Originally, the house was built for a retired Scottish sea captain and his family, but later was converted into an adult mental health hostel, with the original layout heavily modified to incorporate 26 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The architects, Volks and Peters, approached the renovation with a specific strategy to emphasise the relationship between indoor and out, by elevating the building and moving it further back from the street.

With a history of social events in its past, the resulting extensive garden was key to reconnecting with the home’s origins. The strength of the indoor-outdoor relationship, that is quintessentially Brisbane, has been achieved by increasing the opportunities to connect with the garden. This includes ground floor rooms that fully open up to the garden giving the impression of larger external spaces; providing covered walkway connections with rooftop planting; integrating expansive lawns surrounded by feature gardens and incorporation of stone and concrete walling to blur the line between the built form and softscape.