Site presentation

Site files


The Site and its historical value


The clients


A family of New Australians, immigrants, arrived in Australia around the 60's. Fleeing Europe and a long history of pogroms, holocaust, displacement.


The Father, Historian, Anthropologist, works from home.
The Mother, Director in a buisness consulting company in the CBD
Children: a musician, a poet, and a baby
Grand father, classical pianist
Grand mother,  doctor in medecine


Program


The house is a space of retreat as well as a place for learning. It is a house of meditative moments and a place of happy gatherings. An emphasis is made on the possibility to have privacy but as well a possibility to modulate the openess of the public area. It is a new home for this family, their new axis mundi, treat the living room and the dining room as the centre of the house. It is the place where all meet.
A large garage is necessary, and an elevator is required for goods and disable access. It could be an elevator that follows the slope, a type usual for the coastal region of Sydney.
The parents, the children and the grand parents need to have their quarters, with adjacent ensuite and play or study rooms.
There is a need as well to have protected and very private courtyard, a meditative garden, a place of rememberance for the past, the family history but as well the site past and its complex history. There is as well a need to have a swimming pool connected to the heart of the house, the living room and the dining room. This living space should embrace the view to the sea. Landscaping should be part of the design.