Cart 
When updating an old home, there often comes a fork in the road: is it better to knock down and rebuild or renovate?
Cloaked House by architects Trias makes a compelling case for the latter.
Located on a steep site in Mosman, the quirky mid-century home was charming, yet heavily run-down, by the time a Sydney family purchased it in 2019.
From a sustainability perspective, Trias knew keeping the existing structure and finding ways to make it liveable would be a significant challenge — especially as it was already at risk of falling down the hill.
But this was also the best way to preserve the building’s embodied carbon and protect the surrounding gardens of the bushy, tree-lined block.
What they didn’t know yet, was the home’s true history, until a neighbour dropped by one day with an incredible photo album that chronicled the original build from the 1960s.
‘It turned out that this neighbour’s father [and engineer] had built the original house, and that he, the son, had remained in the area, living downhill of our site,’ Trias founding director Jennifer McMaster says.
‘The original house was in the style of the Sydney School, with lots of exposed, robust materials, and architectural gestures reminiscent of that time. It was a very responsive building that connected beautifully with the site and canopy.’
Motivated further by this sentimental backstory, the owners and architects were determined to breathe new life into the property with a ‘radical renovation’.
In essence, this involved reinforcing the structural bones, transforming the interiors, and ‘recloaking’ the facade in a new timber skin that now aids the house’s thermal performance — hence the project’s name.
The original blockwork walls were able to be salvaged and bagged white; balconies were rebuilt, and reclaimed materials like old ceiling rafters were repurposed as joinery. Many openings were also kept in the same place as a nod to the original building.
Inside, the new floor plan spans three levels, with the bedrooms and main living spaces nestled towards the northern leafy outlook.
Careful consideration was given to framing varying garden views from each space, as a central staircase allows you to move through a spectacular landscaped courtyard.
‘Because the site is so steep, one of our earliest ideas was to bring the garden inside, so it became part of our clients’ daily lives,’ Jennifer adds.
‘The final house has a garden carved within; it’s the heart of the home. The garden is held in a double-height void, lit from the side and above, and it floods the interior with beautiful sunlight. It also acts like lungs, aiding cross and stack ventilation and circulating fresh air through the home.’
From the street, the home appears humble and welcoming. With only a soft native garden to shield it from the street, passersby are invited to get a glimpse of the reimagined home.
Jennifer says they’ve already heard stories about how this presence has inspired others in the affluent neighbourhood to go against the conventional ‘huge front fence’ to replicate this sort of landscaping.
And despite being heavily influenced by the past, Cloaked House has also been superbly future-proofed.
Not only is it all-electric, designed with passive house principles, and serviced by a 13.2kW solar array, but the architect’s ‘fabric-first’ approach managed to dramatically reduce the home’s need for artificial heating and cooling year-round.
‘The single best thing we did was keep the existing house, and do a serious renovation, instead of knocking it down,’ Jennifer explains, noting a recent life-cycle assessment estimates this gesture saved over 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The home’s success proves that with the right people behind a project, what’s old can indeed become new again.
