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Connecting a harbourside apartment to its natural outlook, this project creates a light-filled, tranquil home against the backdrop of the city.

This apartment, originally built in the 1980s, suffered from an outdated and convoluted layout. Whilst generous in area, spaces were disconnected from their natural outlook and views overlooking Sydney Harbour.

Strategic reconfiguration included demolishing the existing wall that separated the kitchen from the views and the creation of a timber joinery core that establishes a continuous circulation an outdated plan loop around which daily life occurs.

The former kitchen wall is replaced by a timber screen that conceals five slender structural steel columns, clad to match adjacent American Oak timbers - allowing light and views to permeate through.

A simple and natural palette of pale oak, porcelain and brass is set against neutral white surfaces. Visual elements and material joints are reduced through the use of large-format surfaces and crisp details, creating an interior of calm and tranquillity. This approach suffuses spaces with soft, natural light, bringing warmth and serenity to the inhabitant’s daily lives.

The timber joinery core performs a dual function; housing and concealing elements such as the powder room, ensuite, robe, storage and kitchen; and secondly establishing a simplified layout, around which living, dining and sleeping spaces are connected by a single circulation loop.

Large-format porcelain tiles give bathrooms a seamless quality, whilst custom mirror units conceal vanity storage behind. Careful detailing incorporates practical necessities of services, structure and storage into an overall approach of simplicity and refinement.

Cremorne Point Apartment combines an approach of visual reduction with tactile warmth; spaces are informed by the simplicity of elements and surfaces, enhancing the awareness and experience of natural phenomena; the subtle changing of light and time.

The apartment provides a flexible home for a downsizing couple, anticipating requirements and living arrangements for future social sustainability. Relationships between social and private spaces are carefully balanced, serving by turns as both an urban retreat and a venue for entertaining.

Furniture items such as the bed, bedside table and coffee table were custom designed by studioplusthree and made for the project to bring cohesion to the interior, evoking a mood of calm and understated luxury through its restrained palette and simple geometries.

From the macro to the micro, strategic moves combine with refined details to create a light-filled, tranquil home against the backdrop of the city.

Awards: 

  • Winner: 2020 Houses Award - Apartment or Unit

Photographer - Ben Hosking

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Cremorne Point by studioplusthree - The Local Project
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment
Cremorne Point Apartment

About the
Professional

studioplusthree is an award-winning architecture practice based in Sydney. We are focused on the design of bespoke residential and cultural projects, following our three core values.

Nature
Access to light, air, views and landscape are key features of our work. We value the inherent beauty of natural materials and light. We are committed to designing in a way that is sustainable, specific to place, and built to last.

Craft
We believe in the use of skill and craftmanship to make enduring buildings. We design thoughtfully and deliberately, respecting the experience and knowledge of those we work with.
We are specific about details, the qualities of materials, and how buildings are assembled.

People
At the centre of our work is how spaces feel. We aim to create something special for each of our projects that reflects who it is designed for, and the place it is in. We seek to collaborate with clients that share this ambition, working closely together to create buildings and spaces that are welcoming, generous, calm and comfortable.

The studio was established in 2014 by directors and co-founders Simon Rochowski and Julin Ang, who lead a team of skilled creative designers.

studioplusthree has been recognised in national and international awards for its work, receiving the national Houses Award for Cremorne Point Apartment, and in 2021 being nominated for the Dezeen Awards 'Emerging Architect of the Year'. 

The studio has received the national Australian Interior Design Award for Installation Design, a NSW Architecture Award for Small Project Architecture, and in 2023 the studio was shortlisted the NSW Architecture Awards Emerging Architect Prize. The work of the studio has been published widely in Australian and international design media.