Castlecrag House

The house is located on the Castlecrag peninsula, a suburb rich in modern architectural history. Although not located within a conservation or heritage area, we shared an interest with our clients in the legacy of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, holding an allegiance with the principals and approach with which they had planned the suburb – with a deep respect for the natural landscape. Griffin’s vision of the bush suburb relies on a constructed experience of ‘nature.’ Sue Barnsley’s landscaping permits contiguous bushland to extend from water’s edge to street. The project amplifies interaction with the site. The thick sandstone floor of the dining room extends the rock escarpment into the house whilst the mirrored dressing room invites multiple angophora reflections. Sliding doors and screens ‘disappear’ to open rooms full breadth to the exterior. There is no front fence or side boundary fence to the reserve. As a result, the boundaries of the project disappear within the bush setting, using the natural landform and landscape to provide the privacy required and allowing the house to feel more a part of the broader context of Castlecrag than simply the site itself.

The clients had a long association with the site as the existing house was built by ‘Grandfather.’ There was a nostalgic connection that translated into the brief and a desire to retain (through remnant and reinterpretation) a sense of the original in the proposal for the new. Materials, joinery elements and ‘moments’ of the existing house had to be translated into the new design without becoming kitsch or overly sentimental. The result is a new house with traces of the old, some subtle, some more evident, some only understood by the clients through their memories and past experiences of the site.

The house also had to accommodate a family of four children (originally a family of three children when we started the job), and the client’s mother who regularly came to stay. Whilst not obese, the house is not small. To address this scale and render the project more functionally sustainable in terms of passive environmental control, spaces are generally relatively intimate and arranged in a way that can be easily partitioned off for heating. Connections between indoor and outdoor spaces, and an active flexible façade also allow for the effective modulation of both internal climate and apparent building scale.

This project was foremost a genuine collaboration between client and architect. The clients were closely involved from the start to the end – from the very initial concept design through to construction completion and attended every site meeting.

The landscape architects, Sue Barnsley Design, worked closely with us and the clients, drawing on the existing natural bush landscape and working with the client’s strong interest and participation in bush regeneration in the area.

Randall Jones, the structural engineer, shared with us a commitment to the memory of the former house and a respect for the materials and structures on the site that were retained and integrated into the new. The complex junctions of off form concrete meeting masonry, stonework and steel were all resolved in an effective and enjoyable collaboration with us and with a clear appreciation of the design intent.

In line with the spirit of the job, Maincorp Constructions had built the client’s parent’s house around the corner from the site, also in Castlecrag. With an already strong connection to the family, Maincorp came on board the project with a clear understanding of the history, and respect for the client’s strong emotional attachment to the original house and site. They collaborated on problem solving with an eye to the final detail throughout the construction process.

There is a high level of recycling of materials, fittings and joinery items in this project making some elements quite labour intensive and therefore affecting the cost of the project. The decision to retain and recycle parts of the old house is sentimental and was considered invaluable by the client. To respect these elements and reinterpret them into the new was a significant design challenge and one that was greatly appreciated.

Making use of the existing is a particular focus of this project. Recycling and reuse of existing materials, fittings and elements on a site is a sustainable and sometimes cost effective approach that we believe should always be explored as a possible design solution, but for this project the approach had particular ressonance. Bricks, sandstone, timber flooring, joinery units and some fittings and fixtures were all recycled from the original house.

There is no air conditioning. The house is designed for cross ventilation and zoned for winter heating - working actively with the climate. The use of natural light is maximised and solar access controlled by steel window hoods, extended overhangs and external louvres. Thermal mass plays an important role in passively managing the internal environment and reducing energy use in active heating and cooling. Curtains used extensively throughout are thermal, theatrical and spatial, simultaneously playful and practical, in the same spirit as the project itself.

In ground rainwater storage is plumbed to toilet, laundry and garden use. The landscaping is designed for minimal maintenance with almost entirely locally indigenous or native Sydney Basin species and minimal lawn area. The majority of the site is maintained as existing natural bush land and it often attracts native fauna with water dragons, native birds and echidnas all comfortably cohabiting the site.

Whenever we have visited this house since its completion the owners have expressed their sincere gratitude and appreciation for a house that is so bespoke and fit to their family’s needs. It brings joy to their everyday – providing a comfortable environment for living and entertaining, with constant reminders of their memories of the site and the original house interwoven in this new setting. Already the house has gained interest in the local community, being added to their list of sites visited as part of the architectural walking tours lead around Castlecrag and Middle Cove.

Particular components of the existing house were retained partly for their capacity to remind. Elements such as the chimney and surrounding fireplace joinery were carefully protected during construction. The marrying of ‘new’ and old brickwork is left exposed to view. The bespoke quality of the project is best understood in these junctions between new and old, and in material experiments throughout the project – the preciseness of steelwork, rawness of off form concrete, texture and colour of sandstone, texture and pattern of recycled brick. The use of recycled brick in particular, is an evolving interest in our practice and in this project, adds a meaningful complexity. The selected materials also work within the limits of the site’s bushfire flame zone classification.