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Watson Residence

DETAILS

Arch / Design:		Form Follows Function (email)
Type:		Apartment
Year:		2003
Location:		Sydney
Photographer:		Neil Fenelon (web)

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PROJECTS BY ARCHITECT FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

PROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY NEIL FENELON

Usually it happens the other way around: city dwellers looking for a more relaxed way of life head to the outskirts or the country.

For Anne and Bob Watson, both in their mid-fifties, the common definition of a sea change was turned on its head.

"You know what it's like. You've got a large house and all of a sudden you're rattling around in it," says Anne. "There's so much time being spent on the garden and the pool and cleaning the wretched place. After 35 years of marriage you've collected all this junk and you just think, 'I'm over it now. I just really want to stop being hampered by all that stuff and go out and try new things."'

In this case, the new thing was to buy a odern, two-bedroom apartment in a converted 1970s office block in East Sydney two years ago. Right on the edge of the CBD, it is within easy walking distance of their workplaces. "I've been working around this side of town for about 15 years now, a bit further down in Woolloomooloo," says Anne.

"This side of town, to us, has a lot more to offer. We're close to Oxford Street and Paddington, Woolloomooloo, the Royal Botanic Gardens, and the downtown shopping area."

"And I have to say it's an 11-minute walk to the David Jones Food Hall," adds Bob.

But it was the view that convinced them this was the place to be. "I always said that if we lived in an apartment we had to have a view," says Bob. "This is north facing. You can see the harbour, St Mary's Cathedral, the museum. If you go out on to the balcony and turn right you can see all of Kings Cross and Darlinghurst."

The apartment itself is perfectly suited to the lives of two, busy urban professionals. The interior designed by Form Follows Function (as were all in the building) features rooms separated not by walls, but by frosted glass doors in aluminium frames that fold back to open the space up. It's a modern take on aspects of traditional Japanese architecture.

"The fact that it had a certain amount of flexibility and we could spread out a bit more appealed to us," says Anne. "There's only the two of us, so having the whole thing wide open doesn't worry us."

Because they don't need a second bedroom all the time, the couple turned the main bedroom into a dining room, giving them a large entertaining area. "It's brilliant because we have three daughters who come to get a free meal almost every Sunday night, and between them they have a partner or two, so it's a good space to have," says Bob.

They also ensured that the furniture they bought suited the adaptable space. When they have guests, Bob and Anne move the dining table into the living room, shift the modular sofa into the dining area, transform it into its alter ego - a queen-size bed and pull across the screens for privacy.

But when asked if they plan on becoming innercity retirees, the pair admit there's probably another change somewhere down the track. "It really suits us at the moment while we're both still working," says Anne, before Bob chips in: "It's a phase."