2021 Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New)

Jury citation

At first sighting, the plans, the section, the unusual signals of architectural composition and expression were considered by the jury to be naive and even under-considered. The best work has this quality, the risk of not quite developing into a work worthy of recognition. And yet, in any context where there is a dexterous set of hands in the architectural team and a client as fastidious as Basil Borun, there is sure to be a sense of awe, at the very least.

So much more, however, is offered here. The alignment to mathematics, the counterintuitive absence of any northern orientation and the deeply committed disassociation with the context is understood with all the rare nuance of a masterful author. The potentially deeply problematic choices, deftly orchestrated, develop into a priority that is singular; a priority that is about the subject of the work, the desires of a disabled person to connect to the universe and galaxy.

The parabola, too, is not an obvious proposition. For the parabola, the choice of the mathematician client, is a form that has an asymptotic relationship to the vertical and uneasily ends on the horizontal. The jury was unable to ignore this tension and the rare and beautifully effortless result.

There is a poised asymmetricity in the placement of the unglazed oval oculus, which is also something few authors would dare. The form develops the ovoid shape of one’s own eyeball and offers it to the person in a wheelchair at a precise resonation and frequency with its intended purpose: to constantly offer awe.

This work is unusual in its forms and expressions but it is born from a deep regard for and understanding of certain forgotten principles, the loftiest of which is the development of a relationship between humans and the bareness of space.

— Night Sky will be reviewed by Manuela Doebelin in Architecture Australia Mar/Apr 2022.

Project credits

Architect: Peter Stutchbury Architecture; Project team: Peter Stutchbury, Fernanda Cabral, Sobi Slingsby; Builder: Dimark Constructions; Structural engineer: ROC Engineering Design; Hydraulic consultant: JCL Development Solutions; Landscape consultant: Sophie Zaccone; Joinery: Bakers Joinery; Other consultants: Simple Motion, Progressive Energy Systems, Sun-Kissed Solar

Night Sky is located in Blackheath, New South Wales on the land of the Dharug and Gundungurra peoples.