Family House
Bilgola, NSW
The Bilgola House was completed in August 2006. It’s design faced the challenge of satisfying many onerous requirements: a convenient prescribed the building footprint and height, a Community Title requiring design approval, a bus-fire prone location demanding level 2 constructions, Flora and Fauna strictly protected by a detailed bushland management plan, geotechnical measures due to the site’s slip potential, and difficult access to the steep site by a narrow private road.

The three pavilions form of the house maximised the northern aspect of the site so that every habitable room faces north. Timber shutters replace windows on the southern facades, to provide ventilation and avoid heat loss in winter. The pavilions have narrow floor plates lying along the site contours to minimise excavation, and to aid natural ventilation. The living rooms in the tow lower pavilions face each other across a large deck, allowing outdoor living close on a steep site. Stormwater detention and rainwater collection tanks are located in the undercroft of the lowest pavilion and in the slab heating heats the exposed concrete floors of the house.