Lakeside House

On a narrow Narrabeen block on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, this new home was designed and built around a single idea: the garden comes inside. A continuous planted bed runs the full length of the north side behind floor-to-ceiling glass, so every room looks into greenery. From both levels, the north hallway keeps that connection alive. The boundary between interior and garden is, in effect, just glass.

The home design opens the site up through north-facing glazing, a double-height void that draws in winter sun for passive heating, and louver windows that push warm air out in summer. The house works with the climate rather than against it.

Biophilic interior design

The character shifts as you move through the home. The kitchen and sunken lounge on the south side are darker and more enclosed. Move north and the spaces grow taller and lighter. The change in ceiling height, and the play of light and shade, gives the interior the quality of moving between covered and open ground.

Materials were chosen for how they age and feel: distressed hardwood boards upstairs, limestone flooring below, stone feature walls and a stone fireplace, reflective tiles that read differently in morning and afternoon light.

Floating steel-and-hardwood stairs connect the levels. Curves appear throughout the interior (in joinery, in forms), taking the hard edge off what is, structurally, a concrete house.

Landscape and garden design

Coastal grasses, mounds and seasonal flowering plants soften the off-form concrete. Timber boardwalks connect driveway, garage and entry, giving the arrival sequence warmth and structure.

Charcoal-stained weatherboard cladding and a green roof bring the building back into the Northern Beaches landscape it sits within.

House design and build | Landart
Landscape design and build | Landart
Photography | Alicia Taylor Photography
Styling | Jack Milenkovic