Our competition entry for 210-220 George Street.

3+2 is a ‘double album’: two books in one sleeve. It features two bodies of photography looking at the work of one of Australia’s most respected and awarded architectural practices – Durbach Block Jaggers. The two photographers are neither known for, nor particularly interested in, the conventions of architectural photography. This makes their photographic voice, and this book, distinct from the architectural mainstream.

3+2 Durbach Block Jaggers book is available to purchase for $180 including packing and postage.

Enquire at mail@durbachblock.com to purchase.

Alternatively, online purchases from Uro Publications are available at the following link:

https://www.uropublications.com/products/3-2-durbach-block-jaggers

Bronze cast door handle made by Graham Chant in New Zealand. Available for purchase through Jean-Marie Liere at Archinterface.

Barangaroo was formerly part of Sydney's working harbour, redeveloped into a commercial and retail district with parkland on the harbour’s edge,

R7 forms part of the entry sequence of small buildings to Barangaroo - a hinge - between the city and the harbour. R7 and its neighbour R1 are linked, sitting in the round between the existing development of King Street Wharf and the higher density of Barangaroo South.

 In the competition winning scheme, the action of the building is brought to the surface, through the external wrap around stair, linking every floor to the ground plane.

This vertical overgrown promenade terminates in a rooftop restaurant and sheltered garden courtyard. The facade is constructed of stacked and offset timber columns, grading from more dense at the base to lighter at the top. In pure elevation the facade appears open, in obtuse views, the timber appears more solid and prominent. To the East the facade curves and cants back, a gentle, embracing gateway to the whole site. 

Photography: Anthony Browell, Guy Wilkinson, Rodriguo Vargas and Lend Lease

Kambala School Vision Plan ongoing, Staff Green Room Renovation completed 2015.

AIA NSW judge's citation:

"As you walk through the Tamarama House your eye is continually drawn to remarkable details: of animated handrails, folded steel and carved concrete. However, it is the purposeful and sequential manipulation of volumes — from the compressed entry portico to the vast living space, layered cabana and intimate master bedroom — that leaves a lasting impression of delight. This is a timeless and extraordinary piece of architectural craftsmanship where the hand of the architect is ever present. The overlapping geometries of the form and dual garden arrangement of the plan masterfully respond to the particularities of the site. Central to this gesture is the sunken front garden facing the street. Sheltered from wild weather, it acts as both a place of repose and respite, and a balanced juxtaposition to the expanse of ocean adjacent. Views are carefully framed, reflected and enclosed throughout the house, capturing moments to dwell on sky or surf.
Whilst the budget was significant, this was managed with remarkable acumen, the elegant palette of materials conveying at once a sense of casualness and grandeur. Viewed from both the street and the ever—popular coastal walkway, the beautifully sculptural form of Tamarama House is offset by the layered textures of a highly integrated garden that anchors the house within its coastal setting."

Photographers: Andrew Cowen, Erieta Attali and John Gollings

Inspired by the interiors of Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation, the Balmain apartment celebrates the intimacy and immediacy of the everyday. Functions overlap in this tiny renovated space, 7m x 9m in plan and only 2.4m high. A dado line is introduced at 900mm above the floor, weighting the base of the room with dark and lustrous materials, form ply and dimpled rubber. Above the dado, the walls and ceilings are chalk white, coved to soften corners and junctions. This centres the eye at the dado line, increasing the perceived height of the room.

Reflections and secret views connect the spaces, creating complexity and depth. Drawn from the clients’ love of birds, brightly coloured moments flash into view, a bright blue desk, the red alcove, a yellow door edge, the coloured inside of a door handle.

Photographer: Anthony Browell

In association with BVN Architecture.

The soft centre of the Alumni Green, a garden in the city, will transform the image of UTS. 
The sense of this space as a sanctuary, and central gathering space will be consolidated by a cohesive and animated built edge. 
The image of the Science faculty onto the Green is a grove of trees, gently moulded and shaped, its underside a friendly shadow. 
The ‘tree-branching’ façade is fine grained and varied.

Photographers: Darren Bradley and  Anthony Browell

The W3 Light is a wall mounted light that was custom designed for the UTS Thomas Street project. Currently available for purchase, please forward enquiries to mail@durbachblock.com

We recently worked on the international design competition for a new library at Green Square with Sue Barnsley Design.

In association with Peter Colquhoun.

The North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club (NBSLSC) is located on the prominent, iconic and national heritage site at the northern end of Bondi Beach. Replacing the existing, disconnected and introverted building, the proposal is for an open connected and extroverted building. The new building increases the accommodation of the existing club, while creating a light and apparently smaller building.

Photographers: Anthony Browell, Joshua Davies, John Gollings, Tim Granter, Stefan Heim, Jeannette Lloyd-Jones, Mark Syke, Eugene Tan and Natalie Walsh

Love Lace is a major international exhibition of 130 contemporary lace works, from 20 countries by 134 artists. The central armature of the exhibition is an archaic, carved mass. Broad curving walls of aged smooth concrete, act as a foil to the delicacy and intricacy of the open work structures of the lace. Their companion shadows are lit to stretch across the sweeping walls.

Photographer: Anthony Browell

The house hugs the sloping rear boundary, orienting to the northern sun and a new garden with established trees. It has is a simple L-shaped plan, both containing and extending into the stepping garden. An internal garden court is hidden in the depth of the plan, bridging between the floors and inverting the line of inside and outside. The brick facade is given a fabric like quality through its pattern, texture and treatment. The underside of this looping facade tilts and lifts, admitting light and views to the ground floor public rooms, through clerestory glazing.

Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Anthony Browell, Julia Charles, Neil Durbach and Camilla Block

With ever shrinking sites and expanding houses, the Infinity House regains the balance between these two essential elements, house and garden. The looping form of the house allows an endless surface where house and garden meet, generous and elastic. Generic and flexible, the'Infinity House' can be occupied in many ways - for single families, for families with older children, in laws or homeshare. The house explores the endless flexibility and beauty of brick as structure and enclosure, as arches and curving walls, as flooring and vaulted ceilings. 'Generous in terms of garden, this is the typical suburban dream house with a new architectural solution. Beautifully conceived and crafted, the simplicity of the approach is breathtaking and manages to achieve the essentials of brick without being heavy.' Jury, Think Brick Awards. 

A 4 storey commercial building located in Kings Cross, Sydney. The design includes a ground floor restaurant / bar, and a rooftop garden. The material choice and form are in response to the character of the suburb.

Photographers: Anthony Browell, Peter Bennetts,
Neil Durbach and Jenna Rowe

Each house is suitable for a small site. The two storey houses maximize garden space. Each house has an integrated covered outdoor space. Each house has moments of spatial complexity, within a simple envelope. The Bridge house arcs to exaggerate the main living room, intimate at the entry and outdoor room. Its gentle form echoes landscapes and minimizes overshadowing. The Sky house reaches for light through amplified roof lights, and to the street through an open, one storey entry verandah. The Clock House can be rotated from an open 'L' through to a narrow 'V', depending on the width of the site and the orientation. It effortlessly creates a large covered space and roof garden terrace simply through the shift in alignment between the two storeys. They are all suitable for urban, suburban and rural sites. All houses have been designed to be repeated on adjacent sites or used in a grouping. For more information regarding pricing and deliveries, see the Happy Haus website: www.happyhaus.com.au

A new cottage in the Watsons Bay heritage conservation area works within a prescribed envelope and design constraints. The language of weatherboard seaside cottages, street verandas and simple connections to gardens and light were explored. Essentially south facing, the light scoop and entry skylight provides sunlight, light and ventilation for all spaces.

Photographers: Anthony Browell, John Gollings and Brett Boardman

Retirement Village Masterplan. DA for 250 apartments, 2,000 sqm of community and retail. Recommended for approval.

Multistorey mixed retail and commercial development.

5000 sq.m Offices, private art gallery, 3000 sq.m carparking, corporate dining room, boardrooms and studios.

Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Brett Boardman and Patrick Bingham-Hall

A modification to the Australian Pavilion for the 2008 Venice Biennale.

Curatorial team: Neil Durbach, Vince Frost, Wendy Lewin, Kerstin Thompson and Gary Warner.

Conceived of as a peninsular jutting out from the circulation box abutting the slope, the planar inflection of the space opens to the shimmering expanse of harbour towards Sydney Heads. Essentially a strip of terraced hillside hemmed in by glazed 'piles' sporting steeply retained pools and patios that exploit Sydney's premier views, the Hrdlicka House seems unduly modest in siting and compactness. The entry sits tightly against the parking deck, retained from an earlier development. Although the bulk of the house spreads horizontally along the site, the tight southern entry pays dividends to the north, where the easy patio extension to the living area incorporates natural rock and the contours of the site. At the far end the shaped pool, like that of an Aalto vase, is both remote from the house and discrete in its placement.

Photographers: Brett Boardman and Neil Durbach

Environmental Interpretive Centre and outdoor exhibition. Reconciling public access, safety and wildlife conservation in a way that transforms these ambitions into an iconic structure, the Brick Pit Ring is beautiful in its simplicity and poetic in its vision. Built, it is an exemplar of construction within a fragile site.

Photographers: Kraig Carlstrom, Guy Wilkinson, Brett Boardman, Peter Hyatt and Roger de Souza

An alteration to an existing heritage villa house. A new house is made within the existing envelope behind the heritage facade. A major skylight on the rear roof scoops light, passing into the depth of the building through a variety of means. A simple palette of materials is used for screen walls, book lined walls, niches and small openings. These simultaneously complete rooms and make connections to neighbouring spaces. Views across and through rooms and to a new landscaped courtyard increase the sense of complexity, depth and spaciousness. A looping, elastic staircase and void links all three levels.

Photographers: Anthony Geernaert and Martin Van Der Wal

An invited installation for an apartment within the historical Elizabeth Bay House.

Photographers: Brett Boardman and Martin Van Der Wal

Sited on the edge of a 70-metre high cliff, the plan of Holman House refers to Picasso's painting The Bather. It contains a complex series of fluid living spaces set within a meandering perimeter that arcs, folds and stretches in response to sun, landscape and views. Living and dining areas cantilever out over the ocean, allowing dramatic views up and down the coast. The lower floor forms a base that is built from rough stone walls like an extension of the cliff below. These walls continue along the cliff edge to form a series of eccentric terraced gardens and a vase-shaped rock pool.

Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Brett Boardman, Anthony Browell, Chris Cole, John Gollings and Reiner Blunck

A single luxury home on a harbour site. The Spry house fits a large brief on to a small site, creating a spacious north facing house and pool garden. The veiled upper story, made with thin strips of timber and glass, rests on improbably thin columns. This slender pavillion appears to lightly stand on the open living and garden platform.

Photographers: Anthony Browell and Brett Boardman

Two small (120 sqm) courtyard houses are designed to sit side by side, capable of repetition. They make a dramatic street wall with elevated roof terraces and a tower like main bedroom. In comparison to the traditional semi detached dwelling or terrace house, these houses have only one adjoining wall, two private lighted perimeter edges and cross ventilation in all habitable rooms. The house is organised by the courtyard, intimately related roos and garden. The rooms of the house wind around the court. The central garden is still and open, the informal circulation through the house. Noted by Waverly Council as Model Infill Design.

The design was configured to respond to the site and its nominated development controls. The building conforms precisely with the envelope and height controls. The building is conceived of as a porous perimeter block slipped horizontally and vertically. Two L shapes hold the north west and south west corners of the site, programmatically separating commercial and residential uses.