Escarpment House ELK Architecture South Coast

01 — Selected work

Escarpment House

A family house held against the base of the Illawarra range.

Brief: A family of five asked for a house that could hold three generations at Christmas and two people comfortably the rest of the year. The requirement was space that changes register rather than space that sits empty.
Site: A steeply falling block below the escarpment, with rock shelf across the western third and mature blackbutt along the southern boundary. Afternoon shadow arrives early; the eastern outlook carries to the ocean.
Response: Two masonry wings step down the fall and are tied by a low, glazed link. Living space is pushed east to the light, sleeping accommodation set back into the cut. The rock shelf was left intact and read as the courtyard floor.
Outcome: A house that reads as one storey from the street and three from the garden. Thermal mass and cross ventilation carry it through summer without mechanical cooling for most of the season.