Ballast Point House

Recognition

  • Australian Interior Design Awards

    Residential

    Shortlist 2020

  • Houses Awards

    Sustainability

    Shortlist 2020

  • Houses Awards

    New House over 200m2

    Shortlist 2020

  • NSW Architecture Awards (AIA)

    Residential Houses (New)

    Shortlist 2020

  • The Plan Award

    Houses

    Shortlist 2020

A multigenerational home where the challenge of a small, steep site was turned to advantage. The answer was not a conventional house, but a vertical village – an apartment tower in miniature.

  • Ambitions for this project were huge: the forever home for a working young family and at least one set of grandparents. The ridge-top site of just 260 square metres was a challenge, but dual-street access unlocked the site potential for a series of separate yet interconnected living spaces over five levels.

  • At the lower street frontage, a concrete podium forms the garage and two-level, dual-key apartment suite above. The two-level main residence addresses the higher street frontage, flowing through the site with light-filled living spaces arranged around garden pockets and balconies. All levels connect via an independent service stair.

A dwelling that embodies a love of nature and family with exciting architectural invention.

  • The clients occupy the top two floors, and have the apartment below for their guests or parents. The arrangement gives everyone as much connection or separation as they need.

A built-in deep daybed off the kitchen makes a quiet afternoon napping/reading nook.

  • Garden connections are central to the interior. The main living level flows from a front walled courtyard through to the living room, past a central garden light-well and out to a balcony facing the harbour and city.

  • Materials are robust, refined and sustainable. Recycled bricks, raw or painted, exposed concrete floors and ceilings, pale plywood joinery and window frames in blonde Accoya wood. Upstairs, the softer palette sees wainscotted walls and a faceted ceiling painted a duck egg blue, with carpets of deep indigo.
  • Architecture & Interiors Studio Johnston
  • Builder SQ Projects
  • Structural SDA Structures
  • Landscape Dangar Barin Smith
  • Hydraulics ITM
  • Photography Anson Smart, Brett Boardman