House in Darlinghurst by Tribe Studio is a beacon of adaptive reuse. The subtle design shines for its conceptual clarity, and for the coherent reinterpretation of the original electrical substation and its function to provide light and power to the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst.

The adaptation of the former substation into a compact three-storey home celebrates light, both natural and artificial, through skilfully detailed brise-soleil, metal screens, light shafts and venetian glass bricks.

The hermetic brick structure inherited from the industrial era has been gently and lovingly opened up to relate with a more benign post-industrial Darlinghurst, its trees and the laneways. This past-century workhorse building has been sanctified with a sparkling crystal roof extension, serving as a crown or aureole that appears to softly dissolve into the sky.

A luminous brick ‘jewel’ shines in inner city Sydney, Australia. This reworked inner city Sydney home in an historic brick substation is much more than at first it seems to be, packing a whole lot of function into a tiny, constrained, less than 50 sqm footprint.