Inside A Home That Disappears Into Nature and the Landscape (House Tour)
#NaturalHouse, #EcoHome, #SustainableLiving, #GreenArchitecture, #EcoFriendlyHome, #OrganicLiving, #NaturalLiving, #EarthFriendly, #EcoDesign, #HealthyHome, #GreenLiving, #SustainableHome, #NatureInspired, #EcoHouse, #EnvironmentallyFriendly
I am three, Polestar 3, and this is what I do.
Because I am three.
It's very hard to come to the site and not feel a little bit overwhelmed by both the opportunity
but more importantly the responsibility of honouring a place as special as this.
So for us it is about trying to find a way that we could engage with the land and the
landscape that would not only fulfil the client's grief to build a special and relaxing home here
but to do it in such a way that it created the least amount of impact on the world around it
and to really nestle into the landscape which for us is always a very important agenda with a home.
I'm Sean Lockyer. I'm the design director of Sean Lockyer Architects
and we're the architects of the Whale Beach House.
Whale Beach is located in Guringai country, the lands of the Garigal people,
which is the second last beach on the northern peninsula of Sydney before you get to Palm Beach.
It's an incredibly special part of the country with a relaxed, casual environment.
The destination for Sydney's site is to get away for the weekend
and its relaxed character is really what defines this place.
There's a very high degree of complexity about trying to make a house disappear altogether
when you've got effectively nearly four levels of altitude change.
From the street side the house is all but invisible, sitting very low to the street
and then shrouded with a great deal of landscaping and then on the eastern side of the house
one can see the predominantly three levels of house that are sort of characterised by this
beautiful screen down at the base of the house above this lovely stone base with a green edge
which is cascading from the pool edge and really then two visible layers of glass above that.
I'm Michael Ford and I'm an Associate Director at Sean Lockyer Architects.
The formal entry sequence starting from Whale Beach Road is defined by some landscaping
signed by Dangar Baron Smith. It's not a direct path to the gatehouse, they draw you through at
one edge of the site and then pull you sideways to sort of meander through to this arrival point.
Once you're in the property boundary under the compressed gatehouse you get the first
view to the formal front entry and glimpses through to the ocean on your left and what
is going to end up opening up as an extraordinary courtyard and the batten screened element to the
right. The arrival sequence of the house is a really important one as you move down you come
into a lobby space that's really characterised by the sequence of staircases that sort of defines
the northern side of the house and connects all of the various levels and starting with the kids
bedrooms on the lower level where you have three bedrooms that all sit behind this beautiful timber
screen and from there you're moving into this central entertaining games room which is kind of
the heart of the sort of core entertaining of the house. This beautiful piano, there's a big TV,
there's a lot of media in here and there's still access to a small vignette of the ocean through
this lovely indoor-outdoor window and then as one journeys up through the house this lovely light
but beautifully rich timber staircase takes you to the main living level where the living level
is kitchen, living and dining. The primary living space is flowing out of this beautiful
north easterly terrace which has an elevated swimming pool which is actually sitting above
the kids bedrooms below and then lastly from that living level we move up to the parents level which
also has the entry adjacent to it and that parents level is essentially designed as a one-bedroom
suite with a parents retreat and a bathroom that we think is also a little bit of fun in that it
opens into a central courtyard where a tree grows up through the middle of the house so that one can
actually have this incredible indoor-outdoor bathing experience. Perhaps one of the most exciting
and for me the most interesting parts of the evolution of this design we've created this
beautifully tiered landscaping courtyard and it's one of the surprising but also very special
elements of the house. Some of the things that characterize this home characterize a lot of our
work they are of the place they're timeless natural materials inside and outside the home
we've tried to bring in natural stones to the interiors batten screening and in particularly
in this case here where we've tried to lean on the idea of a coastal vernacular where we have
weathering timber on the outside of the house that is light bright honey-colored stones that
sort of really speaks to the color of the sand of Whale Beach which is unique and biophilic design
and landscape integration is really something that you'll see in a lot of our projects and
certainly no exception to this project. Coming back to a house after one is completed and the project
is always an incredible experience it's always an amazingly humbling experience this is a project
some five five and a half years in the making and to come back here now and the clients have moved
in is incredibly special we've really got a sense of this being a home for them and for us really
that's what it's about of course the intellect the you know the design intent the spirit of what we
want to do as architects is sort of front of mind but more important than any of that is our
relationship with the clients the story of you know two people and their three kids ultimately
who get to enjoy this extraordinary places this amazing landscape which is a very humbling
fulfilling and incredibly rewarding experience for us.