Inside the Rose Bay home turning the McMansion trend on its head
It would have been cheaper for Ed Lippmann to knock down his home and rebuild it. But he was having none of that.
With its clean lines and five-metre-high glass walls, architect Ed Lippmann’s newly renovated family home in Rose Bay is free of the memorabilia that can accumulate over decades.
Look more closely, and the memories are still there, hiding in large abstract paintings on the walls.
The first panel contains letters written in German to Lippmann’s father, Henry, sent by his family before they were killed in the Holocaust. The remaining panels contain texts by Lippmann, who grew up in the house; his mother, Julie, now 102; and other family members.
“It’s the Lippmann Rosetta Stone,” said Lippmann of the works – called transcriptions by the artist, Ruark Lewis – that tell the family story. Another large work, by family friend Lin Utzon, the daughter of Opera House architect Jørn Utzon, hangs in the living room.
The original home realised his father’s dream when he arrived in September 1940 on the HMT Dunera along with thousands of other German and Austrian Jews who fled the Nazis.
Henry wrote that as they came through the heads, he had looked through barbed wire on the ship’s deck at the little houses on the green headlands.
He promised himself: “One day, maybe I can live in one of those little houses.”
And he did, buying the 1920s bungalow in the early 1960s and renovating it soon after. His son Ed Lippmann said the home was part of his DNA.
Only accessible by steps – 35 up from a cul-de-sac or 42 steps down from where the road continues above the escarpment – its privacy made it unique but construction difficult.
Lippmann’s original development application for the renovation, approved by the council, would have doubled the size of the original family home and added a top floor. “We could have bowled it over and built something else,” he said.
But Lippmann’s wife Sonia, a Spanish architect, convinced him that a smaller home would be more enjoyable, sustainable and affordable. And once they got council approval for a lift, the home renamed Casa Dos (house for two) would be much better for ageing in place.
In areas near him where the land values are high, “audacious McMansions” dominated sites, Lippmann said.
Owners often opted for the most height and square metres they could build. Many were big white boxes, obsessed with unobstructed views.
“This project turns the trend on its head,” he said. The single-storey flat-roofed house had a footprint of 194 square metres, smaller than the average new NSW home of 239 square metres.
Lippmann’s practice has overseen many major Sydney projects, including 8 Chifley Square, some large homes such as the curvy Butterfly House, and won a public competition to overhaul Andrew (Boy) Charlton Pool.
Though the Rose Bay home is small, renovating was more expensive than a knock-down rebuild.
It cost about $10,000 a square metre, plus $5000 a day on the days when a crane lifted in steel and glass for the five-metre-high ceiling and the double-glazed panels.
Lippmann had to move the neighbours out because they are not allowed to stay when a crane was lifting materials over them. “They were happy to go and stay a few nights in a hotel.”
The original home’s footprint remained much the same. Lippmann’s childhood bedroom is now the master bedroom. Another two bedrooms are big enough for weekend guests but not large enough to encourage lengthy visits.
The 539-square-metre garden has become wild and lush. Two kookaburras sit near the house. A fox runs through the garden some nights.
Neighbours worry Casa Dos’ large banksia is blocking views.
“What’s wrong with a tree?” Lippmann said he replied.
After spending the past decade living in the house where he grew up, Lippmann said the renovation had been cathartic. He hadn’t wanted the home to be stuck in the past, yet he didn’t want it to lose its character.
When his brother Michael visited, he said it was “bloody fantastic”.
Lippmann said: “Somehow the vibe of the old house is still there, but it looks radically different ... It is still single-storey, it has got humility … and the garden still dominates, and it always will. It has maintained its spirit, and the memories.”
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CORRECTION
An earlier version of this report mis-stated the renovation cost. It was $10,000 per square metre.