By Smart Design Studio
Nickson 61 is a sensitive yet dynamic adaptive reuse project in Surry Hills, consisting of a small-scale single commercial space with two new high-quality residential units on the two upper floors. The site contained a late-19th century terrace and a three-metre-wide vacant end lot, The bold new peeling form completes the row and provides contrast to the existing built form. The sculptural form is carefully considered to retain the expression of the adjacent terrace envelope, while strategic slots in the façade curve out to frame views.
Photography: Romello Pereira
Smart Design Studio, founded in 1997, has a reputation as a multi-disciplinary design studio of excellence. With a diverse range of design projects - master-planning for new urban centres, public projects, commercial, cultural and retail spaces, multi-unit residential developments and private residences - Smart Design Studio produces buildings and interiors of elegant simplicity, a quality which unites our portfolio across differences in scale.
Our studio is run with five separate teams, each with its own area of specialisation. These teams share knowledge and work together at critical stages of the design process, allowing the expertise of one team to influence the designs of others. For example, our interior design team may assist the architectural teams at sketch design stages to develop good space planning and later in the documentation stage with the selection of finishes or lighting design. Conversely, the architectural teams assist the interiors team with structural knowledge, building regulation requirements and construction techniques. And the new designs developed by our private residential team are transferred to our larger projects after they have been constructed and proven to be both effective and efficient.