Music Room designed by Alexander Symes Architect is a home for a musical family of 3, located on Gadigal Land in the Sydney suburb of Glebe. After their previous architect terminated the project wishing to no longer work on single dwelling projects, the clients approached ASA with an approved DA and a desire to create a sustainable, healthy home that could meet their complex brief. The home is sited next to the “Sze Yup Temple” where burning of ink printed pray papers affects the local air quality at particular prevailing winds. Photography by Barton Taylor.

The brief of the project required; fitting into the heritage conservation zone; managing the air quality of its neighbour; managing acoustics of music production; being adaptable to be a multigenerational household; a place to “age-in-place”; and also be robust towards future climate scenarios. ASA saw the opportunity of the Passive House’s renovation methodology (called EnerPHit) in addressing many of these issues all at once, in combination with using a cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction type, that would act as a significant carbon-bank and simplify buildability and installation on the tight suburban site.