d+k house

A mid-century modernist home in Mona Vale, on Sydney's northern beaches, reworked by buck&simple to open up its living areas and strengthen its connection to the outdoors. The brief was to increase and improve the living spaces of a beautifully presented coastal house while respecting the era of the existing structure. The practice's response keeps the classic volumes, lines and details of the original, then layers in a contemporary arrangement that improves efficiency and lifts the building's environmental credentials.

The design centres on a deep-soil green roof, drawn from the clients' love of gardening and a minimalist but tactile ethos. Living areas were relocated to the lower floor to create greater connectivity with the generous rear yard, while the private spaces upstairs were reconfigured to take in views across the newly created green roof.

Lightly coloured, textured brickwork defines the new volume inside and out, with a timber coffered ceiling vaulting overhead. The palette is sparse and robust so the clients' artwork can become the focal point of each space. Construction combines traditional techniques with contemporary detailing: double brick cavity walls paired with generously sized custom timber-framed glazing. The green roof is carried on an exposed white coffered timber ceiling that articulates the space and plays with light when seen from the living areas below.

The house is designed to breathe and make the most of the favourable climate. The green roof's dense thermal mass shields the interiors from heat gain, and high-level operable windows generate ample cross ventilation. The result is a culmination of context-sensitive design and modernist simplicity, where tactile materiality and integrated landscaping connect the residents to the natural environment on an intimate scale.

Architect: buck&simple. Photography: Simon Whitbread.