Suters Sunnyside House.

Built in 1874 for AA Company as a farm cottage, Sunnyside Residence had been progressively altered and absorbed into suburbia.

Allowing the original brick cottage to emerge from unsympathetic accretions, an uncompromising two storey wing was built to the south of the miniscule site, connected to the 1874 cottage by a single storey gallery. The courtyard created between the old and new wings creates northern exposure to main living areas.

Major elements of the concrete structure are expressed and contrast with the mellowness of the beech ply ceiling.

A modernist abstract palette of strong colours was used to indicate where the 20th century intrusive sections were removed. This device continues with the first floor dark ironstone metal clad cube emerging from the light dune coloured bagged brickwork base. The metal cube motif is repeated in the form of the carport, nestling on the west of the original cottage.

The new Living Area is a single space containing Kitchen, Dining and Sitting areas opening up to the central Courtyard. The dynamics of the modernist geometry is highlighted by a steel and timber stair – the silver galvanised steel spine contrasting with the dark ironbark recycled treads. As if to open the stair to the sky, a brilliant ultramarine coloured inclined plane hovers over. Further colour planes occur in the courtyard and the Kitchen island unit.
The house is furnished with classic Bauhaus and Artek furniture together with a few new simple pieces. Complementing the whole are 20th century paintings collected over the preceding 50 years.