Rethink the house with our designers.
Bring a plan that shows the rooms that feel cramped. We explore whether to extend or rebuild, with construction advice from the start.
Coogee / Keep, extend or rebuild
Builders in Coogee
We help Coogee owners decide what to keep, extend or rebuild. CONWAY, our nearby project in Randwick, keeps its Federation frontage and adds new living spaces at the rear.
CONWAY / Randwick / Completed 2025
01 / The proposition
Designing around close neighbours
As builders in Coogee, we treat the apartments next door as part of the brief. The 2021 Census found 79.9 per cent of Coogee's occupied private dwellings were flats or apartments, so nearby windows go into our first site study.
A renovation can make old rooms and new ones flow together. Replacing the house with a new home or duplex calls for the same care with privacy, light and outdoor living.
The fabric worth keeping
Know the heritage position before you strip the house
Coogee includes the Dudley Street, Moira Crescent and Edgecumbe Estate conservation areas. We check the actual boundary and the building's significance before a knockdown becomes the plan.
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Darling Point · residential
[ ALOFT ]
Five apartments arranged around Sydney Harbour views, with two basement levels. Completed in 2021, with architecture and interiors by Xpace.
Map locationDarling Point · Indicative location
Xpace (Architecture & Interiors) · SHORE (Construction Delivery)
Explore project details Ahead of any extension
Heritage, flooding and the windows next door
We start with the property's current controls and the existing building information. Together they show whether the project can take a complying development route or needs a development application.
- 01
Conservation goes beyond the facade.
The building's setting and significant details matter as well as its street elevation. A rear addition still has to sit well with the house it joins.
- 02
The Coogee Bay catchment.
We obtain the site's flood information before planning a lowered ground floor or basement. Homes inside the catchment do not all share the same flood exposure.
- 03
What an upper room looks onto.
We record nearby apartments as well as adjoining houses. Window placement and screening are then tested against real sightlines.
- 04
Leave room for winter sunlight.
Council's low density controls assess sunlight to living rooms and outdoor space, including those next door. Where that chapter applies, we test an addition's shadows before settling its height and depth.
Old rooms, new rooms
Building on what already works
An existing house tells us more than its room count. We look at its structure, daylight and the connections worth keeping before deciding what changes.
Name the rooms worth keeping.
You tell us the fabric and spaces you value. We find out what needs heritage advice before anyone assumes it can come out.
Draw the neighbours in.
Adjoining balconies and windows go into the design study. We test each new opening from our side and the neighbour's.
Resolve the junction.
We coordinate where retained structure meets new work and settle how drainage and services pass through it before building starts.
Two ways to start
Begin with the house or a finished scheme
We can develop a Coogee home from its existing condition. We can also build an extension your architect has designed.
Bring a developed scheme.
Share the drawings of the retained fabric and the consultant information. We talk through how to protect the old building while the new work goes in.
Explore our work
Nearby: CONWAY in Randwick
![[ CONWAY ]](/projects/shore/conway-roofline.webp)
[ CONWAY ]
Randwick
Completed 2025
At CONWAY, the retained period rooms lead into generous new living spaces. Tina Kosta Studio was the architect and interior designer and our construction team built it.
- Architecture
- Tina Kosta Studio
- Interiors & facade
- Tina Kosta Studio
Coogee context
Heritage streets and a bay catchment
Planning questions differ between Coogee's conservation streets and its other residential blocks. We set that context first, before using any nearby building as a design reference.
Questions to bring early
Questions from Coogee owners
Can I see a SHORE project near Coogee?
Yes. At CONWAY in Randwick our builders joined a Federation house to Tina Kosta Studio's contemporary addition. Randwick's centre sits about 1.4 kilometres from Coogee's. That is the direct distance between the two suburb centres, not to the private address.
Can I extend a house in a Coogee conservation area?
Any addition must answer to the property's significance and controls. Heritage advice should set what can change before the design assumes demolition or a new street elevation.
What should I budget for early in Coogee?
Investigating the retained structure, neighbouring boundaries and drainage clarifies a large part of the scope. We then separate required protection work from optional changes to finishes.
A better Coogee floor plan
Give your Coogee rooms a second life
Send us the existing plan and show us where the house holds daily life back. We can talk through how a change would improve those spaces.
Discuss your Coogee home
