The scullery-style kitchen was replaced with crisp two-pack polyurethane joinery and stainless-steel benches (a hallmark of Moore’s designs). The rickety timber staircase was also replaced with a steel one, with “floating” timber stairs supported by equally ethereal white-painted steel rods. A skylight at the top of the stairs brings natural light to the core.
The new staircase, framed by street rods, allows light permeate to the core of the house.Credit: Clinton Weaver
Moore also created new bedrooms and bathrooms on the upper two levels, one being a guest bedroom while the other, on the top level, is dedicated to the main suite.
The crisp contemporary kitchen replaced the scullery.Credit: Clinton Weaver
There was also sufficient room for a generous study along with built-in wardrobes and a walk-in dressing area for the main bedroom. While the aspect has changed since the original house was completed in 1863, Moore was still able to curate memorable views of the Sydney skyline.
The house won an award for residential architecture in the 2025 NSW Architecture Awards.
“In winter, when the leaves drop from the plane trees, you can clearly see the skyline,” says Moore, who also created French doors and a deck leading from the guest bedroom to enable a leafy outlook over the courtyard.
Rather than narrow doorways, the Potts Point house also benefits from bifold glass-and-steel doors to the rear courtyard.
While building on a tight inner-city site always comes with challenges, in this instance it was even more difficult given there was only laneway access for the construction team, with vehicles having to be moved every time a car passed by.
While technology and innovative materials have certainly assisted architects, it certainly would have made it easier for Moore and his team to bring materials down the original garden path that led from Victoria Street.
“I was conscious of the site’s shortcomings, but I was also mindful of creating a presence for the house, although now considerably smaller, to the laneway,” says Moore, whose envelope is now just one of four houses that have been carved into this site.
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And although it’s certainly not the original sandstone villa, the “back-to-front” house has its own character, one that clearly “reads” of the present as much as the past, with its distinctive Victorian brick chimney thoughtfully paired with new pale-grey steel walls.
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