NoMad Residence

What makes an interior feel inhabited rather than simply furnished? At NoMad, a converted industrial space in Sydney’s Surry Hills, the answer begins with the relationship between objects and the room around them. Alexander &CO. has designed a home where the heavy geometry of an existing concrete frame meets a much softer collection of furniture, curtains and curved surfaces.

The practice dates the 300 m² apartment to 2022. Its earlier life included industrial storage and commercial offices before residential use. This project therefore concerns an interior transformation, rather than a newly completed apartment development. The intervention reworked the plan and renewed the services while repairing the existing structure.

In the photographs, broad beams establish a steady overhead rhythm. Below them, seats, tables and lamps introduce smaller, less predictable outlines. A long dining table stretches through the open room; nearby, a compact table against a green wall offers a more enclosed setting. These different scales give the interior several ways to be occupied without relying on a succession of closed rooms.

Windows carry another trace of the building’s history. Their steel grids remain legible behind full-height curtains, placing a fine, regular pattern beside the fabric’s folds. The contrast is particularly apparent at the perimeter: the retained industrial language feels present without determining the character of every furnishing.

The press material describes a three-bedroom, two-bathroom arrangement with a laundry and dressing area. It also records a practical difficulty behind the calm appearance: substantial concrete elements required crane access through a window. That construction story changes how the finished surfaces can be read. Their apparent simplicity depended on considerable planning and fabrication.

The kitchen and bathroom offer the clearest visual connection between furniture and architecture. Rounded worktop ends, a projecting basin and an irregular mirror make edges worth noticing. In the kitchen, pale cabinetry sits against a more animated splashback; in the bathroom, the window grid gives the curved fittings a contrasting backdrop.

NoMad is most compelling as a study in balance. Its open spaces retain the scale of an industrial interior, while carefully placed objects and softer boundaries give that scale a domestic use. Rather than treating the old frame as scenery, the design allows it to remain part of the experience of moving through a home.