2020 National Architecture Awards: The Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New)

Jury citation

A site-responsive design was key to this private dwelling, perched among the sandy dunes of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. A nurturing home for an older gentleman, it demonstrates a clear synergy between client and architect, reinforcing the edict that with a terrific client often comes great architecture.

Modest in scale, the dwelling appears as a low-slung tent draped over the rolling dunes, reaching for morning views of the Pacific Ocean. As if hewn from a single piece of timber, a carefully calibrated sequence of spaces moves the visitor inevitably toward the ocean outlook. Services are neatly concealed, largely along the southern side, with the light and airy kitchen transitioning to a generous terrace protected from the elements. Modulated by a curved, vault-like plywood ceiling of remarkable precision and a series of translucent, glazed apertures that shield views of an apartment block to the south, the space maintains a soft light throughout.

Meticulous detailing belies this project’s simple clarity. A series of chamfered concrete abutments anchors the house to avoid uplift. Modulated hatches capture and draw in breezes when needed, while the design employs the full suite of solar passive principles throughout. A copper-clad roof following the curvature of its form will inevitably patina over time and nestle into its context as the landscape takes hold.

The pared-back design demonstrates a mastery of understatement, of elegance and of delight. A warm palette of timber, glass, concrete and zinc continues to the mezzanine bedroom above, which captures views both east and west. In Basin Beach House, Peter Stutchbury Architecture presents a practice at the top of its game, while maintaining a gentle decorum befitting this ecologically sensitive context.

Project credits

Architect Peter Stutchbury Architecture; Project team Peter Stutchbury, Belinda Koopman, Andrew Forsyth; Builder Capital Construction and Refurbishing; Structural engineer Max Irvine.

Basin Beach House is located in Mona Vale, New South Wales, on the land of the Cannalagal and Garigal peoples of the Eora nation.