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Project Details:

Location: Sydney, Australia

Architect: Studio Prineas / @studioprineas

Footprint: 2,950 square feet

Builder: Beach Houses Australia

Structural Engineer: Partridge Partners

Landscape Design: Spirit Level

Cabinetry Installation: Finch Projects

Artwork: Tiarna Herzeg and Ann Thompson

Photographer: Clinton Weaver / @_clintonweaver

From the Architect: “Set amidst towering bushlands in Northern Sydney, New Line House revives an iconic Pettit & Sevitt house with a contemporary addition, crafting a joyful and sentimental home for family life. In the 1960s, home builders Pettit & Sevitt collaborated with Australian architects Ken Woolley and Michael Dysart to bring good architecture to the suburbs, delivering simple, functional, and affordable homes that respond to the natural landscape. Understanding the significance of this legacy, the client approached Studio Prineas to extend their East Ryde property—a well-preserved example of Pettit & Sevitt’s second housing model, The Lowline, and the client’s original childhood home, which had recently been passed down.

“The existing architecture preserved the site’s natural slope, comprising a flat-roofed single level perched above a steep driveway and garage. While Studio Prineas’ initial response preserved the single-level layout with a rear pavilion and glazed link, the client was interested in adding a second level for bedrooms, ensuring their young family felt connected. Studio Prineas started by relocating the entry to the opposite side of the home, offering an intuitive path of travel from the street. Visitors are now greeted with a stepped garden, leading to an intimate entry courtyard and tiled seat that heightens the sense of arrival and sets the tone for the interior beyond.

“Inside, the home’s frontage accommodates a lounge room and study, each with elevated views across the leafy street. The original spiral stair was replaced with a playful open-tread stair that follows the home’s central corridor spine. A laundry, walk-in pantry, and powder room are tucked behind, freeing the home’s northern elevation so the kitchen, dining, and sitting areas can take in views of the garden and pool, set against the site’s outcrop of natural rock. Upstairs, four bedrooms and a small sitting room comfortably accommodate the young family and visiting guests. A large bathroom is designed with sharing in mind—the vanity is separated from the other amenities to facilitate multiple users. On the lower ground level, an additional bedroom and bathroom for the family’s nanny sit beside the garage, while excavation below the property allowed for the inclusion of a storage wall, wine cellar, and cinema room.

“From the street, the new architecture presents as a continuation of Pettit and Sevitt’s original vernacular, with Studio Prineas aligning the upper level with the home’s original brick piers and echoing its horizontal roof band. Integrated landscaping softens the transition between old and new; the original volume distinguished with horizontal cladding and the addition in prefinished fibre cement sheet—a robust, low maintenance material with fine vertical ribbing.

“With an eye on preserving the house’s authentic and timeless appeal, Studio Prineas drew on a nostalgic palette of walnut veneer, laminate, colored carpet, mosaic tiling, and crazy paving in tones that harmonize with the natural landscape. The kitchen’s tiled island bench, finished with a functional stainless-steel inset, offers a contemporary reinterpretation of modernist tiled counters, while the bedroom robes take cues from freestanding midcentury wardrobes, raised on timber legs and with expressed laminate carcasses.

“Captivated by the retro charm of the home’s original curtains, the design team ingeniously repurposed these textiles as window seat upholstery—a tender reference to the house’s history and the client’s cherished memories of her mother. A selection of iconic light fittings and furniture pieces accentuate this visual language, including Louis Poulson PH5 pendants, Lampe DeMarseille Mini Nemo wall lights by Le Corbusier, and a R160 Contour chair and a Scape armchair and footstool designed by Australian modernist furniture great, Grant Featherston.”

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