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A series of solid blade walls cut carefully between the gum trees • perhaps a reminder of the highway ‘cuttings' as you drive two and a half hours to the site from Sydney. These blade walls act as support for the house, while creating frames for the near and distant views of the site and the landscape beyond.
This is a long-term retreat for a couple, their family and friends. Sitting securely in its site, it is a sanctuary of serenity and substance • from the heat, the cold, the bushfires, the city and the rest of the world.
The design is an abstraction of the miesian plan with rooms opening off a notional corridor along the northern edge. In response to the orientation and the slope of the site, the living spaces have been raised into the canopy of the trees with the ancillary spaces below. The north-south walls are solid blue structural blades while the east-west walls are generally glazed, orientating the rooms to the southern view of the ocean and the northern sun. The plan is split by a dramatic view corridor and external staircase, separating the main house from the guest wing.
There has been a deliberate manipulation of the volumes within the house. the major living, dining and kitchen areas are the highest spaces, flowing into each other and the lower study area as well as out onto the southern (summer) deck and the northern (winter) deck. Bedrooms are generous but very contained with their own private balconies and unique outlook. The bathing spaces are perhaps the most dramatic with the volumes compressed and manipulated to heighten the drama.
The joinery of the kitchen and bathrooms has been constructed from ‘marblo', a translucent resin material which allows light to filter through it. The bonding agent for the material conceals all joints, resulting in a composition that appears to be carved from one piece.
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