Architect Fadi Fadhil combined his creative design skills and professional training to transform a compact suburban semi into a new, ultra-modern home for his family, complete with a pool for the kids. Located in Sydney’s Chatswood, the existing structure has been totally reworked to create an expansive home that stands out for its extraordinary angled roofline.
Fadi Fadhil describes the ideal home space as one that combines ease of living with a design edge. Following the 15-month renovation, Fadhil, his wife and two sons moved back in at the end of 2016. To support the expansion, an extra two metres were added to the side of the house and six metres on the rear of the original house, both over two levels.
The renovated home has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, with a new deck and swimming pool at the back of the ground floor, plus an open-plan kitchen, family room, dining room and lounge area. The old house had a fairly small kitchen and lots of partitions on the ground floor, which didn’t suit the needs of a family.
The contemporary angled roof uses high windows to let in abundant natural light, brightening up the previously dark building. Fadhil says that the choice of Monier Roofing tiles was essential to the success of the alteration.
He explains that he prefers roof tiles to Colorbond because of their performance, longevity and noise issues, especially when it rains; a tiled roof prevents any transference of noise from the rain through to the home’s interior. Between roof tiles and a metal roof, he prefers the former if he has an optimal 18-degree slope.
Within the Monier tile collection, he particularly likes the smoother profile ones, such as the Terracotta Marseilles, which has been used in his own house and is often his first choice for residential projects. He has a liking for the Titan Gloss colour available in the profile palette for its contemporary look. For his home, it works well with the light beige render and the timber colour on the windows and doors.
Being his own client, Fadhil said he loved the chance to explore his creativity without being restrained by clients’ tastes and budget. Basically, he put everything he wanted for his clients in his own house.
The biggest challenge he faced was from his own wife who wanted to eliminate the steel supports in the new open-plan kitchen in order to maximise the available space. Fadhil worked with a structural engineer and went through four or five steel fabricators before the result could be achieved. The innovative solution comprised of a massive portal frame – two portal frames on the structure without any supports or columns in the middle. Though the architect handled every aspect of the project, some things still went over budget, like the complicated steel fabrication.
Now the Fadhil family is just happy to be home.
