CRUSH Architecture

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Australia
Surry Hills, NSW
CRUSH Architecture

03/11/2026

Every old house has been renovated. Some by architects, others by someone with a Saturday and a sledgehammer.

Walls pretending to be original, floors hiding decades of shortcuts, windows that became doors. That's why before we design a heritage home, we read it. Its history, its scars, its hidden opportunities.

At Summer Hill, we found a metre of forgotten space with the potential for a mezzanine.
At McMahons Point, it meant uncovering hidden value behind cladding, a fountain and a maze of pipes that makes a plate of spaghetti look organised.

The best design ideas aren't always invented, sometimes they're uncovered and if you haven't read the house, you're not designing. You are just guessing.

01/11/2026

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀.

For both, profit matters. It funds the next project and bigger ambitions.

But smart Developers see where the market is heading. In Sydney, buyers want more than square metres, they want quality, character and performance.

At Crush, 5 out of 5 clients want to preserve heritage character, while 3 out of 5 already know about Passivhaus and are willing to invest in it before they speak to us.

Developers with a capital D know that the right architect understands more than design. They understand the market and the people buying into it.

29/10/2026

There’s a reason we’re called Crush.
Every project starts with you falling for something. A house, a street, a picture in your head of how life could feel there.

Then you show us, and we fall for it too.

Not the size, not the budget, but the vision. That’s how we choose who we work with, and why no project is more important than another. Each one is someone’s whole world.

What follows is a long ride: sketches, council, drawings, details, site. Through all of it, we protect what you saw first, and we get it built.

27/10/2026

The extra bedroom is never the real priority.

What most clients need is a space where they can concentrate and also relax. Somewhere to work that isn’t the end of the dining table. Somewhere the kids can play and draw that isn’t the living room, cleared every night before dinner.

Every brief can look the same if nobody asks the right questions, extra bedroom, second storey, bigger kitchen. None of it is wrong, but it’s a list of solutions written before anyone has diagnosed the problem.

So before we draw a single line, we sit down together to understand your challenges and ambitions, and to sort the priorities from the nice-to-haves.

That conversation is the brief.

Start it yourself with the Design Workbook. Link in bio.

25/10/2026

Your heritage status is in a document you've already signed. You just never read that page.

It's called a Section 10.7 planning certificate, and it's attached to your contract of sale. It states in writing whether your house is a heritage item or sits in a conservation area.

Can't find the contract? It's public record anyway. Your council's LEP, the NSW Planning Portal, or the State Heritage Inventory.

Or skip the paperwork. The Design Workbook does the lookup in five minutes and adds your zoning, height limit and a rough cost range for the project you have in mind.

Link in bio.

22/10/2026

The best idea on our Summer Hill project came from a refusal.

Council had knocked back every second storey DA on a row of heritage semis.
Six of them. Our clients thought to use the same strategy and we did not want them to be the seventh!

Most people read heritage controls as a list of things they can't do. Wrong.

Every heritage control is a "no" with a direction attached. It tells us what's worth keeping, and by saying nothing about the rest, it tells where we are free to move.

Our clients didn't need a second storey, they needed space.
The house already had it, a metre beneath the floor and the council controls pointed us there.

If you think that your renovation idea will be hard to get through council is worth having a chat. Link in bio.

22/10/2026

No renders, just details. Three crush projects currently on site or a tender stage. Bellevue Hill, Darlinghurst, and Summer Hill and the drawings the builders build from.: stairs, window seats, box gutters, ridges, fewer arguments on site.

“The details are not the details. They make the design” Charles Eames

20/10/2026

Your house has a front half and a back half. Only one of them is yours.

If you live in a heritage conservation area, council has a word for your home: contributory item. Not listed. Not unprotected. It contributes to the character of the street, so the street gets a vote.

Here's what nobody tells you about that vote. The controls are written from the footpath. Roofline, facade, verandah, fence, materials. Everything a stranger sees walking past. That half belongs to the street.

Everything they can't see, the rules loosen. Interiors, rear extensions (if it is not visible from the public domain), how the rooms open to the garden. That half is yours.

Most owners and professionals never find the line. They spend their budget fighting the front and never discover how far they could have gone at the back.

We find the line first. Then we design.

Not sure if your home is contributory? The Design Workbook tells you in five minutes. Link in bio.

𝘗𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘮 𝘐𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘺𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺

18/10/2026

Tom's cottage in Zetland is the project we call Mind The Gap.
His review arrived last week.

"We engaged Carlo of Crush Architecture on our project to add to, and
reconfigure a small, heritage listed workers cottage in Zetland. We are
so pleased we did. Carlo is careful and focussed in listening closely
to what we wanted, meticulous in explaining what he will do, and by
when...and then doing it. His approach to design is carefully to
protect the heritage while creating high quality living spaces that are
as efficient as the heritage will allow. Carlo and his team have been a
delight to work with, and their engagement with the local council was
so skilful, careful and patient....steering our application through to
a successful outcome."

Thank you Tom. If your heritage home needs the same steering, a Project
Analysis is where we start. Link in bio.

15/10/2026

Heritage asked for grey. We made the case for red.

Mind The Gap is a heritage listed home in Zetland. Our client wanted the new extension in bold red, with brick running through the walls and the paving.

The Development Application went in. The Heritage Council was happy with the proposal, with one exception. They asked for the extension in grey.

Grey would have been the quick way to an approval. It was not what our client wanted, and we did not think it was what the street needed either.

So we did not change the colour. We showed why it sits well with the houses around it.

Heritage agreed. The red stays.

We do not preserve heritage. We protect it, and we make it joyful to live in.

Thinking about a heritage home? Start with the Design Workbook. Link in bio.

Address

Reservoir
Surry Hills, NSW
2010

Website

http://www.crusharchitecture.com.au/

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