Designing in heritage conservation areas
If your home is a Listed Heritage Item (LHI), or it sits inside a Heritage Conservation Area (HCA), you're working to a different set of rules than your neighbour two streets over. That doesn't mean you have to settle for less than you wanted. It does mean the thinking has to start earlier, and that it helps enormously to be working with someone who has been through the process before and knows where the possibilities are.
What's actually different about it
In a Heritage Conservation Area (HCA), your local council isn't only assessing your proposal on its own terms. They're assessing whether it sits comfortably in a street or area that's been given protection for a reason. In practice, that tends to affect a few things.
- What can be seen from the street, and therefore what has to sit behind the existing roofline where it won't read from the footpath
- Which parts of the original house have to stay, which can be altered, and which can go — and that distinction is often less obvious than people expect
- Materials and detailing, including whether new work is allowed to look new or is expected to blend in
- The documentation you'll need, which usually includes a Statement of Heritage Impact (SHI) on top of the ordinary drawings
- How long the whole thing takes, because there's an extra layer of assessment to get through
If your home is a Listed Heritage Item (LHI) the scrutiny increases, but possibilities generally exist.
Great results are still a possibility. It just means the early decisions carry more weight than they would on an unrestricted block, and not understanding the heritage landscape can be costly.
Want to have a chat? Call Greg on 0412 013 627.
The period homes we work on
Greg's period expertise runs from Federation through to mid-century, and he's spent a long time around the fabric that comes with those houses — sash windows, tuckpointing, pressed metal ceilings, original joinery, fireplaces that are worth keeping and ones that aren't. He works with any style of house including:
- Federation — and the detailing that goes with it
- Victorian — from grand homes to Sydney's much-loved terraces and semis
- Edwardian — early 20th-century charm, rich timber detailing
- California bungalow — first mass housing to really respond to our climate
- Art Deco — our first taste of modernity
- Mid-century — from simple post-war buildings to academic Sydney School homes
- Suburban castles — many are now embracing the homes of post-war migration
Dates are approximate. The styles overlap, and most Inner West streets mix three or four of them within a block.
- Sash windows
- Tuckpointing
- Pressed metal ceilings
- Original joinery
- Fireplaces
- Tessellated tiles
- Leadlight
- Face brick
Old at the front, contemporary at the back
A better result than a mullet — business at the front, party at the back.
Our approach with period homes is also, conveniently, the approach most people want anyway. You retain, repair and restore what's visible from the street, and you build to the rear something honestly of its own time rather than a nervous imitation of the front.
What you end up with is the period home you bought into, still recognisably itself, with the light and the space, modern amenity and the connection to the garden, pool and outdoor entertaining areas that we value so highly now.
Statement of Heritage Impact (SHI) & getting it approved
Heritage controls generally require a Development Application (DA) rather than Complying Development Certificate (CDC). We prepare the design and the documentation that supports it, coordinate required Consultants, and consult with Council's planning team prior to lodging the full application.
The Statement of Heritage Impact is the report that goes in with the DA and explains your project in heritage terms. It sets out what is significant about the house and the street, describes the work you want to do, and assesses how that work affects what's significant. It also has to show how any impact has been kept down, and why other options were set aside. Council's heritage officer reads it closely, so it needs to tell the same story as the drawings, and we coordinate the two so that it does.
Greg walks through the whole process, from the pre-DA meeting with council to what goes in each report, in his guide The heritage planning process in detail.
What we do present to council demonstrates we have incorporated their controls, and have understood what is special and important about your home. This provides the best chance of a successful application.
"Our home is in the Inner West in a heritage area, which can be tricky to work with when it comes to council approval, and Greg knew all the ins and outs of what was expected and needed. His contacts and knowledge of the process made getting council approval smooth and straightforward. We couldn't have done it without his expertise."
Where we work
Most of the heritage work is in the Inner West conservation areas.
- Annandale
- Balmain
- Dulwich Hill
- Enmore
- Erskineville
- Leichhardt
- Lewisham
- Marrickville
- Newtown
- Rozelle
- St Peters
- Summer Hill
There's a good deal beyond that too. Greg has done substantial work on heritage properties across Sydney.
They have ranged from Archaeological Heritage, Heritage Conservation Areas (HCAs), Listed Heritage Items (LHIs), Contributing Elements (normally next to a Heritage Item), and buildings on the State and National register. Their ages have been from as recently as the 1960s to the early 1830s.
FAQs - Heritage Homes & Conservation Areas
Q01Is my house heritage listed, or is it just in a conservation area?
They are different things and the difference matters. A heritage item is listed individually, usually because of something specific about that building, and the controls apply to the house itself. A conservation area protects the character of a group of streets, so the focus falls on what can be seen from the public domain and how your work sits alongside its neighbours. Your council's LEP will tell you which applies to your property, and it is worth checking before you plan anything.
Q02Can I put a second storey on a heritage house?
Often, yes. What usually decides it is whether the addition can be seen from the street. A first-floor addition set back behind the existing roofline, so it does not read from the footpath, is a much easier conversation with council than one that changes the front elevation. On a narrow terrace that setback can be tight, which is where the early design work matters most.
But it is complicated — that's where our experience shines.
Q03Do I need approval for work inside the house?
It depends on whether the interior is protected. For most houses in a conservation area, internal work that does not change what is visible from the street is far less constrained. For a listed heritage item the internal fabric can be protected too — original joinery, plaster, fireplaces, staircases — and removing it without approval can be an offence. Worth confirming before you start rather than after.
But don't pull out that sledgehammer yet. Once it is gone it is much harder to replicate. Also, your building may come crashing down if you knock down the wrong thing — get advice first.
Q04Does heritage mean I have to use the original materials?
For the parts that are visible and being repaired, usually yes or something close to it. For new work at the back, generally not — and that is the point. Council tends to be more comfortable with an addition that is honestly new than one pretending to be Victorian. Matching brick and repointing where it shows costs more than most people expect, so it is worth budgeting for early.
Volumes and proportions are often more important to the design.
Q05Can I replace the windows?
Repair is the default expectation on anything visible from the street, and original sash windows can almost always be repaired even when they look past saving. Replacement is sometimes accepted where the originals have genuinely gone, but what goes back is expected to match. At the rear, where nothing is visible from the public domain, there is usually a good deal more freedom.
Q06What is a Heritage Impact Statement, and is it an extra cost?
It is a separate report setting out what is significant about the house and how your proposal affects it. Council asks for one on more sensitive heritage items. It is often prepared by a heritage consultant, which would sit outside our fee — we will tell you early if your job needs one, and can organise the appropriate consultant, so it does not arrive as a surprise later.
Q07How much longer does a heritage DA take?
Longer than a straightforward one, and honestly it varies more too. Heritage applications usually go to a council heritage officer for comment, and sometimes to a heritage panel, which adds time. The part within your control is getting the thinking right before lodgement, because most of the worst delays come from submitting something council was never going to accept.
Q08My house is not heritage but the one next door is. Does that affect me?
It can. Council will consider the effect of your proposal on a neighbouring heritage item, particularly anything that overshadows it, overlooks it, or competes with it from the street. It does not usually stop the work, but it does change how the application needs to be put together.
Q09Can you tell me what is possible before I commit to anything?
Yes. The Exploration Package is a fixed-fee $795 report on your property — what you have now, the controls that apply, and what is realistically achievable, and whether your budget is realistic. Most people in a conservation area start there, because it answers the question that is actually worrying them before they spend real money.