Sydney Harbour Residence

Sydney Harbour Residence is a contemporary response to a historic and iconic Sydney harbour-edge site. The house is grand without being ostentatious. The predominant feeling is that of a residence within a landscape or garden setting. From the harbour the house sits comfortably on the site and presents as a prestige, classic but visionary dwelling. The playful roof form helps to give definition to the spaces beneath. Each peak and trough to the roof compresses and stretches the spatial quality of the room below, allowing the architecture to create intimacy and scale where required. The organic forms of the roof playfully blend the interiors spaces with the sky and lend the living spaces a sense of beauty and delight. Bordering a narrow plan with gardens on either side creates a sense of ‘living outside’. In addition, the careful manner in which the glazing has been designed to completely stack away ensures a sense of openness and connection to the external environment. This sense of seamless transition between inside/outside is continued through the floor finishes. Contiguous materials ensure the internal and external areas feel connected and breakdown the barrier that the glazing line represents. In addition a consistent material allows the house to feel generous and grounded, even when the space is elevated from the natural ground level. Outdoor rooms are reclaimed as important living spaces. Living spaces are classic and grand, warm and inviting, but also talk to a sense of optimism and vision. The formal living room is comfortable and grand, without being cavernous or over scaled. This delicate balancing act relies on the volume of the architecture and the scale of interior furnishings. While the spatial quality of the room is large but comfortable, the vaulted ceilings help to break the space down into more intimate rooms. Materially the residence is soft and comfortable. The cool grey of the granite floors and columns, coupled with the warmth of the limed spotted-gum ceilings, lend the space a sense of relaxation and calmness, while the volume and scale of the room ensures a sense of importance. Textured walls constructed of natural materials, lend the architecture a sense of quality, warmth and familiarity. A tennis court has been accommodated into the terracing of the landscape, ensuring that it is not only an excellent place to play tennis, but is also scaled so as to not spoil the feeling of the garden setting. Integral to the design of this space has been the consideration of fencing to the court, we have achieved this without it becoming a barrier to the view or the sense of space.