warren, single-fronted cottage,” says Iannicelli.
You might like
“Those single cottages are notorious for being quite dark and dingy, and this one certainly was.
“As we were doing some demolition work, we uncovered under the old fireplace a note written on some of the old stonework, saying, ‘look up in the roof for the history of the building’.
“So we jumped up in the roof and had a good look around but couldn’t find anything. We were hoping to find some stories or some photos or something, but there was nothing up there.”
One of the most difficult aspects of design for heritage homes is being able to cohesively blend the old with the new.
This is achieved remarkably well in the McLaren Street home.
“The thing that … sets the design and the home apart is the way in which we used materials to sort of blur the lines and draw you in from the moment you enter the home,” Ianncelli says.
Now restored, the front of the house looks like a newly built 1890s Australian cottage; by the time you reach the outdoor entertaining area at the back, you’re back in modern Australia.
“Using different materials and allowing that light to flood right through to the front of the dwelling was the objective,” says Iannicelli.
Stay informed, daily
“The front of the house was purely a restoration process. That is being completely true to the heritage character. I guess where you try to fuse things and where it becomes a bit of a challenge is the extension.
“But it was never intended to be sympathetic in the way we designed it. It was always going to be a contemporary extension to an existing heritage dwelling.”
Blackbutt hardwood is used to draw the eye from the front to the back of the small house and unify the space.
Polished concrete, “a rather monolithic surface that blurs that inside-outside line”, was used as flooring for the same purpose.
“Even some of the feature tiling that we used internally just elongated the living room and emphasised the sense of space that we had there.”
Perhaps overcoming a stereotype, Iannicelli says working with the heritage experts at Adelaide City Council and the Planning Department was more of a help to construction than a hindrance.
“I found it a really enjoyable process, and dealing with experts in that field makes it considerably easier,” he says.
“Before we did any of the design work we had a preliminary meeting with the heritage department of the Adelaide City Council just to throw around some ideas and get their take on, not only the significance, but also how they perceive not only the restoration work but also the extension work.”
“They were very proactive and helpful. They were practical, as well.
“Things come up during construction process that may not go according to plan, and they were very understanding of that and very good at coming up with solutions.”
Perhaps heritage houses aren’t so scary after all.
Want to see more stories from InDailySA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDailySA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDailySA". That's it.
