While this north-facing apartment enjoys broad views across Sydney, as well as ‘amazing proportions of space’, a serious design update was required by Hecker Guthrie to better reflect the owner’s taste and lifestyle.

A focus on social living has been highlighted through a ‘subtle and muted palette of layered transparencies’, says Hamish Guthrie, the firm’s co-founding director, where key walls were replaced with glazed partitions to create ‘an expanded sense of space and light in a functional and considered way’. Opportunities for ‘light, connection and life’ are elevated by these materials, reimagining the feeling of this once conventional and purely practical space into one of tranquility and easy, open living. When natural light pours in, it almost glows.

The client’s passion for Scandanavian and Japanese design served as key inspiration, driving design elements such as timber and glass screens framing the living spaces, as well as a controlled material selection of natural timber, white walls and light textural accents. A gallery-like aesthetic has been achieved with finely crafted custom joinery, allowing their unique collection of art and functional objects to be celebrated on display, rather than hidden away.

Hamish describes ‘wanting to unlock the full potential of the space without imposing on the existing architectural language’ as a priority for this tranquil redesign, noting the importance of a ‘light touch’ as a key value of the firm in all their work.

The subtle materiality and clever use of space is a sublime example of understatement at its best – a design scheme where less = luxe!