Spring Cove Houses ::

Project Description::

The garden of the former Cardinal’s Palace in Manly, reaching down to the shores of Sydney Harbour, is being developed as a village of ecologically designed houses, set within regenerated bushland.

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer have designed one quadrant of the village, a complex of seven luxury houses. Each house reconciles the southern views with a desirable northern aspect for sunlight. Each has a low-impact footprint to reduce impacts on the habitats of indigenous fauna. Carefully managed strategies for rainwater collection, high-score BASIX envelopes and the retention of all significant trees have ensured that the development has minimum environmental impact on this unique site.

The houses form a related group, with each having an individual response to its location and unique planning. Each house is a composition of elegant prismatic shapes, inflected to provide sunlight and views, and providing a variety of roof shapes. The houses are designed in a simple combination of sandstone and timber. Key urban design locations are celebrated with sandstone structures that terminate major site vistas, mark the corners and edges of roads and common areas, and enliven the experience of the site as a whole.