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A rare find for an inner-city suburb, the Cowshed offered our clients and our studio the opportunity to create something special and preserve a slice of Sydney’s eclectic past. Despite the hard urban edge of milking sheds built right to the street, the realised ambition is a gregarious family home centred around a private, walled courtyard.

The simple brick structure is aligned with the southwest boundary, with bedrooms in place of the old stalls in its northeast corner. Our strategy was to repair the structure, expose the bricks, and raise the roofline to accommodate a master suite mezzanine over the kitchen.

Rising to the roofline is a ribbon of clerestory windows, capturing soft light and breezes, helping the interior feel bright, yet private. Living and dining areas unfold under the exposed vaulted roofline while opening seamlessly out to the central courtyard.

Robust materials are authentic in the space. Exposed timber roof trusses and beams lend warmth to the recycled brick shell and concrete floors. Oiled timber doors and windows and corrugated steel cladding hint at the pastural vernacular.

Photography: Brett Boardman

Carter Williamson Architects
Summer Hill, New South Wales
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Professionals used in
Cowshed

About the
Professional

Our work is spatially exciting, playful, and robust, tuned to nature and place. 

Architecture should allow us to feel safe & secure, confident & expressive, quiet & reflective. It should make our lives better.

Our team comes from a range of backgrounds and disciplines, united by a passion for design excellence. Our focus on fostering a supportive, inclusive, well-balanced studio environment earned us the Best In Practice prize at the 2020 NSW Institute of Architects Awards.

Carter Williamson acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Land on which we work, the Wangal people of the Eora nation, and the Land on which our projects are sited, including the Gadigal, Guringai, and Cammeraygal peoples. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and recognise the myriad ongoing ways First Nations peoples have cared for and shaped their natural and built environments across thousands of generations.