Aurora, annandale

A restored worker’s cottage, reimagined as an
all-electric home for the future

Aurora comes from the Latin word for “dawn” and the backyard here opens to the morning sun, flooding the home with that first, soft light of the day so this was something we wanted to celebrate through the design.

Set on the high side of the street, the site enjoys a natural sense of privacy at eye level from the footpath. We worked with this advantage to create an elegant pavilion-style addition to the rear: a space that feels open, yet contained.

The original house had accumulated a series of lean-to additions over time, and the site was almost entirely hard-paved with little garden.

Despite this, there was a quiet calmness to the place, a gentleness we were keen to preserve and bring forward.

Aurora responds to a brief for a timeless, low maintenance family home. The project restores the charm of a Victorian workers’ cottage while introducing a refined, all-electric addition for contemporary life. The original cottage was returned to a classic four room layout beneath a hipped roof, with fireplaces, chimneys and character detailing carefully reinstated.

Internally, the project earned the nickname “Goldilocks” - finding a just-right balance of space for modern life, without excess.

The design re-establishes the cottage’s double loaded corridor, arranging the home around a subtle cruciform axis that shapes how you arrive and dwell. A formal entry leads to calm, private spaces, while a secondary entry (for family and friends) is softened by a lowered ceiling and framed by garden views into a pocket-sized light well. These thresholds bring a sense of occasion to daily rituals.

Aurora is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people.