Concealed within a heritage terrace, TRW Terrace by Studio Manifold hints at what’s beyond the historic walls with green and grey checkered tiles and a soft, buttery front door. A stained-glass window above the door captures the outside light and transforms into a colourful dappling that touches everything in its path with an antique hue.
Designed for a downsizing mother and daughter, the brief centred on atmosphere, comfort and storage. Studio Manifold co-director, Morgan Novy, says it was about “finding generosity within a more considered footprint.”
The client’s curiosity and attention to detail ensured a harmonious design process, in which they and designer developed a clear vision across spatial decisions — from furniture and lighting to objects and artwork.
“That kind of collaboration genuinely lifts the outcome,” adds Novy. “She wanted each room to feel like its own place, with spaces that supported daily life naturally rather than being organised around any particular idea of how a home should look.”
Throughout TRW Terrace, the interplay between heritage and modern unfolds in a surprising methodology — one that keeps you on your toes as colour and materiality are explored singularly. It’s the design philosophy that carries over between rooms, but as Novy shares, they gave each room its own mood and identity; they wanted both eras to be clearly themselves.
Victorian bones — proportions, verticality, cornicing, skirting — are retained, if simplified, and celebrated with the new. “The cornices now conceal the air-conditioning and the skirtings are understated but present; the openings were heightened to push the sense of height even further,” says Novy. And yet, the contemporary insertions are deliberate and legible.
“That dialogue between eras, where each element is honest about what it is, is what gives the whole thing its coherence,” she continues.
At the heart of the home, described as a “serious workhorse and sculptural centrepiece,” the kitchen represents a distinctly modern element. It’s wrapped in a combination of brushed and orbital stainless steel, ensuring longevity throughout its lifetime.
Paired with mustard yellow and white checked tiles, pink terrazzo splashback and curved shelf, plus one of the custom Mark Tuckey wooden dining tables in the project, it resists eras or classification.
The other Mark Tuckey dining table suits its surroundings perfectly, circular in form, with a wooden base and sky-blue tabletop, mirroring the calming, ultra-matt, deep-blue-drenched dining room. Above, a vintage Murano chandelier anchors the space. Through the connecting archway, a buttery leather couch, green velvet rug, burl timber storage around the fireplace and contemporary white chandelier create an intimate space in the front room.
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Upstairs, the colour palette continues: soft yellows, glossy reds, icy blues and duck-egg. The bedrooms are calming, neutral spaces where materiality adds texture and the colour-drenched bathrooms utilise marble basins for inherent richness.
“We’re drawn to materials that behave honestly, spaces that support daily life and details that earn their place,” Novy reflects. “The focus is always on how a room feels to live in.”
TRW Terrace celebrates the old, adapting and retaining where possible but fundamentally creating a durable, new home of materials that will gracefully age with honest patina. Alongside passive performance — such as the bi-fold doors drawing light and cross-ventilation from the west-facing courtyard, and a new north-facing window in the daughter’s bedroom for improved solar access — it reveals good design that simply works.
As a small practice, Studio Manifold’s projects are rooted in deep collaboration. And for TRW Terrace, the client truly shared the vision. “Her curiosity and openness throughout the process, and her genuine investment in the outcome, gave us the space to take it somewhere considered and specific,” concludes Novy. “A home like this reflects everyone involved.”
