Q. What was the brief?
A. The client asked me to create bedrooms and bathrooms for her adult daughters on the lower level and a bedroom and living/dining area on the upper level, focusing on a new front terrace overlooking the view to Botany Bay.

Q. How much of the existing home did you retain?
A. A key element of sustainable renovation is to retain as much of the existing house as possible. This is to reduce landfill by demolition, which is also cost effective for the client. The only demolition we did was to incorporate a hallway into an enlarged bedroom.

Q. What was the concept behind this design?
A. I took a holistic design approach, blending ecological principles of solar and climate design with the ancient Feng Shui wisdom of site planning. For example, the curved roof compliments the waterside location and curved ceilings allow for more height in the upper living area.

Q. How is it eco-friendly?
A. We used passive solar design principles suited to this temperate Sydney climate. The living areas face north to capture northern winter sun and opening windows have been used to maximise natural cross-ventilation, especially summer breezes from the bay that provide passive cooling at night.

Q. How have you used the principles of Feng Shui?
A. Ancient wisdom says if we live in harmony with everything and everyone it's then possible to find harmony within ourselves. The house has been connected to the site by re-use of the existing building and by blending into and complimenting the site's features.

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Q. How has an eco-friendly design been achieved?
A. We get lots of morning sun in winter, making it one of the warmest houses we've lived in. And it's very cool in summer.

Q. Is the kitchen user friendly?
A. The kitchen is upstairs, which is great. When we cook we can look at the view. We've got an L-shaped living/dining area and the kitchen is on the back part of the 'L' at the front of the house. Normally it would be downstairs, out the back.

Q. What's your favourite part of the house?
A. I love the upstairs area - it's perfect for entertaining and we often have dinner parties there. We've also got a great big balcony out the front of the lounge area and a smaller balcony off the dining area. So we often have dinner parties where we all end up sitting out on the balcony.

Q. Can you entertain downstairs as well?
A. The downstairs pool area is lovely as well. We just open up the bi-fold doors downstairs and it's one big flowing living area. It's a great design. You could actually have a dinner party upstairs and be entertaining downstairs as well.

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Julia - Waterfront Renovation & Addition Sylvania Waters

Q. What was the brief from the client?
A. The first priority was to convert an existing three-car garage and add separate self-contained accommodation for the client's mother.

Q. What was the original home like?
A. The existing house was a four-bedroom, double-storey brick veneer/tile roof project home built in the mid-70s. It had clinker-face bricks on the exterior.

Q. Which parts of the original home did you keep?
A. Almost all of the existing house was preserved. In our architectural practice we aim to retain as much of the existing house as possible, to reduce waste and save the client money, so we made sure there was minimal demolition.

Q. How have you made the most of the elements?
A. We've used passive solar design principles that work well with the Sydney climate. The living areas face roughly north to capture winter sun and the pergolas shade north-facing windows from summer sun.

Q. How have you made the building fit into the site?
A. We always aim to give our designs a sense and spirit of place by connecting them to the site. In this case, this was accomplished by reusing the existing building and landscaping appropriate to the location.