Local artists inspired the interior of this Sydney apartment
Redfern is an inner-city suburb of Sydney that, decades ago, became a flourishing urban community for Indigenous Australians. When landlords campaigned to evict the First Nations residents in the 1960s, it sparked the start of the country’s own civil-rights movement.
Still a tight-knit neighbourhood today, Redfern has a casual, creative vibe in its street art and public spaces, and is home to many of the city’s earliest warehouse-to-apartment conversions, including this former shoe factory where Lucy, a young conceptual artist, lives.
Her two-bedroom apartment has an open-plan living area with huge windows overlooking the treetops and the cityscape, as well as the high ceilings, hardwood columns and rafters of its industrial origins. According to Genine Noakes of Studio Noakes, who Lucy commissioned to transform the space, it felt ‘dark and hard, almost sinister’ when she moved in, largely thanks to the previous owner’s design choices.
Studio Noakes’s brief was to balance functionality and aesthetics, taking into account Lucy’s eclectic taste that ranges from the simple to the more eccentric and futuristic elements of 1970s and 80s design, as well as fulfilling her craving for colour. Also on the wishlist were a restful, cocooning bedroom and plentiful storage. ‘We had to carefully piece together all these elements while being guided by the building’s history,’ explains Genine.
Determined to banish all traces of the previously questionable decor, the team painstakingly acid-washed a gloss coating off the brick walls and sanded the dark-stained floors to reveal local Blackbutt timber boards.
‘Our motive was to bring back the historical elements and let them stand proud,’ declares Genine, who also wasn’t afraid to add more contemporary touches. Like, for instance, inserting a cuboid space, painted a soft powder blue, into the centre of the apartment to serve as both kitchen and library. Lucy was nervous about the colour choice at first, admits Genine, adding,‘she can now see how it has added a twist without overtaking the rest of the scheme’.
This architectural intervention is the designer’s proudest achievement – that, and finding a way to make those characterful features work in harmony with her client’s dynamic art collection. Because the heart of this place is the art, created by friends and emerging local talents, that Lucy has chosen to bring into her home. It reminds her every day, says Genine, ‘of the collective brilliance of community’. studionoakes.com
