Gully House

Gully House is located on a steep site backing into the forested gully of Clovelly Beach. Our brief was for a new 3-4 bedroom house that created a connection with its location organisationally and materially. The existing house was typical for the location – a masonry cottage with very few physical or visual links between a north facing front and a south facing rear with direct access to Clovelly Beach.

Our initial concept conceived of the house as an extension of the Clovelly gully, proposing a continuous connection and visibility of the Gully across the whole site. This led to a differentiation of façade response for the east/west and north/south elevations. The transparency of the north/south façade, in combination with a split level cross-section, visually connects the northern front courtyard to the landscape spaces of the lower gully to the south, creating a continuous, unified experience of the sloping site. The east/west facades act as a filter, mediating privacy, ventilation and glare while provide a space for layered planting.

Given the tight adjacency of neighbouring dwellings to the east and west of the house, creating a screening system for the side walls was crucial to the concept development. We tested a number of screening systems, including bespoke individual masonry screens, timber screens and brick screens integrated into a conventional masonry skin.

The house explores a palette of natural textures and materials typically associated with exterior finishes – stone paving, concrete blades and structure, as an integral part of the interior. This brings a more open connected quality between the inside and outside, while a more refined oak for some wall surfaces and joinery soften the interior through their interplay with the more robust palette of exterior materials.