Sublime Point

Our client’s brief was to provide a house that belonged in the landscape; contained yet open, anchored yet light, separated yet connected…and then there was the difficulty of the site itself.

The project draws energy from the site, the sandstone strata & rifting geological plinth, its primary canopy of the ‘Silver top ash’, and its serene relationship within the greater Blue Mountains. It offers unique ‘subliminal’ considerations, almost ethereal in character.

Site parameters are complex, with a juxtaposing mix of requirements. It is an escarpment area, a bushland conservation & environmental protection zone, AND it is bushfire ‘Flame Zone’.

Firstly we proposed tactful site strategies, so as to navigate ecologists demanding no tree removal, and bushfire consultants requiring clearings given the seriousness of bushfire threat. With consultants in support, we strategically sited the new residence on the ‘brow’ of the site where the ground was hardened, vegetation struggling to exist, & we delicately pruned approved canopy in order to locate the building.

The site is linear with very different aspects, view & natural scale at each end of the site. The design embraces this spirit of the place, splitting into 2 programs:

living and sleeping / open and contained.

Touching the earth lightly, the living wing sits on the brow of the site, it is a grounded connection. The roof cracks open (like banksia seed) and with great cantilever it soars. It is gesturing that the living spaces open up & outwards into the private bushland garden, and towards the cavernous drop of the mountains which are literally a short walk beyond.

A central courtyard splits the 2 programs, and provides a protected north facing courtyard to sit sheltered basking in the sun, directly connected to landscape.

The bedroom wing projects over the garage, providing the height needed to capture a beautiful distant view of the Blue Mountains on sunset. It is a private & intimate treetop retreat for bedroom spaces, with deck & window seats to peacefully enjoy spaces in the sun.

It is a functional sculpture, that responds to the nature of place, relating the endemic quality and materiality inherent in the Blue Mountains.

Materials reflect the colours that naturally exist on the site & thus tonally the building blends into the trees…even though its form is strikingly unique. Internally, the use of timber & a soft colour palette provide a serene calmness. Concealed bushfire shutters are discretely detailed into the entire building so that it can completely shutdown in bushfire attack.

The design embraces the complex parameters & detailed requirements of the site and brief as an integral solution – it is a work of layered simplicity.

It is a functional sculpture, that responds to the nature of place, relating the endemic quality and materiality inherent in the Blue Mountains.