House on the Hill

This large sprawling and sloping site, with unimpeded views of Lysterfield Park, was ripe for a brand-new house. Designed for a couple with two young children, it was the site’s irregular-shape and aspect that provided the starting point for this large home of approximately 480sqm.

Initially presented with a basic rudimentary floor plan by the owners of what was required, the site demanded considerably more.

“The initial plan that was shown to us didn’t really take in the aspect or the unique topography,” says Architect Madhusha Wijesiri, one of three Directors of Enclave Architects, pointing out the views of both the valley directly ahead and the nature reserve behind.

A couple of weeks later, the client was presented with not just schematics but a 3D model of what could be achieved by Enclave Architects. While the design certainly impressed the client, it was clear from the outset that the allocated budget couldn’t be aligned - well at least in the client’s mind given the monumental conception.

However, while some architects work on the principle of ‘design then construct’, at Enclave Architects these two aspects are finely intermeshed from the outset of any project. When walls or skylights are designed, for example, the practice starts from the premise of knowing how to make these structural elements, as much as designing them.

Constructed in aerated concrete panels and in concrete-rendered masonry, the multi-level house closely follows the contours of the land. Conceived as a series of interconnected pavilions that range from single to three-storey, there’s a sense of containment within each zone together with a clear delineation of spaces into both more public and private areas.

Accessed via a gentle promenade of stairs flanked by garden beds, entry into the home is via a dramatic lobby with generous wall space to display art. Enclave Architects’ use of highlight celestial windows/skylights also adds a sense of drama to the home. With a clean and minimal palette of materials, including dark-stained timber floors, a reductionist approach to joinery and a number of angular walls, each space can be personalised by the clients.

The kitchen, for example, with its stone bench and marble splashback, is framed by two-pack painted joinery that conceals the kitchen appliances. But there’s also an impressive walk-in pantry/butler’s kitchen that allows the kitchen to remain minimal rather than cluttered or strewn with dishes. Forming part of the open plan dining and living area, this wing is skewed in form to embrace the northern aspect as much as the views over the valley.

And on the other side of the plan, Enclave Architects located a guest bedroom, a gymnasium and a library together with a laundry and bathroom. Provision was also made for what’s now the storeroom, to be converted into a lift at a later stage to allow the home to become a ‘forever’ house in decades to come. The first level is as generous, including bedrooms for the children and a palatial main bedroom suite, the latter including a large ensuite and walk-in dressing area together with a separate lounge for the parents.

This five-bedroom house, with its finely articulated windows and skylights, was conceived to allow each view to be slowly revealed rather than presented all at once.

As a result, there’s a sense of discovery at each turn. The main living area, with its built-in fireplace and glass cabinets, has a large picture window to one side that beautifully fames the garden. Likewise, the garden permeates the lobby with its indoor garden bed framed by natural light. And to ensure a seamless division between indoors and out, Enclave Architects extended some of the materials, such as the external concrete-rendered walls inside, complementing the lobby’s polished concrete floors.

The House on the Hill is more than just a large modernist home that ignores its surrounds. It responds to both the impressive views as much as creating unique and highly bespoke spaces that allow the owners to enjoy the interior spaces as much as the garden. And rather than simply being a house of the moment, it is a place that will be pleasure for the owners for decades to come.

“It’s not an overly fussy house or overly worked. But there is a sense of the hand crafted which is certainly what our practice is about,” says Wijesiri.