Few people live in a home designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt, world-famous Harry Seidler or 2021 winner Peter Stochbury for First Prize for Residential Architecture.
Unlike public buildings, you can’t walk in the front door of a private home to see the designs of the best architects, says Sydney residential architect Campbell Bird. He says the pictures don’t cut it either.
For a glimpse inside these homes, Bird mixes his spare time with work by renting vacation homes designed by notable and award-winning architects.
He became “a little obsessed” with the award-winning Morcote-designed beach house in 1984 in Benji on the south coast of New South Wales, one of more than eight architect-designed homes that Bird rented and documented.
Designed as a secluded getaway with “camping” in mind, Magney House is still owned by the family who commissioned Murcutt – it won the National Award for Architecture in 2011.
Visitors, including many architects, pay $1,500 per night to stay in a place they describe as iconic, charming, and an architectural masterpiece. Willing to overlook the need for some maintenance due to its brilliance, visitors describe it as “not your usual Airbnb”.
Andy Carson and Jeffrey Simpson Architects/Designers at Hedland House, Girengong.credit:Louise Kinnerley
For Mr. Bird, staying at Magny House was different than seeing it in a magazine. “Architecture is designed for a specific place, a specific climate, a context and a client. The only way to understand it is to live it.”
“Most homes separate you from the outside, and people like Morcote were instrumental in making people understand that experiencing the environment outside was just as important as the one inside,” says Bird.
Architect-designed rentals are often experimental, on- or off-grid. They range from luxurious to off-the-shelf and small.
They include tree houses and boat sheds designed by the internationally recognized Australian architect Richard Lieblaster, an architect.
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At the upper end of the market, rentals like The Edge at Coogee, a luxury five-bedroom home by Renato D’Ettorre, and architect Timothy Moon’s Surin Villa in Cattai on Hawkesbury, rent to thousands of people a night and offer concierge services to their guests. Archer House at Well Beach designed by Craig Rosiver, winner of the Australian Institute of Wilkinson Award in 2001, rents from $2,000 to $4,000 per night.
You Can’t Stay at Night Sky, designed by Peter Stutchbury and which won the highest award for a new home in 2021, the Robin Boyd Award. But the Invisible House in the Megalong Valley, winner of this year’s Stutchbury House earlier this year, is available for vacation rentals. Rusty red chests, evocative of old farmhouse barns, conceal the invisible house that lies beneath the hill’s forehead.
The award-winning Inivisible House from Peter Stutchbury is available for vacation rentals.credit:Peter Stochbury Architecture
At Hawks Nest, the Courtyard House, an off-grid prefab house designed by CHROFI that won the 2020 Sustainability Awards and was nominated for other awards in 2021, is for rent for $700 per night.
It is rare for an architect-designed home to remain owned by the client who commissioned it or the architect who designed it.
Gawthorne’s Hut owners, Steph and Rick Gordon, said their son Oliver prompted them to commission architect Cameron Anderson to build something unique. The humble one-bedroom eco-hut near Mudgee, which rents for $440 a night, gets five-star reviews. It won Airbnb’s Best Unique Stay in 2021.
Gawthorne’s Hut won AIrbnb’s Best Unique Residence of 2021.credit:creative amber
Architect Peter Bakewell designed the GrandviewHaus in Victoria in the Blue Mountains not only as a vacation home more than 50 years ago.
“I built the damn thing. It only took me eight years, to do it on vacations and weekends.”
Peter Buckwell’s wooden house on Mount Victoria has stood the test of time.credit:Dean Sewell
Bakewell, who raised his family at home, says he loves sharing the home with others. “It’s anything but funky,” he says. Features a sunken conversation hole. Haus has its origins in the philosophies of Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and Brutalism, he says.
Built from inexpensive materials on land purchased for $10,500 in the 1970’s, Mr. Bakewell designed it to withstand strong winds and maximize “incomparable views.” Use lining boards outside of the saw. Deceptively looks like the plate-shaped concrete is popular today.
But it’s a trick of the eye: “There’s no concrete,” says Mr. Bakewell.
Long before anyone really thought about mitigating wildfires, he said he devised his own system. Place a sprinkler system on the roof, and make the eaves short so that the exterior walls are soaked if a fire approaches.
Berman House in Joadja outside of Mittagong is one of the most popular holiday spots in New South Wales. It is now called Seidler House after the award-winning architect, the late Harry Seidler, who completed its design in 1999.
Priced at $2,500 per night for a week’s minimum stay, the house’s curved roof descends like a wave onto the cliff overlooking the Wingecarribee River.
“A flat roof would be a boring thing to do in such a great location,” Seidler said in 2001. “With modern technology, we can bend and roll steel like spaghetti into any configuration we want.”
Gets a great review from visitors: “It goes without saying, but the house is gorgeous. What an amazing feat of architecture! One visitor this year said: “I wanted to stay here to enjoy the scenery/history alone, but the house is also meticulously maintained and is very comfortable” .
Andrew Martin is the owner of the Berman House, which was built in 1999.credit:Walter Peters
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