A major renovation behind an established frontage.
Tell us the rooms you need to connect and the details you want to keep. We fit the new work to the existing building and its conservation context.
Double Bay / Established homes and considered additions
Builders in Double Bay for houses that sit among apartments
Our designers and builders work as one team on substantial renovations and new houses. In Double Bay we start with the facade and street frontage, then any space you want below ground.
ALOFT / Darling Point / Completed 2021
01 / The proposition
Designing for Double Bay's mix of homes
Builders in Double Bay work in a suburb where apartments sit alongside houses and terraces. Flats or apartments accounted for 76.6% of occupied private dwellings in the 2021 Census. Your brief therefore starts with a clear read of the neighbouring buildings.
We begin with your current home and the changes you want. You can engage our practice to design and build or bring us in as builder alongside your own architect.
Getting the car in
A driveway that suits the street and the lowest floor
A new garage crossing changes how the property meets the footpath and can affect existing street parking. In Double Bay's low basin, the basement entrance also has to answer to the property's flood information before its ramp and floor levels are settled.
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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 Double Bay planning
What shapes a major Double Bay project
The residential precinct takes in houses, terraces and interwar flats around the centre. We read the housing controls together with the building's heritage status and any flood requirements for the lot.
- 01
Conservation and character are separate.
Transvaal Avenue has a heritage conservation area. Beyond listed places, the residential precinct guidance also seeks to keep interwar flats and significant details visible from the street.
- 02
Groundwater shapes the basement.
E2 requires underground structures to be fully tanked and rules out permanent dewatering. We settle the waterproofing with the structure before pricing that part of the building.
- 03
The street keeps working.
The precinct guidance seeks to retain street parking and limit kerb crossings. A new garage is assessed as a change to the frontage, not only as somewhere to park.
- 04
Flood levels come before the entry design.
Council's Double Bay catchment study is a starting point for property enquiries. We establish the lot's flood requirements before fixing a garage ramp or ground floor threshold, even where the basement waterproofing is already resolved.
Front to basement
Settle the Double Bay scope before choosing finishes
Your budget has to cover the work that makes the new rooms possible. We look at retained fabric and below ground construction while the layout is still taking shape.
Start with what the street sees.
We note the significant facade details and how the house relates to its neighbours. Conservation status is checked before anyone treats new windows or external changes as simple.
Place the vehicle entry.
We test the proposed crossing against the existing street parking and footpath. The ramp is coordinated with any flood entry level the property requires.
Detail the lower level.
If you want a basement, our engineers resolve the tanking and groundwater requirements. Access for deliveries and excavation sits inside the construction scope, not outside the price.
Renovate or rebuild
Improve your Double Bay home or plan a new one
How much structure you keep changes how a project is designed and built. We help you weigh that choice before you assume a replacement will be simpler than an alteration.
A new house or duplex feasibility study.
We confirm the residential site's controls before drawing a replacement or two dwellings. Town centre zoning and a nearby apartment building do not set the permissible form for your property.
Explore our work
See ALOFT in neighbouring Darling Point
[ ALOFT ]
Darling Point, NSW
Completed 2021
Xpace designed the architecture and interiors of these five apartments. SHORE built the project, completed in 2021.
- Architecture
- Xpace
- Interiors & facade
- Xpace
Nearby in Darling Point
ALOFT, an Xpace design built by SHORE
ALOFT's architecture and interiors are by Xpace and our team built its five apartments. They were completed in 2021 and show our approach alongside an independent architect.
Darling Point's centre is about 0.9 km from Double Bay's centre. That places ALOFT's suburb, not the distance to its private site.
Questions to bring early
Building in Double Bay: your questions
Does the Double Bay flood catchment mean every residential lot floods?
No. The catchment marks an area for flood investigation, not one flood result for every property. Get the lot's own information before settling a basement entrance or relying on an existing floor level.
Can an interwar Double Bay facade change if the building is not listed?
Not being listed does not settle the design assessment. Woollahra's precinct guidance recognises interwar flats and their visible details and a conservation boundary can add further requirements.
Can a duplex in Transvaal Avenue use a complying development approval?
First check whether the property sits inside the conservation area. The Low Rise Housing Diversity Code excludes conservation areas, so a proposal there needs a different approval route, not an assumed CDC.
Why can a Double Bay renovation cost more than its new rooms suggest?
Heritage repair, basement tanking and getting materials to site can be substantial parts of the work. We list them separately, so the scope covers them before interior selections are costed.
Frontage first
Bring us your Double Bay renovation or new home
Send photos of the frontage and any plans for the lower floor. We will walk through the building you are keeping and what needs resolving before we price construction.
Plan your Double Bay project
