Project Arabella: a full glass lift shaft in Longueville.
A Swift Pro with custom full glass panels to the shaft, in a Longueville home where the view across the water to the city was the thing not to spoil. Three levels, glass on every side, and an outlook that carries straight through the lift.
Project Overview
A glass shaft that keeps the view
Longueville, Sydney
Longueville sits on the water with the Sydney skyline across it, and in a house like this the view is the reason the room is where it is. A lift in the middle of that space is usually a solid box, and a solid box in the wrong place costs you the outlook.
So the shaft was built in custom full glass panels on every side, in a black frame. Standing in the living area you look through the lift to the water and the city beyond, and the lift reads as part of the room rather than an object dropped into it. The clients were a pleasure to work with and were clear about what mattered to them, which is what made this result possible.
The brief
Access across three levels, ground to second, in a finished home, without giving up the view or the light. The requirements were:
- Glass on all sides of the shaft, so the outlook carries through
- A finish that suits a high end interior rather than fighting it
- Three levels served, ground, first and second
- Installation into a completed house, working around other trades
What we installed
A Swift Pro, the top of the Swift residential range, which is the model that takes this kind of treatment. Custom full glass panels to the shaft in a black frame, LED lighting to the car ceiling, a touch display for floor selection, and carpet to the car floor.
- Swift Pro, supplied and installed by Aussie Lifts
- Custom full glass shaft panels, black frame
- LED car ceiling lighting and a dynamic touch display
- Certified to AS1735.15, on 230v single phase power
During installation
The photographs above include the lift part way through going in. They are worth a look if you are weighing up what a lift does to a house that is already finished, because the honest answer is visible in them: the shaft goes up, the glass goes on, and the room comes back.
There is no excavation in any of it. That is the part people expect to see and do not.
Why a Swift suits a finished house
The Swift range takes a 50mm pit, or none at all, sitting directly on the slab behind a small ramp. In a house that is already built and already lived in, that matters more than any other specification: it means no excavation, which is where retrofit costs and disruption usually come from.
It also runs on ordinary 230v single phase power, so there was no three phase upgrade to arrange. We supplied, installed and certified it to AS1735.15, and we service it, with spare parts stocked in Sydney.
