Waterloo Street is a tale of contrasts between old and new. Old fabric, new fabric, old suburbs and new communities. A tangled tale. DKO’s design proposition is to carefully craft a new built insertion into the street that acknowledges and respects the site’s context. The heritage architecture of the existing warehouse is retained, forming the base to five townhouses, which inhabit the retained shell. Its solid brick base is married to a new lighter second storey – each offering distinctly different environments and experiences. The St. Jude church is a nearby landmark and a strong architectural reference point. To infuse a moment of local history into the project we referenced the brick quoin pattern of its façade and mapped this pattern onto a new architectural metal screen. This screen is operable, controlling both views into and out of the site. This operability also helps to control daylight and solar access, creating a patterned effect of diffused light within its interior spaces. The choice of metal for the screen also pays homage to the industrial history and previous use of the warehouse. Each home within this warehouse conversion offers intuitively designed living spaces, private rooftop decks, connecting each dwelling to its community below. This is an architectural response that borrows from both past and present – a proposition for how heritage fabric may be adapted into current thinking about inhabitation, density and liveability.