South facing Khandallah house

Before its 2010 extreme makeover, this austere 1960s house perched awkwardly on tall steel pylons high above a steep Khandallah hillside. Although it enjoyed magnificent city and harbour views to the south, clumsy garages on the north face blocked the sun, even in the top floor living rooms.

A new lower storey with sunken garden and bridge anchors the house to the street and allows solar gain and light deep into the structure.

The central stairway is an atrium, which filters light into all rooms and allows natural and fan-assisted automatic ventilation to freshen the rooms on all three storeys.

The stairs are constructed of clear powder coated steel with glass balustrades and strip timber dividing screen.

New flooring includes stained bamboo, tiles, and stained fibre cement slabs.

New windows are double glazed aluminium and existing timber windows have double glazed aluminium inserts.

Bridge decking and frames are eucalyptus saligna.

The house has solar water heating.