Cottage House

Cot­tage House care­ful­ly rein­states a dilap­i­dat­ed Vic­to­ri­an work­ers’ cot­tage in Colling­wood, paired with a mod­ern archi­tec­tur­al exten­sion that is clear­ly sep­a­rat­ed from the orig­i­nal structure. 

A her­itage over­lay required the cot­tage to be pre­served, lead­ing to a metic­u­lous method­ol­o­gy in which the entire Vic­to­ri­an struc­ture was dis­man­tled, num­bered, and stored off­site with almost archae­o­log­i­cal pre­ci­sion to allow access for the mod­ern rear exten­sion. Pre­serv­ing the orig­i­nal form of the cot­tage, the new design is anchored by retain­ing two orig­i­nal brick fire­places — one rein­stat­ed with­in the cot­tage itself, and the oth­er incor­po­rat­ed into the court­yard between old and new as an out­door fireplace.

The façade com­bines rein­stat­ed orig­i­nal fab­ric with care­ful­ly recre­at­ed sec­tions, and a gen­tle mod­i­fi­ca­tion of the weath­er­board rhythm links the her­itage cot­tage to its mod­ern counterpart.

The two struc­tures are for­mal­ly sep­a­rat­ed through form and mate­ri­al­i­ty, with the restored cot­tage in a light grey tim­ber at the front and the new rear exten­sion in a dark­er grey met­al cladding, clear­ly dis­tin­guish­ing the his­toric from the mod­ern. A cen­tral gar­den court­yard sits between the two vol­umes as the pri­ma­ry out­door space, bring­ing north­ern light deep into the liv­ing spaces while offer­ing visu­al con­nec­tions to the gar­den from every room.

With a sim­i­lar focus on light, a north­ern dou­ble-height court­yard at the rear brings sun­light deep into the liv­ing spaces, rein­forc­ing the project’s empha­sis on access to nat­ur­al light.

The mod­ern vol­ume is ful­ly clad in dark met­als, with per­fo­rat­ed pan­els that fil­ter light and offer pri­va­cy. Its upper-lev­el can­tilevers over the court­yard, adding shade and visu­al inter­est. The mod­ern addi­tion fea­tures open-plan liv­ing and kitchen areas, with large win­dows open­ing onto gar­den pock­ets, com­ple­ment­ed by a rich indus­tri­al-style palette of float­ing steel ele­ments, carved gran­ite, black­butt tim­ber, black mir­ror, and exposed recy­cled brick.

The upper lev­el accom­mo­dates seclud­ed bed­rooms and a study, offer­ing views over the sur­round­ing Colling­wood neighbourhood.

The project cel­e­brates the Vic­to­ri­an work­ers cot­tage as its cen­tre­piece, care­ful­ly pre­serv­ing its char­ac­ter while allow­ing the con­tem­po­rary addi­tion to frame and enhance its presence.