Houses Archives - Luigi Rosselli Architects

Jardin d’Eden

Located in a densely populated quarter north of Sydney Harbour, and surrounded by a vast garden, this home has recently received a second renewal. Built in the early 1900s in a Queen Anne style, Luigi…

Renaissance Villa Renée

Never demolish! This is the war cry of the many architects concerned by the large environmental impact of urban renewal if we continue to bring down existing buildings. The material waste, and the labour required…

Hearth in the Well

Architects are often asked to play ‘musical chairs’ on houses that need to be refreshed to reflect today’s standards. For this home, there was no requirement to increase the envelope of the building; instead, the…

Luigi Rosselli curved timber seat set into a manicured green lawn and framed by bushes, overlooking the Sydney Harbor

Upper Deck

Growing tired of the commute to city offices from their home in a leafy northern suburb, once their youngest child left home our clients decided to relocate to an apartment in walking distance from not…

Walter Liberty Vernon, Sydney architecture, Australian architecture, Neutral Bay, Neutral Bay homes, Neutral Bay architect, Neutral Bay architecture, dangar barin smith, danger barin smith landscaping, alwill interiors, alwill, outdoor furniture, outdoor furniture Australia, turquoise pool tiles, turquoise tiles, rammed earth, light coloured rammed earth, sandy rammed earth, inverted arch, white plantation shutters, glass pool rails, marble stepping stones, white window frames, sheer curtains, sheer white curtains, palm springs, two toned house facade, two toned house, two toned facade

Family Heritage

There is a perception that heritage houses are not family-friendly homes, that they are not easily adapted to the modern lifestyles of a young couple, their growing children and the grandparents, Family Heritage seeks to…

Earth-Ship

Architecturally, earthships form part of the discipline of adaptive reuse. They embrace a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century, which aims to utilise both natural and upcycled materials to create passive, sustainable,…

Sandcastle

Located at the crest of a steep sand embankment, Sandcastle is built on a block many considered too difficult to build on; a forty-five-degree slope that presented a climb to reach the house even a…

La Casa Rosa

Under the reign of Queen Victoria, the residential architecture of the British colonies was immersed in a nostalgic and late romantic borrowing of gothic architecture in its idealised interpretations of John Ruskin’s essay, The Seven…

Pacific View Point

Docked into the steep rocky strata of the Pacific Ocean coast, this home in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs is a place for contemplation; a place to observe and absorb the shimmer of the water, each fold…

Villa Nostalgia

Powerful sandstone foundations, a perfectly proportioned loggia with triple arches, and vast gardens, “Villa Nostalgia” is an elegant and gracefully aged villa located in Woollahra’s “consular belt”. In what was quite an interesting match, the…

Luigi Rosselli Architects, Sydney architecture, Bellevue Hills house, Woollahra house, residential architecture, frameless glass balustrade, terraces, Woollahra architecture

Hill House

Sydney’s Dress Circle Designed on a steep site, located just below the summit of Bellevue Hill, this substantial residence has been endowed with an eagle’s nest panorama. The harbour is Sydney’s stage set and here…

Luigi Rosselli Architects, mediterranean classicism villa, entry stone stairs

Peppertree Villa

Pepping Up Late 1920s Classicism At the summit of Bellevue Hill a centennial Peppertree rises over the skyline; two homes lie beneath its vast canopy. To one side of the fence, The Oculi House and…

Luigi Rosselli Architects, Cantilever Awning, Entry Canopy, Concrete, Cantilever Structure, Curved Awning, Stone, Sandstone, Stepping Stone, Woollahra architecture, Sydney architecture

Homage to Oscar

The Heritage of Modernism Sometimes alterations and additions can amount to significant interventions to breathe new life into a building, occasionally they require only the lightest touch to reinvigorate an existing design, as was the…

Luigi Rosselli Architects, Rammed Earth Walls, Rammed Earth Chimney, Rammed Earth

Earth, Wind and Fire

The Village House Earth is one of the oldest construction materials known to man; it can be fired, as with bricks and tiles, or used in its raw state as with adobe or rammed earth….

Luigi Rosselli Architects, Swimming Pool, Timber Bridge, Frameless Glass Pool Fencing, Frameless Glass, Timber Cladding, Concrete

Bridge Building

Water is a precious element in residential architecture, almost an essential element for happiness. In Islamic architecture, water is used as a balm to restless minds and is often found in psychiatric hospitals. This justifies…

Tama’s Tee House

A Coastal Concrete Unipod ‘Tama’ is short for Tamarama: a Sydney beach suburb, famous for its hedonistic surf culture, gradually being gentrified by a population that exchanges stock market tips while running barefoot to the…

Luigi Rosselli, Concrete, Sandstone, Garden, Mosman, timber garage door

The Books House

A Calligrapher handed three books to his wife, she placed them in a random stack on the table… “We want The Books House”… they said. The Architect understood that the books were not only a…

The Triplex Apartments

Stepped Residences in Bellevue Hill It’s not often that a council constraint is as welcome as Woollahra Council’s residential apartment building height code, which forces all units built on sloping sites such as Bellevue Hill…

Luigi Rosselli Architects | Bellevue Hill Californian Bungalow roof renovation sandstone fence, elliptical skylight steel windows

Raise the Roof

Going Up in Bellevue Hill We all aim for the top, including in our homes; we like the breeze, the view, and the light that comes with altitude. Attic additions, new first floor additions, loft…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Shutters, Glass Balustrade, Rendered Brick, Brick

The New Twin Peaks

Sydney’s ultimate trees are fine Port Jackson Figs. The pachyderms of the vegetal reign: fruit bearing, with dark glossy leaves and populated by many bird and bat colonies, they form the backdrop to “the new…

Luigi Rosselli, Stone, Stone Cladding, Stone Wall, Timber Garage Door, Driveway, Timber Shutters

Sticks & Stones Home

Hunters Hill is an attractive, historic peninsula that lies between the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers on the north shore of Sydney Harbour. The suburb, a precursor to the Garden City movement, was subdivided in…

Bougainvillea Row House

Architecture, the Director’s Cut Sydney’s planners are considering the return of the terraced house, or row house, as a favoured residential building type. It is believed the terrace could be one solution to addressing housing…

Curved Terrace, Balconies, External adjustable louvres, Concrete

Duplex and The City

Urban Living: a Dwelling with Two Apartments in Sydney Equivalent to the brownstones of New York, this interwar duplex is a humane scale solution to housing in the Sydney city fringes. Shoulder to shoulder with…

Curved Sandstone Wall, Anodised Aluminium Adjustable Louvres, Palm Tree

Martello Tower Home

A Sandstone Coastal Lookout Situated on the highest point of a ridge overlooking Sydney’s Middle Harbour is a solid, 3 storey brick house built during the between the late 1950s and early 1960s, which has…

Luigi Rosselli, Queen Anne Style, Alterations and Additions, Renovated House

Twin Peaks

A Queen Anne style residence reveals its hidden character and history in the late night lights. Two crisp zinc roof gables, observing the shadows on the narrow footpath, guard the new entry door. The early…

Hill Top Cottage

Weaving architectural heritage with contemporary design and lifestyle is a practice that rewards with surprises and character filled places. In a conservative residential pocket close to North Sydney, a workers cottage perches on top of…

Luigi Rosselli, Beach House, Captain's Deck Balcony, Curves, Curved Awning, Steel Balustrade

Beach House on Stilts

High above the ground this cottage by the beach is secure from any rise in sea level and is now the restful retreat of a cultured couple. Above the existing bungalow a new first floor…

Modern Light Filled Addition, Moat Swimming Pool, Frameless Glass Pool Fence, Luigi Rosselli, Glass Mosaic Pool Tiles, Lap Pool, Timber Shutters Sliding, Swimming Pool, Floating Building, Moat

The Pool House

The wraparound swimming pool plays the starring role in these alterations and additions and becomes the architectural pivot that binds one hundred years of history. The organic two-storey pool house addition at the back of…

Luigi Rosselli, Dark Stained American Oak, White Exposed Timber Trusses, Glazed Sliding Doors, Dark Timber Flooring, Timber Shelving, TV Cabinetry, Curved Stair Steel Balustrade

Balancing Home

The best response to designing a home on a bland and anodyne site is to bring a suitcase of memories; familiar, traditional building forms that one feels comfortable with to provide a modern architecture that…

Monolithic Base, Swimming Pool, Pitched Roof, Traditional Architecture, Timber Shutters

Loggia in Arcadia

Arcadia is a mythological place of peace and pastoral happiness, and one can find a Victorian villa named Arcadia in a tranquil street in the suburb of Paddington, on the city fringes of Sydney and…

Sydney Harbour Luigi Rosselli Architects, Luigi Rosselli, Large Balcony, Waterfront View, Skylight, Timber Deck

Harbour Front-Row Seat

It is quite rare, in Woollahra Council’s municipality, to have a waterfront residence so close to the water. One gets the feeling of being in Sydney Harbour when looking out of the over-sized wafer-thin framed…

Luigi Rosselli, Chimney, Unique Chimney, Western Red Cedar Garage, Cement Render, Concrete

Chimney by The Beach – Ten Years Later

The first of a series of rediscoveries of earlier Luigi Rosselli Architects designs, Chimney by the Beach is a house built on Tamarama Beach in Waverley, on a ridge with views of the ocean, a…

Luigi Rosselli, Curved Facade, Curved Roof, Steel Windows, Front Lawn, Symmetrical House

The First House

100 Cammeray Road Designed nearly thirty years ago for pivotal INXS musician , Kirk Pengilly, this house is the result of substantial alterations and additions to a 1940s duplex with a most austere and predictable…

Luigi Rosselli, Concrete, Stone, House on Rock, Balcony, Modern Curved Balcony, Cliff Perched House

Cliff Top House

Perched on the top of a rock escarpment in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, overlooking Queens Park and Centennial Park, the cliff top house is an example of vertical living. Four storeys high, only to above the…

Luigi Rosselli, Cantilevered Hill Top House, Country Retreat, Concrete

High Country House

This hill top house is a concrete expression of Armidale ’s unique meeting of rural life and culture, “agri-culture”, a town with a university and many other cultural institutions. The clients seamlessly combine their flourishing…

Luigi Rosselli, Art Deco House, Architecture, Terrace, Alterations and Additions

Paddington Terrace House

A designer would find oneself dancing to a familiar tune when approached to upgrade this terrace house in Paddington, a suburb east of Sydney City. Faced with the age old problems presented by much loved…

Luigi Rosselli, Lift, Stair Handrail, Glass Brick Wall

The Birdcage Lift Enquiry

It began with a simple enquiry. “Can we have a bird cage lift?” And so with this addition at its core, a once unexceptional dwelling on Sydney Harbour was transformed into an extraordinary waterfront townhouse. By reconfiguring…

Luigi Rosselli, Cantilever House, Sandstone Cladding, Garage Door

Quarterdeck House

Located high on the shores of Little Bay, the Quarterdeck House is part of an award winning subdivision of land in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. The grounds on which the house is built belonged to a…

Luigi Rosselli, Landscape Design, Landscape Architecture, Lush Planting and Landscaping

Library in Fernery

Thousands of books in this parkside house were destroyed by a fire. Ravaged by smoke, water and burning embers, a rare Stuart piano was wheeled out just in time. Three years later the original “Art…

Luigi Rosselli, Fixed Awning, Heritage, Traditional House

Heritage and Modernity

This Woollahra house weaves the rich heritage character of an original Victorian house, with elements that are unashamedly contemporary. Stripped of years of accretions, the original house has been exposed and brought to the fore….

Oculi House

Heritage listing is not the only prerequisite to preserve and enhance an old charming house. Designed by William Hardy Wilson and built in 1927, the original house saw some alterations carried out in the 1960s…

Luigi Rosselli, Balcony, Bronte Beach, Swimming Pool, Swimming, Sandstone, Stone, Lawn, White, Concrete

Balcony Over Bronte

Black is back in the latest house to be completed by Luigi Rosselli Architects. This new house, built for a young family on a battle axe block overlooking Bronte, acts as a big balcony built…

Gordons Bay House

It’s said that 6 degrees separate each human on earth from another. The Gordons Bay House asks how 6 degrees of separation might negotiate a web of complex associations in order to produce an architecture…

Luigi Rosselli, Exposed Off Form Concrete, Textured Concrete, Curves, Volumes, Timber Shutters, Anodised Aluminum Shutters

The Growing House

Hastings Parade Better late than never! Ten years after it was designed, the Hastings Parade house is finally endowed with its third floor. Designed in 2007 and reduced to two storeys owing to the enforced…

Luigi Rosselli, Concrete, Stepped Balconies, Stone Garage, Timber Garage Door

Benelong Apartments

Benelong Crescent apartments are inspired by the sinuous forms of Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower in Potsdam, completed in the 1920’s. The apartments cascade down the hill to follow the contours and the curved terraced balconies…

Luigi Rosselli, Curved Architecture, Curves, Rammed Earth, Rammed Earth Walls

Kirribilli House

The brief was to provide a comfortable house.What makes a house comfortable? It’s not a question of good padding on the lounges but the ability of a building to provide a climatically comfortable environment, a…

Curves, Thin Roof, Deck, Balcony, Waterfront View, Frameless Glass Balustrade

Curraghbeena Road

The L shaped contemporary addition to the Curraghbeena Road house in the Sydney suburb of Mosman embraces the core of the original building’s rooms over 3 storeys, opening the dwelling to the expansive iconic views…

Luigi Rosselli, Curved Windows, Curved Concrete

Murra Murra Place

Boasting one of the most scenic settings in Sydney, the site of Prince Henry at Little Bay is loaded with history. Firstly as a significant aboriginal site; since the 1880’s an important coastal hospital with…

Luigi Rosselli, Slatted Timber Shutter, Shadows, Balcony, TImber Deck

Fletcher Street

Sandra and Scott’s young family have moved in to the four storey house placed on a ridge overlooking Bondi Beach. The council allowed such a tall development because it did not appear to be taller than…

Wiston Gardens

Professor Leslie Wilkinson’s domestic architecture is a bottomless source of surprises, discoveries and idiosyncrasies; his houses are complex, full of unexpected twists and turns. The scale is human, comfortable and not rhetorical. The owners were…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Screens, Curved Glass, Curved Concrete, Curved Windows, Timber Roof

Henry Street

Located on the escarpment above Queens Park this new contemporary addition to the eclectic collection of residences aligned along the edge of the park greets you with its proud bow projecting into the front garden…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Screens, Narrow Slim Thin Roof, Curved Glass, Curved Concrete, Timber Roof, Stained Timber Garage, Sandstone

Carlton Street

This suburban Sydney house is situated on a difficult southerly orientated site dominated by a two storey house to the north, and half a dozen adjoining backyards to the south. The issue of the orientation…

Luigi Rosselli, Integrated Landscaping, Backyard, Cabana, Pool House, Planter Box

Wyuna Road

The original house was renovated in the 1960s and from the outside, it looked like a red brick convent. As it turned out, the 400mm thick walls concealed a partially polished jewel. The original house featured an…

Luigi Rosselli, Bedroom, Rotating Door, Pivot Door, Rotating Screen, Joinery Detail, Dark Cabinetry

Thornton street

On the 17th floor of an apartment tower on the shores of Sydney Harbour, walls do not exist. Windows and storage units are the main vertical surfaces interposed between the floor and the ceiling. The storage units have…

Mt. Minderoo

Set behind a grove of trees, forming a ring around the summit of Mount Minderoo, the house is hidden from the surrounding properties and enjoys unrestricted views 180 degrees over unspoiled countryside and national park. The…

Hewlett Street

Fundamentally this house is a cube and we hollowed out the front section of the cube to recess the entrance. The skylight is a continuation of this concept, we excavated the middle of the cube to…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Handrail Balustrade, Curved Ceiling

Martin Road

Once a boarding house, the building rambled over most of the large site, a mélange of shabby additions under which was buried a once elegant structure. The owners needed both a comfortable family home and a…

O’Connell Street

Atop Sydney’s most important art deco skyscraper, two uncompromisingly modern residential apartments have been delicately inserted into the vacant plant rooms. 16 O’Connell Street was designed in 1938-40 by Bruce Dellit, architect of Hyde Park’s…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Garage Door, Sandstone Wall, Roof Garden

Trafalgar Street

This house has been designed to relate to its natural context – big skies, swelling surf and steep sandstone cliffs – rather than be constrained by its dense urban surrounds. Rising from its solid sandstone foundations,…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Venetians, Swimming Pool, Pool, Concrete Soffit

A New Look

The Bayview Avenue House The seminal work that consolidated the fluid lines of Luigi Rosselli Architects in the new century was this Bayview Avenue, Mosman house. Fifteen years on it has been revisited and rephotographed…

Luigi Rosselli, Timber Screens, Timber Shutters, Sloped Lawn, Swimming Pool, Pool Fixed Awning

Wallaroy Road

An existing south-facing house has been replaced by a new dwelling that embraces the northern sun and light in this project in Woollahra. Strong white-rendered formal elements are anchored onto a sandstone base, and the building…

Luigi Rosselli, Waterfront View, Waterfront Palazzo, Timber Deck

Coolong Road

Sydney Harbour is surrounded by a majority of large and dull waterfront houses. Quantity prevails on quality. This house in Vaucluse was a typical example; it had 16 car spaces distributed in three garages and eight bathrooms,…

Luigi Rosselli, Covered Outdoor Area, Filtered Light

Southern Highlands Homestead

Set on a beautiful country property in the Southern Highlands, this project home has undergone a subtle transformation to bring it up to contemporary standards. The addition of a new entry and family room provides…

Luigi Rosselli, Boat House, Timber Deck, Outback House

Cottage Point

The most interesting aspect of the house is the way it sits on the ground – heavily. Instead of perching the house on wooden poles or slender steel columns, Luigi Rosselli enclosed the area beneath the…