Plus Minus Design was established in 2007.
The focus of the practice is building design. We are not interested in specialising in particular building types, rather we’ve found that thinking through ideas at one scale can productively inform work at another. Projects to date have varied from garage lofts through to high-rise, tower developments and this range of scale and type reflects our breadth of design interest and experience.
Urban design, landscape design and interior design are subjects that are happy distractions. While we have skills in these areas, we understand the limits of our expertise and gladly propose and welcome collaborations with other design and construction professionals when appropriate.
We decided to call the practice Plus Minus Design for a whole bunch of reasons. Wikipedia, at times, defines plus-minus as “the precision of an approximation” and we like the sound of that. We like thinking about approximation and tolerance in building. Some times things need to be precise or luxurious, other times it is not so important. Our first priority and objective for each project is to find an appropriate response.
Phillip lectures frequently and has taught architectural design, history and interior design at the University of New South Wales, the University of Technology in Sydney and Western Sydney University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University.
Phillip is a registered architect in NSW (NSW ARB 10101) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.
20 Arthur Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Sydney, Australia
The story of Arcadia Road in the inner-city Suburb of Glebe is a story 100 years in the making. A story of hidden gifts revealed during construction and a delicate reshaping of a 1920s home to give it new life. But if it wasn’t for a stroke of luck, the heritage of Arcadia risked being lost forever…
The home was built in 1925 by a furniture designer and joiner. Given the suburb’s strict development controls, the project’s overarching framework involved a delicate negotiation between heritage and reality, with original features carefully restored when possible, and no ostentatious architectural gestures or Pinterest-driven gimmickry. Every decision and every dollar spent provides an amenity return, with the result being a relatively low square-metre rate for an architect designed home in a heritage-protected inner Sydney suburb.
The front rooms were well-made and intact, with beautiful – but dilapidated – timber joinery and detailed plaster ceilings. Skylight shafts were delicately placed between plaster details. Existing ramshackle additions were replaced with a laneway structure that provides parking, separate accommodation and a new room between the front rooms, plus a large courtyard.
A finely crafted, bastard-hipped, standing-seam roof – the form inspired by nearby Italianate Victorian homes – sits behind the existing tiled roof and houses a new attic with secret rooms and perforated screens providing shade, privacy and security. The attic spaces provide significant amenity and are not visible from the street. A courtyard cut into the existing roof at the upper level provides light and ventilation to the plan’s centre.
An unexpected gift during construction was the discovery of sandstone bedrock which was left exposed and flooded to create a calming pond which is the heart of the home and also helps with temperature regulation.
Our clients intend to spend the rest of their retirement in the home, so the ground level includes comfortable/accessible accommodation for when stairs become difficult. Additional bedrooms accommodate the frequent visits from extended family living overseas but are equally well suited as studies, offices or private retreats.
The design also accommodates the clients’ lifetime accumulation of bric-a-brac (some may call it clutter). They knew their collection would detract from the design’s serenity but were so proud of the reinvented home, they delayed moving in to be able to show it off to family without distraction. The home is now truly ‘lived in’ and full of their accumulated treasures.
Arcadia is a home painstakingly reshaped with love – from the overall scheme to the finest detail, the team’s precision and dedication has successfully negotiated a project combining 100-year-old materials with contemporary amenity to see Arcadia into its next chapter.
Builder, Bright Build Constructions
Special Details, Kink Fab
Structural Engineer, Cantilever
Planner, Planik
Heritage Consultant, Weir Phillips Heritage
Hydraulic Consultant, Ace Civil & Hydraulic Engineers
