Freshwater Place

Freshwater Place by Chenchow Little Architects presents a "outstanding solution to an elevated site". Using the podium typology of the neighbouring houses, the building sits above a garage and entry lobby, while the upper levels are for living and sleeping. The house is located at Harbord with impressive views over the Freshwater surf beach. It was important for the architects to finely tune the balance between views out and in -- with beach views obviously desirable and the need for privacy to be maintained. Clever boundary fencing, planting screens and good planning create a relatively private space. The bedroom space on the upper level is screened by a series of bifolding shutters of aluminium square hollow sections, providing privacy, enclosure and dappled light. The external appearance of this floating volume changes from bronze to almost black depending on the time of day and light conditions. The project was the winner of the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture - Houses in the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards.

For the jury citation from the 2009 National Architecture Awards see Architecture Australia vol 98 no 6, November/December 2009 and for further coverage see Houses, Issue 65.