This Sydney Home Fully Embraces Its Garden

LOCATION Gadigal Country/Sydney, Australia ARCHITECTURE Anthony Gill Architects FURNITURE & ART CURATION Design Daily LANDSCAPE DESIGN Dangar Barin Smith PHOTOGRAPHY Prue Ruscoe

An unprepossessing site in Sydney’s North Bondi is transformed through an ingenious architectural scheme that fully embraces garden spaces and employs a carefully calibrated range of materials.

As the entrance to the house is set in the middle of the plan, it enables a journey from the street through the heavily planted native garden to the main entrance. The paving is very dynamic, and the ground cover planting purposefully blurs the sharp, defined edge of the pathways.

This was not Bill Clifton’s first rodeo when it came to commissioning an architect-designed house for his family. The first was a semi in Bondi reimagined by architects Potter&Wilson with interiors by Briony Fitzgerald Design. With this subsequent project, Clifton, who is Robert Plumb Build's managing director, set a more architecturally ambitious plan in motion. “We have built over 100 houses, and I see up close where and when things go wrong in the communication between clients and architects. You have to select a team you trust and let them get on with it and not derail the overarching intent of the design,” he says.

With three small children, the kitchen and dining level needed to link clearly to the outdoors, with the Carrara marble-lined pool embedded in the plan running alongside the kitchen and the living space. The main living room steps down to a generous room furnished in a mix of vintage pieces—Afra and Tobia Scarpa Artona lounge chairs and ceramic panels by French artist Pierre Digan, alongside bespoke pieces made for the project by Cranbrook Workshop. The large contemporary gesture of the Naviglio sofa by Yabu Pushelberg for B&B Italia sits on top of the Atalante hemp rug from Molteni&C.

When he is the commissioning client, he always takes the opportunity to work with a different architect each time. For this project, he chose local Bondi resident architect Anthony Gill. “We had just started working on a project with Anthony in the Blue Mountains when we appointed him as we loved the approach he was taking there,” Clifton says. Sibling business landscape practice Dangar Barin Smith (DBS) was engaged early in the design process to introduce a predominantly native garden threaded throughout the house, and long-term collaborator David Harrison of Design Daily worked to select new and vintage furniture, lighting and art pieces.

Recycled Oregon joinery by Cranbrook Workshop combines with stainless steel and Carrara marble. Crafted counter stools by Pinch line the kitchen island, and artwork from Evi O made the transition from their previous house, while the Martyn Thompson Studio artwork (right) was selected specifically for the space.

The site's context didn’t immediately inspire with its mixed bag of housing types, local businesses and a small block of 1960s apartments to the north. Hence, Gill says, “The house is carefully planned around a series of courtyards with dense planting to help filter these neighbouring conditions.” Indeed, the impact of the landscape scheme is evident from the street where the lack of a fence and heavy planting of natives, including a mature Paper Bark tree, gives back to the community and attracts native birds and bees.

Anthony Gill specified the Viabizzuno n55 ceiling lights throughout the building and the Gold Bar suspension light by Peter Zumthor over the dining table. Vintage Austrian chairs surround a table made by Cranbrook Workshop, and the heavy Belgian linen curtains are in Design of the Times fabric and made by Homelife Furnishings.

The entrance to the house is on the south side, in the middle of the plan, so the passage to the front door is important. “We wanted to give this journey the feeling that you're looking up under plants, and as this foliage develops, it will form a canopy above your head,” DBS director Naomi Barin says. Plants drape to soften the garage parapet, and Cabbage Palms recur from the front to the rear of the site, including in a central atrium, so that all lines of sight are drawn to garden spaces and light and ventilation are prioritised.

The material palette of brick, concrete, and corrugated fibreglass screens is shown here, as the Vitrocsa windows slide completely back to emphasise the merging of inside and out. The Spanish Easy chair by Børge Mogensen sits under a circular skylight.

The pool, which is fringed with robust native grasses and can handle extra water, has extensive glazing on two of its sides, bringing a sense of nature and water into the house.

The house is undeniably experimental, and Clifton acknowledges he embraces the chance to innovate and for his building trades to meet new challenges. “For RPB, it was about efficient planning—Anthony and project architect Andrew Skulina produced high-quality documentation, and we had decided on fixtures, fittings and finishes, so when we had approval, it was a streamlined process,” he adds.

The sunken living space is contained by a concrete datum with steps down from the entryway and a curving stairway up to the bedroom level. A limited edition photograph by Murray Fredericks is seen to the right of the frame.

One of the notable aspects of the house is the material mix—a high/low combination that balances out perfectly: the perimeter walls are a rust-toned brick that plays to the locale, while the pool is lined with Carrara marble, concrete floors and ceilings pair with walls of natural render with a wax finish, while the joinery is knotty, characterful recycled Oregon. The defining material of the house, and the one most referenced by puzzled neighbours, is the translucent corrugated fibreglass screens used on the first floor to ensure privacy in the bedrooms.

A pivoting Vitrocsa door in the media room links to the native garden at the front of the house. The Tufty-Too sofa by Patricia Urquiola for B&B Italia sits alongside a Pascal floor lamp by Vico Magistretti for Oluce, designed in the 1970s.

These areas are essentially small greenhouses that use many native plants from Queensland—such as Doodia Aspera and Lady Fern, which have thrived. Anthony Gill’s signature outdoor bath sits submerged in ferns outside the main bedroom, and privacy is provided by the opaque nature of the fibreglass sheeting.

The Lina armchair by Gianfranco Frattini for Tacchini sits in front of the curved curtain with bedding from Cultiver. The photograph over the bed is by Murray Fredericks.

The ensuite bathroom is detailed in a lean, open treatment with the shower positioned behind the wall on the right, with access to the foliage and fresh air of the planted terrace.

The interior combines vintage furniture and artwork alongside bespoke pieces designed specifically for the project. The generous Pyrolav-topped coffee table, three-metre dining table in oak, console and bedside tables are all designed by David Harrison and made locally by Cranbrook Workshop. “Pieces were bought slowly as the project evolved, with key decisions around the Naviglio sofa by Yabu Pushelberg for B&B Italia having the scale and presence necessary for the sunken lounge. Again, we were very open to ideas,” Clifton says.

The bath outside the main bedroom is submerged in sub-tropical planting and used by Clifton as an ice bath.

Vintage pieces with pedigree were sourced locally and globally. “We found interesting decorative panels by French ceramicist Pierre Digan, 1950s timber Austrian dining chairs, an art piece from Sydney-based Martyn Thompson Studio and a pair of rare Afra and Tobia Scarpa Artona lounge chairs from just down the road at 506070 vintage store in Elizabeth Bay,” Harrison says.

Plants spill over the edge of the garage roofline to soften the line, and the specification of 600mm soil depth on top of the roof allows for the planting selection to be expanded to include small trees.

“It is always a learning curve being the client, and while not without its stresses, I appreciate how hundreds of collective decisions come together as a singular vision,” Clifton says.

The lack of fencing gives back to the streetscape, and the depth of the garden allows for a generous mix of native plants, creating a rainforest gully effect while also providing privacy.

Our aim here was to create a family home on a suburban block with some clear logistical challenges, that allowed us as the builder to learn from being a client and to try new ways of doing things that improve process while also creating a memorable piece of architecture that improves the streetscape.

— Bill Clifton