Hanging Gardens House

Completed 2023

The alterations and additions to this house in Sydney's Northern Beaches, adopted a very restrained approach where the existing footprint of the house was retained almost without any change.

Making sense of the existing mass of the house drove the idea of a planter box which spans across the full width of the house and which sits on top of the projecting Ground Floor envelope. The elevated garden provides privacy to first floor bedrooms and bathrooms, and also softens the built forms by cascading the planting down the face of the building. The planter box returns back to the house facade around the entry terrace, to frame an opening to the sky around the front door. 

Intricate steel detailing was incorporated throughout the project including the pergola structure at the rear terrace, the portal for the pedestrian entry and the internal stair which was fabricated with folded plate steel, all suspended from the roof structure.

The site backs onto a bush reserve and was deemed to be a flame zone bushfire attack level. Working within these constraints meant neatly concealing external roller shutters to all windows and doors, which was no mean feat in the detailing and for the execution on site. 

The material palette of the interiors was kept quite simple with the warmth of a white-washed oak flooring contrasting against a charcoal timber veneer. Super White marble also formed the backdrop to the kitchen in addition to a monolithic island bench and a floating stone plinth supports the fireplace.

BLa team members: Chloe Rayfield & Blake Letnic

Builder: Chris Flemming Building Services

Landscape Design & Construction: Garden Society

Joiner: James Middleton Projects

Structural Engineer: Dermot O'Brien Engineering Services 

Photography: Katherine Lu

Stylist: Holly Irvine Studio