Crescent House / Matthew Woodward Architecture

 19:00 - 20 March, 2019

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Crescent House / Matthew Woodward Architecture

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© Murray Fredericks Photography

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Architects
Matthew Woodward Architecture

Location
Vaucluse, Australia

Category
Houses

Design Team
Matthew Woodward, Patrick Maitland, Nicholas Papas, John Deuchrass

Area
439.0 m2

Project Year
2018

Photographs
Murray Fredericks Photography

Manufacturers
Viabizzuno, Vitrocsa, FritsJurgens

MORE SPECS

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

Text description provided by the architects. A play of geography, geometry, and light, the Crescent House
is a singular, undulating sculpture that weaves through lush, coastal gardens and crescendoes with
enchanting views across Sydney Harbour. The clients had long awaited to build their dream home for
their young family. They chose the site for the northern aspect, panoramic vistas and direct access to
Sydney Harbour foreshore.

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

The brief was to create a future-ready home that captured various opportunities to entertain, relax and
rest amongst gardens and harbor views. The house appears as an unfolding white form, edged by
garden courtyards and green roofs. The interplay of sharp lines, refined detail and radial curves creates a
sense of sculptural ease and subtle purity as it engages with the site and harbor foreshore.

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

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 Sections 1 and 2

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

Once entered, the house is experienced as a sequence of volumes through mass, concrete, and
whiteness. Playful plasticity of the form provides thoughtful connections across various spaces and
landscaped areas as you transverse through to the living spaces. Skylights, openings, and voids
dramatize light and shadow that highlight the refined selection of materials; predominantly concrete,
brass and rendered white masonry. The muted palette of materials is a canvas for greenery and artwork
to be displayed encouraging life and character within.

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

Landscape works by Myles Baldwin Design compliment the internal arrangement of space with
Mediterranean generosity. Most notably, a sloped landscape garden constructed of corten steel
provides a lush backdrop for the living spaces, while also physically delineating the separation between
the private and public program.

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

Passive solar heating and cooling is inherent within the design through thoughtful site responsive
planning, considered location of openings, external shading devices, and thermal mass. A rooftop solar
array assists to offset electricity demand and rainwater is harvested for use throughout the house and
around the site.

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 Site Plan

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 © Murray Fredericks Photography

The haptic energizing of the senses across the home and gardens highlight the connection to the
broader context of Sydney Harbour. This is complemented by the clients’ imperative for a functional and
technologically advanced home. Needless to say, this is a house to be experienced.

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