Peter Wood
Ryan Unwin
The quiet and confident approach of Anthony Gill Architects makes for a captivating viewing within Sydney’s residential and commercial spaces. Based in Surry Hills, the studio is led by Anthony Gill, whose work favours clarity over complexity, and modesty over spectacle.
From compact inner-city terraces to inventive family homes (and a string of your favourite restaurants), each project reflects a sensitivity to light, proportion and practicality, with an emphasis on restraint and timelessness over trend.
“There is a direct approach in what we do,” he says. “We like our architectural response to be very clear and direct in terms of answering the brief, and the challenges of any site.”
Gill’s own family home in North Bondi reflects this ethos. A renovation of a 1920s brick semi, it’s a compact space - just 100 square metres in total, with only 15sqm added to the original footprint. “We basically just modified openings, reused the bricks that were on site,” he says. “But that was enough for us to get a third bedroom, which we desperately needed.”
Efficiency is everything here, with rooms metamorphosing between roles. “Every room has multiple uses,” Gill explains. “The kitchen is also the dining, but also the sitting room, but it's also got the piano.” Upstairs, the lounge doubles as a retreat, a laundry, and a place to dry the washing. “If you visit us on a good drying day, the lounge room backdrop typically is all undies and socks.”
Spotted gum - recycled and used throughout for floors, structure and external screens - anchors the overall palette. “We tend to only choose a few materials and then stick with them,” says Gill. “It’s pared back. We like to use good materials that age well, but don't overwhelm a space.”
What the architecture does do is set the tone for how a home should feel. “I personally think the richness of a home comes from the things that we like to live with,” says Gill. “It’s not necessarily just the furniture, but all our possessions.”
Set just a metre back from the footpath, the house embraces rather than retreats from the street. “We’ve set up a series of screens that help us control privacy, but also the climatic conditions,” Gill says. “Personally, I tend to think privacy is slightly overrated… We’ve come to really cherish this idea about having a strong connection with the street and with our neighbours and community.”
And when they’re not at home? “Almost all our free time is at the beach (weather pending), but there’s also a great little bakery on the corner of Glenyr, The Shop up on Curlewis and Pompei for gelato. And Sean’s - when we treat ourselves.”
“Bondi for us is really about the beach, our neighbours and a sense of community.”
