Balmain House was designed to provide simple, functional, generous, private and light-filled living spaces for a young family within the constraints of a small inner city block sandwiched between 14 adjacent properties. The central idea was to wrap the original workers’ cottage with a continuous series of indoor and outdoor spaces. Spatially, Fox Johnston used the small block to maximise advantage, setting up a dialogue between the garden space and the interior living areas to create the illusion of a bigger site. Each downstairs living room – interior and exterior- ‘borrows’ space from the other, maximising volume, light and air. Floating above the ground plane is a sculpted, faceted timber volume containing the main bedroom, ensuite, library/gallery and study - carefully shaped to preserve neighbouring views and sunshine.