When Studio Dot Architecture & Interiors set out to extend one of Maitland’s most significant heritage properties, they needed a facade screening solution that could do two things at once: satisfy BASIX thermal performance requirements and give the two-storey addition a strong, considered identity alongside a Victorian sandstock brick residence built in 1889.
The answer was a custom aluminium louvre screen system, fabricated by Alumac Industries.
The Project: The Hermitage, 16 Ballard Street, Maitland
Known locally as The Hermitage, the property at 16 Ballard Street is a landmark Victorian residence set on just under two acres in the heart of Central Maitland. The original house, built circa 1889 from double sandstock brick, features high 14-foot ceilings, a wrap-around lacework verandah, open fireplaces, and cedar windows throughout.
The renovation added a contemporary two-storey extension to the rear, designed by Studio Dot Architecture & Interiors (Newcastle and Hunter Valley). The new addition is deliberately articulated from the existing house: off-form concrete construction, blackened timber cladding, and custom aluminium batten screening in Colorbond® Basalt, a material palette that reads as unmistakably current without competing with the heritage fabric.
Alumac supplied and fabricated the aluminium louvre screens for the facade in addition to a custom made sun hood.
The Brief: Privacy, Shading, and BASIX Compliance
The extension includes substantial glazing on the north and west elevations, large lift-and-slide door systems opening to covered verandas, and floor-to-ceiling glazed openings on both levels. In Maitland’s climate, that much north- and west-facing glass needs to be managed.
The BASIX certificate for the project specified external louvre or blind shading on several key window and door openings, including west-facing glazing of 8.82m² and north-facing glazing of up to 9m². These windows required external louvre or blind shading to meet the NSW government’s solar heat gain requirements.
Vertical aluminium louvre screens on the upper level, running across the full face of the two-storey addition, address both the privacy and thermal performance requirements in one architectural move.
The Screens: Specification and Fabrication
The aluminium batten screens were fabricated to the architect’s specification: 50×10 RHS aluminium sections at 70mm centres, powder coated in Colorbond® Basalt. The result is a tight vertical screen that filters direct sun, provides privacy to the upper floor, and wraps the new addition in a coherent exterior treatment.
The screens run from roofline to slab on the upper storey, creating a visual datum that reads as a single plane from the street, contrasting with the intricate lacework of the existing Victorian verandah below. The detailing is precise: the sections are fixed, the lines are vertical, and the powder coat finish ties the screens to the building’s Basalt-toned facade.
All aluminium fabrication was completed off-site at Alumac’s Taren Point facility in Sydney, to the standard required by the project specification, which called for all aluminium powder coating by a manufacturer-approved applicator.
Why Aluminium Louvre Screens Work on Heritage Projects
It’s a question architects working with heritage buildings navigate regularly: how do you add something clearly contemporary without the addition feeling like an imposition?
Vertical aluminium louvre panels offer a few practical advantages in this context.
They’re thin in section, which keeps the addition feeling light rather than heavy. They allow the materiality behind them, concrete, cladding, glazing, to remain legible without being fully exposed. They don’t mimic heritage detail; they work in contrast to it, which is more architecturally honest. And they perform: controlling solar heat gain, managing privacy between levels, and screening where required.
On the Ballard Street project, the screens also play a role on the ground floor, where the architect noted the potential for aluminium blades similar to the upper screen to conceal air conditioning and hot water equipment, a practical screening application alongside the facade work.
The Result
The completed screens give the Ballard Street extension a coherent facade identity, one that holds its own alongside a Victorian landmark without trying to replicate it. The vertical rhythm of the aluminium louvre panels echoes, loosely, the vertical rhythm of the original verandah posts. But the material language is entirely of its time.
The property sold in 2025 for $1,670,000.
Aluminium Louvre Screens by Alumac Industries
Alumac supplies custom aluminium louvre screens and outdoor louvre panels for residential and commercial projects across NSW. Our Allouvre® range is fabricated to order at our Taren Point facility, fixed sections, adjustable configurations, or full louvre screen panels for facade, privacy, and equipment screening applications.
If you’re working on a project that requires aluminium louvre panels, heritage or contemporary, new build or renovation, talk to the Alumac team.
Greg Wallis, Manager, Alumac Industries and Strip Drains Sydney. Greg is a skilled business management and product design professional with years of hands-on experience. Greg has designed myriad innovative metal building products that blend quality, craftsmanship and architectural products for the building and construction industry.
