Project: Waterloo Street
Architect: SJB
Manufacturer: Krause Bricks
Brick Collection: Other | Recycled Brick
Builder: Promena Projects
Photography: Anson Smart

Waterloo Street is a little house freed of the small house typology. With a footprint of 30 square metres and a façade of recycled and broken brick, the property playfully engages with the street through the arrangement and geometry of its openings. Internally, the residence uses custom brick flooring and custom glazed bricks to add detail and interest. Externally, the dwelling is playful and textured. A little like a house from a Jacques Tati film, the façade feels alive with personality. Reclaimed bricks form the canvas, discarded broken ones reflect the historic sandstone base of the surrounding streets, while the upper bricks shift in scale to frame windows and support planting. Most materials used on the project were locally sourced – enabling everyone who engaged with the project to directly understand the supply chain. Ultimately, the house is about sustainability, doing more with less, reusing a site, repurposing materials and reimagining ways to create wellconnected places.

Jury 2022: “With a footprint of just 30m2, Waterloo Street is like a little brick jewellery box in the neighbourhood that adds real joy and interest to the street. The creative brickwork ideas on display are both familiar and strange, yet beautifully cohesive. This home, with its geometric openings and façade of recycled and broken bricks, playfully shows how it is possible for private buildings to make positive contributions to public spaces by eliciting a sense of delight in passers by.”