When Nina Still and Still Space Architecture set out to transform a terrace in Sydney’s inner west into a flexible, light-filled home for a young family, they were working with a tight site inside a heritage conservation area, and the answer they brought to our 2022 program was cross-laminated timber, used so inventively that the new building form squeezes every last space out of the block.
The CLT was supplied and fabricated by XLam Australia from radiata pine grown in sustainably certified plantations in southern New South Wales and sourced through Australian suppliers holding PEFC certification, a commitment to Australian timber that set the project apart for our judges.
A prefabricated CLT shell brought the house to lock-up quickly, allowing it to be fitted out through the wet winter months. Inside, the panels run the full width of the site and lift the floor-to-ceiling heights, left exposed to avoid extra materials and waste. “On a small tight site every inch counts,” according to Still Space.
A Laneway Studio and Light for the Neighbours
The form is sculpted to keep light reaching the neighbours and to sit within its heritage context, with the renovation unfolding behind the original tiled roof, while a long skylight runs the length of the stair to draw daylight deep into the ground floor and a first-floor extension adds the main bedroom, a bathroom and a rear study that doubles as a hang-out room.
At the back of the block, a separate studio faces the rear lane, giving the garden and living spaces privacy and shade from the western sun, and its mix of solid and translucent corrugated cladding over framing painted bright blue lets the building glow at night while it works as a home office, play space and overflow for entertaining.
Coloured steel posts, feature walls and careful lighting finish the house, and as our 2022 awards book put it, the approach gives the project “an exceptional vitality.”
Winners across all 13 awards, including the Grand Prix, will be announced in the Harbourside Room at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art on Wednesday 21 October, and with more than 85 per cent of gala tickets already sold, there is still time to join us for the night.
Annandale CLT House won our Australian Certified Timber award in the Excellence in the Use of Timber Products category in 2022, and a terrace renovation that makes every inch count is exactly why we celebrate timber projects of every scale.
