Tribe Studio Architects

This grand old Arts and Crafts dame in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs channels the spirit of the original architect in its restoration and extension

Extrapolating from the existing architectural logic, we extended the heritage listed Bellevue Hill House on its own terms, using the ethos of the Arts and Crafts to be inventive with detail, to embrace narrative within the design and to lean into eccentricity. At the same time, we worked zealously to protect the sense that the original house gives its prettiest face and sweetest garden to the street.

Our project honours Bellevue Hill’s legacy: it prioritises neighbourliness, it honours and meets a quality of craft and landscape design, and it registers our colonial and indigenous history in its regeneration.

The house’s original architect was likely to have been either Bertram James Waterhouse or Edmund Roy Orchard. Either way, the references to British Arts and Crafts architects Edwin Lutyens and Charles F Voysey are clear. Our design is the result of a deep engagement with the work of these architects, and an attempt to embody an attitude to design and problem solving that celebrates craft, narrative and idiosyncrasy. We went out hunting problems, looking for trouble. The original house is full of idiosyncratic details and finishes from its original construction in 1915, its first renovation in 1921 and subsequent renovation in the mid 1950s.

We honoured the organisational logic of the house in plan, section and material expression. Bedrooms are nestled into the huge shingled and tiled gable roof. Services are located in the sandstone basement and the middle floor is the space between the two. We honoured the expressive and crafted nature of the construction. We honoured the contribution to the public domain, the absence of car infrastructure, the generous garden shared with the street.