Before & After: A Blighted Boarding House in Sydney Is Now an Adaptable Courtyard Home

Before: The original terrace had been converted into a boarding house, with the rear demolished in the 1930s and replaced with what one neighbor described as a monstrosity. "This was the appeal, though," says Joe. "The monstrosity gave us a planning envelope in which we could negotiate an outcome different to ‘heritage and planning code’ compliance—hence a courtyard typology that broke the planning and heritage rules was possible. The local council and the neighbors were all happy as the monstrosity that had blighted the now-somewhat-gentrified streetscape for 70 years was set to go."