2024 Gallery
Winner: House Alteration and Addition over 200 square metres
Anthony Gill Architects for Blue Mountains House
This project involved the renovation and restoration of an existing home for a family and the creation of a new wing for guests. The ecologically sensitive site is on the eastern edge of a valley in the Blue Mountains and is classified flame zone.
Jury Citation
Blue Mountains House is a sensitive renovation and extension on a complicated ecological site. The extension proposes a contemporary reading of the existing Pettit and Sevitt house, and together the two buildings frame a minimalist courtyard. The addition, considered metaphorically as a rocky outcrop, protects the courtyard from the street and climatic variables, while its roof can be climbed to access an elevated connection to distant views.
A careful consideration and understanding of the flame zone bushfire overlay allowed the existing house to be retained and subtly upgraded. The robust concrete and blockwork of the extension expands on the brick materiality of the existing, and enables the building to recede into the setting, engaging with the ground and the surrounding gum trees.
This house celebrates the landscape, without fixating on the view. Platforms connect to the ridgelines of the mountainous setting and remind occupants of place and climate. The new work has also ensured the future survival of the existing house, providing an alternative approach to the demolition of older housing stock in the face of challenging bushfire and climatic constraints. A masterful approach to scale and form, and a respect for the significance of place, set this apart as a worthy winner.
