The Narrabeen House is a suburb with housing plots and street layouts characteristic of the ‘garden suburb’ ideals espoused by early 20th century Australian town planning.The Narrabeen Houseof 2009 sits in this historical context amongst the other two storey family homes with each dutifully addressing a quiet, tree-lined street.It is a safe and familiar setting; no hint is given of the spectacular fresh water lagoon flowing to the ocean through each house’s backyard.The Narrabeen Houseplays with this dramatic contrast between the back and front of the property – Narrabeen Lagoon to one side, unremarkable suburban street on the other – in search of the ‘suburban dream’.
Sections of The Narrabeen House
In The Narrabeen House, a central courtyard is introduced as the principal organising element for the planning with all of the house’s key shared spaces – living room, dining room, kitchen, study and pool grouped around the courtyard to connect these spaces visually, and physically when the courtyard walls are opened up. The arrangement promotes a socially inclusive dynamic as well as extending the spatial opportunities of the house. The courtyard also has a significant environmental role bringing sun, light and air into the centre of t The Narrabeen House.
Location of The Narrabeen House
The Narrabeen House is located on the edge of Narrabeen Lagoon and is fortunate to have outlook across water to an untouched island dense with casuarinas. By contrast, the street context is unremarkable without the slightest hint of the lagoon beyond the houses lining the street and manages to give the impression of being deep in suburbia. The Narrabeen House is new and replaces a former 1970s cream brick house that functioned poorly and like many other houses from the time, did little to engage with the unique environmental qualities of the lagoon.
The Narrabeen House also has an unusual sectional arrangement driven partly by the requirement to elevate the interior 1.2m above ground level to safeguard against flooding but also by the desire to have open plan spaces with dual aspect – north for sun and south for the view. Whilst this introduces issues with the scale relationship of The Narrabeen House to its neighbours, it enables a more interesting multilevel relationship between interior and exterior living spaces to occur. This combination of sectional interplay with the layout of spaces in relation to the courtyard is what enables the layering of spaces to occur – it is possible to view the courtyard, living room, lagoon side deck, lagoon and island as backdrop in just one vista from the study at The Narrabeen House.
