Ian Moore Architects transforms Sydney pub into house with "wall of light"

Australian studio Ian Moore Architects has transformed a 19th-century pub in Sydney into The Corner House, a home with a rear wing clad in glass bricks.

Located in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills, the project involved the adaptive reuse of the heritage building to create a three-bedroom house.

Bookending a row of Victorian terrace houses, the building was originally constructed in 1869 as a public house called The Moore Park Hotel. It was converted into a grocery store in 1921, before becoming a corner store in the 1960s, which remained until 2022.

Ian Moore Architects has now converted the project into a home, fittingly named The Corner Store, which celebrates the building's original design while having a contemporary extension.

Due to The Corner House's location in a Heritage Conservation Area, the local council requested that any additions or changes be clearly distinct from the building's original architecture.

One of the main changes was to repair its brick shell, which was in a delicate condition. It has been supported with a steel portal frame that doubles as the structure for the extension.

"The major issue was that the building was collapsing into the street," principal architect Ian Moore told Dezeen.

"There was an outward lean to the walls of up to 300 millimetres, which required urgent stabilisation," he continued.

"We wished to retain not only the original building but also the cultural heritage associated with it in the local community."

The steel framework extends underneath the original facade, all the way to the back of the site, where it is encased in translucent glass bricks, marking the distinction between the new and old architecture.

The modern addition is set back slightly from the rest of the street, allowing the heritage structure to remain front and centre.

"This makes for a particularly dramatic sight at night," said Moore. "Illuminated from within, the glass bricks form a wall of light."

As part of the project, the studio also removed additions to the building made in the 1960s and 1970s.

It also removed aluminium window frames, with the original Victorian timber frames retained and used as templates for any replacements. The aluminium shopfronts were also replaced with timber-framed versions.

"It was critical to maintain the building in the streetscape," Moore explained. "We did this by removing distracting additions and restoring original building elements."

Internally, The Corner House is divided into three sections. The living areas and garage are on the ground level, below two bedrooms and a family room on the first floor and a primary bedroom and terrace at the top level.

The interior of the house has an industrial aesthetic, with clean white walls, glass elements and exposed steel structural features.

In contrast, the flooring draws from the home's antique facade, using both oak boards and terrazzo tiles.

Other than the condition of the brickwork, the main drawback of the original building's front was its small Victorian windows. This led the studio to optimise the building's access to light.

The studio cut an internal landscaped courtyard through the original section of the building, flooding the interior with natural light. This structural change also allowed for steady air flow through the home.

"The site was south-facing on its long side and, being in the southern hemisphere, it received no direct sunlight from the street," said Moore.

"The house is not air-conditioned and relies on natural cross ventilation and ceiling fans," he added.

"The vertical opening of the courtyard assists with air circulation, while windows and doors are sun-shaded and the roof and walls are insulated, regulating the indoor temperature."

Other homes recently completed in Sydney include Bondi House by Nick Kent Design, which features translucent screens and metal that create a play of light and shadow, and an Arts and Crafts home by Jillian Dinkel that has been primed for entertaining.

We recently rounded up a series of other buildings around the world that are bejewelled with glass bricks, including a privacy-conscious home in Japan and a vaulted greenhouse in Chile.

The photography is by Clinton Weaver and Nick Bowers. 

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