It was January 2012 when architect William Smart answered a phone call from Judith Neilson. He had worked with the Zimbabwean turned Sydneysider years earlier, designing the $10 million White Rabbit Gallery she opened in Chippendale in 2009 to exhibit her Chinese art collection. Neilson had since bought the old Simona factory a stone’s throw away from White Rabbit, and had plans for it.

“She asked me what I was doing and if I was busy,” recalls Smart over coffee at his eponymous Surry Hills architectural practice. “She said she wanted me to build a new house for her, and that she wanted it to be the best house in Sydney. She said if I was too busy she’d call Frank Gehry.”