{"id":75932,"date":"2026-11-08T11:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T11:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/alexander-co-convierte-un-antiguo-espacio-industrial-de-sidney-en-una-vivienda-galeria-inspirada-en-el-atelier-brancusi\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T14:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T14:04:41","slug":"alexander-co-turns-a-former-industrial-space-in-sydney-into-a-gallery-home-inspired-by-the-atelier-brancusi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/alexander-co-turns-a-former-industrial-space-in-sydney-into-a-gallery-home-inspired-by-the-atelier-brancusi\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander &CO. turns a former industrial space in Sydney into a gallery home inspired by the Atelier Brancusi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Constantin Brancusi worked for four decades in the Impasse Ronsin, an alley of studios in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. There, finished sculptures shared the floor with plinths, tools and blocks of stone awaiting their turn, and the sculptor moved them around again and again to test new relationships between them. He called these compositions\u00a0groupes mobiles<\/em>\u00a0and photographed them himself.<\/p>\n\n\n

Before his death in 1957, he bequeathed the studio to the French state on condition that it be reconstructed exactly as he had left it. Until recently it could be visited in a small pavilion by Renzo Piano beside the Centre Pompidou; it is currently closed to the public while the Centre Pompidou complex undergoes a full renovation. A walk through it was enough to understand that, for Brancusi, the place where the pieces looked at one another was part of the work.<\/p>\n\n\n

That studio is the starting point for NoMad, the apartment\u00a0Alexander &CO.<\/a>\u00a0has designed for a couple on the ground floor of a building in Sydney as an artist\u2019s studio, where every handcrafted piece reinforces the poetics of the space.<\/p>\n\n\n

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On the Rocks sofa by Francesco Binfar\u00e9 for Edra. Puffy lounge chair by Faye Toogood for Hem. Tripod coffee table by Kar. Laurel side table by De La Espada. Rug by Armadillo. Taliesin 2 floor lamp by Frank Lloyd Wright. Artworks by Mel Lumb, Indivi Sutton and Natasha Wright.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Bond shelving by Elin Rahnberg and Martin Berling for Fogia.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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HT105 chair by Henry Timi. Hat pendant light by Shelley Simpson for Mud Australia.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Altura floor lamp by Valerio Sommella and the studio Anonima Luci for Penta.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Flag Halyard chair (model PP225) by Hans J. Wegner, now produced by PP M\u00f8bler. Cocoon table lamp by Flos.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Custom table by CDF Studio. Pendant lights by Mark Douglass Design. Screen by Atelier O\u00ef.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Pavilion AV12 chairs by Anderssen & Voll for &Tradition and S-Chair by Tom Dixon, now produced by Cappellini.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Roattino floor lamp by Eileen Gray for ClassiCon. Wooden sculpture by Hugh McCarthy. In the background, Suit armchair by Artifort.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Vertical Opening sculptural mirror by Marc Barold Studio.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A warehouse with many lives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The building has accumulated several decades of successive uses. It began as an industrial warehouse, went on to house offices and was eventually adapted as a home without ever offering the conditions of one. From its origins it retains the concrete structure, the slabs separating the floors and the steel-framed windows, with their panes of translucent glass and their small opening fittings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clients, a professional couple, were looking for a refuge within the city. They asked for a home that would bring order and quiet to their working lives, and accepted that much of the existing interior would disappear. In return, they wanted to keep the gallery-like structure that had drawn them to the space. They needed little storage and preferred to gain living space. Light was decisive, and white space a value to be protected. The success of the project, they agreed with the studio, would be measured by how the home made them feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the restrained appearance of the result conceals a far-reaching piece of work. Alexander &CO. stripped out the apartment, repaired its structural frame, replaced all services and completely replanned the layout, while also incorporating the upgrades Australian regulations require of residential buildings. The new programme comprises three bedrooms, two bathrooms (one of them en suite), a laundry, an entrance hall, a dressing room designed as a small shop and a large living and dining room that works as a gallery. \u201cThe apartment has a lightness of touch, and the intervention can be in places hard to gauge\u201d, says Jeremy Bull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structure as gallery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The main room shows its structure openly. The chamfered columns and haunched beams, painted white, order the ceiling into a grid that recalls the building\u2019s industrial past. The walls, with a slightly textured mineral finish, catch the light from the steel windows, while sheer curtains falling from ceiling to floor filter it and provide privacy without closing off the view. The concrete floor, with its stains and shifts in tone, keeps the mark of time beneath the furniture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this backdrop, the furniture is arranged as in a gallery, with generous space around each piece. A modular sofa with pale upholstery and rounded backrests sits alongside a coffee table of organic forms and a dark wood side table cut in planes. Facing them are Hans J. Wegner\u2019s Flag Halyard chair, with its woven rope seat and black leather cushion, and a honey-coloured leather armchair formed by thick tubular cushions. A cocoon lamp on a travertine base and Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s Taliesin lamp, with its stepped wooden planes, complete the group beside a large golden canvas leaning against the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the dining area, an oval walnut table on cylindrical legs gathers upholstered chairs with slender metal frames and, at the head, Tom Dixon\u2019s S-Chair in woven natural fibre. Above, a cluster of frosted glass pendants with dented forms hangs from a single ceiling rose. In the background, a white mirror with an undulating frame and a column of charred wooden blocks act as sculptures marking the way to the private areas.<\/p>\n\n\n

A corner by the side wall brings together a suspended walnut shelving unit, laden with ceramics and glassware, a table on a conical pedestal and a solid, faceted wooden chair, in front of a large green canvas. It is the space that comes closest to the idea of the studio, with objects arranged to be looked at and moved around.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Concrete island by Concrete Bespoke. Portrait by Cedar Jeffs.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Pauline stools by OEO Studio for Brdr. Kr\u00fcger.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Walnut bedside table by Hugh McCarthy. Handcrafted wall light by Anna Charlesworth.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chair by Tom Fereday. Handcrafted Cloud table lamp by Dan Schneiger.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Custom freestanding basin and marble crazy paving floor.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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T chair by Olavi H\u00e4nninen.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Concrete with a sculptural language<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The kitchen and bathrooms concentrate the most complex part of the project. The studio designed a series of solid concrete pieces that introduce a sculptural language into an otherwise highly pared-back interior. Their weight and size meant they had to be lifted into the apartment by crane, through the window. The manufacturer had to test the load-bearing capacity of the slabs and, at the same time, the limits of its own production process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the kitchen, the island is the centrepiece. A large oval concrete worktop in a pinkish tone cantilevers over a pedestal with rounded corners and wraps around one of the existing columns, which becomes part of the piece. Behind it, pale cabinets with dark handles frame a panel of natural stone with grey and bluish veining that clads the front and side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two bathrooms carry this language to a more intimate scale. In the first, a sand-coloured concrete basin with an integrated rectangular sink runs along the wall as a cantilever and ends in a curve that folds back on itself. In the second, the basin is a freestanding cylinder with a stone-like texture, accompanied by a floor-standing tap in dark bronze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bedrooms of linen and walnut<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the main bedroom, a sage green upholstered headboard frames a bed dressed in ochre linen and an olive green wool throw. Beside it, a walnut bedside table with a base of fluted cylinders holds a small sculpture. An opening leads to the dressing room, which the studio planned with the logic of a shop, with a black rail suspended from the ceiling and a low chest of white drawers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study occupies a corner beside another of the steel windows. A walnut desk suspended from the wall, with a rounded end and an integrated drawer, holds a white ceramic lamp of sculptural forms, and a chair with an aluminium frame and leather seat completes the workspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A studio for two<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The resulting home combines a great deal of white space with a dense atmosphere. Each room allows time to look at the objects, as in a sculptor\u2019s studio, and the intervention is recognised above all in the way each piece is placed. \u201cIt is a living gallery for two people who have chosen a life of quiet calm\u201d, says Jeremy Bull.<\/p>\n\n\n

At the Impasse Ronsin, Brancusi moved his sculptures to discover what they said together. In Sydney, a former warehouse now offers its two occupants that same latitude to arrange the objects they have chosen to keep close.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Project<\/strong>: NoMad Residence.
Location<\/strong>: Sydney, Australia.
Area<\/strong>: 300 m\u00b2.
Programme<\/strong>: Full interior refurbishment of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home.
Completed<\/strong>: 2022.
Architecture and interior design<\/strong>:\u00a0Alexander &CO.<\/a>
Principal architect<\/strong>: Jeremy Bull.
Interior design team<\/strong>: Sophie Harris, Carolyn Schmidt, Mengxi Deng.
Styling<\/strong>:\u00a0Claire Delmar<\/a>.
Photography<\/strong>:\u00a0Anson Smart<\/a>.
Builder<\/strong>: Green Anvil Co<\/a>.
Source<\/strong>: V2com newswire<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jeremy Bull at NoMad Residence. Photo: Anson Smart.<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alexander &CO. Jeremy Bull<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hand drawing lies at the heart of Jeremy Bull\u2019s work. The Australian architect is interested in the relationship between people and places, in the stories a building can tell and in the drawn line as the first way of thinking through a space. From that conviction comes the phrase his studio, Alexander &CO., uses to define every commission: a client\u2019s story, made by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bull studied architecture at the University of Sydney between 1997 and 2002. From 2009 to 2013 he led the studio Akin Creative, and in January 2013 he founded Alexander &CO., which he has led ever since as principal architect. In little more than a decade, he has turned it into a multidisciplinary practice with projects in Australia and abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architecture and interiors as one<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The defining trait of the studio is the simultaneous coordination of architecture and interior design. Both disciplines move forward together from the outset, and the team follows each project through every stage. The work begins with site analysis and the master plan, continues with architectural and interior design, planning approvals and construction documentation, and carries on during construction and beyond. Furniture and object design and the styling of spaces complete the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its portfolio brings together bespoke homes, restaurants and venues, retail, civic buildings and planning schemes for private clients, developers and public bodies. The projects draw on the tradition of architectural modernity and on a close reading of the mark that people, site and time leave on each place. The studio is a member of the Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ethic of circularity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alexander &CO. is a certified B Corp and a carbon neutral organisation. It offsets its emissions through Greening Australia\u2019s Peniup project, which restores landscapes and biodiversity by reforesting native species in Western Australia. In its method, sustainability is measured through design decisions, such as attention to the life cycle of materials, the reduction of construction resources through the integration of architecture and interiors, planning for the building\u2019s useful life and supply chain traceability, with the aim of neutralising carbon and waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The studio has also made explicit commitments to human rights, aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and to reconciliation with Australia\u2019s First Peoples. It understands the latter as a process of learning about the country\u2019s colonial history and about the bond between First Nations and their Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A company focused on people\u2019s development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Internally, Alexander &CO. operates as a deliberately developmental organisation, focused on the growth of its people. It grounds its systems of feedback, mentoring and external coaching in the constructive developmental theory of psychologist Robert Kegan, on the premise that the team\u2019s personal growth translates into better communities and better environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside Bull, the leadership team is completed by Ellie Bradley, Director of Practice, with more than thirty years of experience in luxury interiors, advertising, branding and studio leadership across Australia and Asia, and Tess Glasson, Marketing Director, who after three decades in the lifestyle sector has spent ten years leading the studio\u2019s image and communications and is one of the driving forces behind its founding purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n

For Bull, every project begins in conversation with those who will live in it and ends with the objects they will choose to keep close. Between those two points, the studio works with pencil, material and time.<\/p>\n\n

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Alexander House
<\/strong>63 Brisbane Street
Bondi Junction
NSW 2022 Australia
+61 202 208211 208895
studio@alexanderand.co
alexanderand.co<\/a>
@alexander_andco<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Bull and the Alexander &CO. team have completely redesigned this former warehouse, turning it into a liveable gallery of bold handcrafted pieces in dialogue with one another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[578],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[249],"class_list":["post-75932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interior-design"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":249,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"amoratinos","display_name":"Ex\u00e1gono","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95418ef5af1f1a520d5386cfe82ba253c88665f94a4343ec69a36d8df034ab4b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","avatar_alt":"","avatar_decorative":"","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75932"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76117,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75932\/revisions\/76117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75932"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exagono.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=75932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}