SPEAKING VOLUMES

His new home's tiny footprint was a supersized challenge for this designer, leading to inventive solutions that won hearts and minds.

- DAVID MEAGHER

It would be hard to picture a neglected inner-city Victorianera corner store with a ramshackle collection of ad-hoc additions at the back as something that would have the makings of an award-winning future home. Even architect Adam Haddow couldn't see it at first.

Adam is the principal of SJB and one of Australia's most highly regarded architects. Under his direction SJB, which was founded in Melbourne in 1976 by Alan Synman, Charles Justin and Michael Bialek, has become a dominant force in architecture. It was SJB, after all, that was tapped to replace the Pritzker prize-winning British architect David Chipperfield earlier this year to redesign the final stage of Sydney's Barangaroo precinct. However, when his partner Michael suggested they buy the corner store building that had been on the market for more than a year and transform it into their new home, Adam was dubious to say the least.

"I said to Mike, that's not going to work. It was unliveable," says Adam. "It was also a bit scary with some of the rooms just one metre by one metre and without a window. It was all quite strange." And small. The land at the back of the corner store, where Adam thought they might be able to build a new freestanding dwelling, is just 30 square metres and only 3.3 metres wide. But the challenge stayed in Adam's head and within 24 hours after first seeing the building in 2021 he had sketched what might be possible on the site and the day after that they made an offer on the property. The project was completed in 2022 and won this year's Australian Institute of Architects Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture.