First project

MAGNEY HOUSE, PADDINGTON 1989 – 1991

In the inaugural piece in our new series, Sue Barnsley reflects on her 1989 design for the landscape of Magney House, Paddington.

Sue Barnsley reflects on the design of her first residential project, an elemental garden that frames the landscape beyond.

Andrew McNally, a colleague and now friend, suggested we collaborate on a small garden: the renovation of a Paddington terrace with Glenn Murcutt, who designed the Bingie Bingie House for clients Tom and Di years earlier.

I look back now and see the project as one of relationships – personal, spatial and material – setting the trajectory of things to come. It was a moment of immense possibility. To work with Glenn of course. Then through this connection my life shifted. I settled into a shared studio with Barbara Schaffer, as Schaffer Barnsley Landscape Architects and practices that would grow to become Durbach Block Jaggers and Neeson Murcutt and Neille.

I remember the generosity and trust of my clients. The conversation with Glenn as we raised a wall to form a singular alignment that registers the changing elevation between the two terraces. Stepping the end of the pond to free this surface and place the water in dialogue with the landscape beyond. The excitement of borrowing the Ambasz book that accompanied the 1976 Luis Barragan Retrospective at MOMA.

I remember my morning with Robert Woodward, designer of the much loved El Alamein Fountain. The meeting with James Taylor, as we moulded a small drain into the edge of the roof slab. Almost invisible. The realization each line drawn means something. Of tracing your eye and your hand across the landscape – really connecting with the power of drawing and redrawing.

It is a simple space. The garden extends the logic of the architecture. Stairs slip quietly to the garage below. A stepped pond with the gentle sound of cascading water mutes the noise of close neighbours. An espaliered lemon hugs a wall, native violets shimmer by the water, a robinia tree stands singular and archetypal. The garden – sensual, spare, engaging with a bigger picture.

Photography Max Dupain Photography Landscape architect Sue Barnsley Design Architect Glenn Murcutt Architects Landscape Collaborator Andrew McNally Structural Engineers James Taylor and Associates Fountain Advisor Robert Woodward Architects Contractors Berg Brothers Construction, Sydney Fountains and The Gardenmakers