This new house is designed as an elevated platform sitting on top of, and integrating with, a significant rock outcrop at the top of a ridge at Phegans Bay on the Central Coast. A series of stepped platforms meander through the site, and between the rocks, and take advantage of 270 degree views of the twisting headlands surrounding Brisbane Water. The house replaces one of three houses lost in the New Years Day fires 2006 and is constructed to BAL 19-29 standards. Passive environmental principals underpin the design.
Inspired by the natural beauty of the site and the surrounding national parks the house takes on an organic geometry stretching to the edges of the site and creates a series of external pocket spaces with different aspects and experiences linking to the landscape. These include, a kitchen garden, a terrace under a cantilevered roof, a cave like entry, a yoga platform under the Angophora and terraced linking decks.
The building form is monolithic and expressive taking its cues from the rocky outcrops and cantilevered shelves. A terrace is built on remnant block walls and links to an existing pool that is perched like a billabong between the house and the rocks.