Curl Curl House by Trias
Built on the land of the Garigal people of the Guringai nation Curl Curl, New South Wales
Jury citation Part of a growing lineage of projects produced by Trias that carefully explore questions of domesticity and materiality, Curl Curl House is a further study in rigorous civic strategy and craft. Generated by the nature of its corner site, the structure of the plan is bracketed by two brick “towers” that hold the communal realm of the house in relation to the garden and its wider context. This strategy is fundamentally a diagram of togetherness, where the life of a family, and its personal and public needs, are scaffolded by a carefully ordered plan.
Exemplary in its tectonic resolution, Curl Curl House prioritizes longevity and durability. Deep reveals and screened thresholds are ingeniously located to provide depth for shading, joinery and occupation. Hardwood is used to elongate thresholds and brass channels are carefully delineated to control the patina of weathering over time.
The jury was impressed by the strong environmental goals of the project, which enrich the poetic aspirations of the architectural outcome. The calm internal atmosphere of the house is understated and marvellously calibrated. The interior offers both a domestic realm grounded by communal life and spaces of deep solace.
Architect Trias; Project team Jonathon Donnelly, Jennifer McMaster, Casey Bryant; Builder Avalon Constructions; Structural engineer SDA Structures; Landscape consultant Lindy Hulton Larson; Interior designer Folk Studio; Photographer Clinton Weaver
Jury citation The revelation of the Corner House, which is a fascinating study in an ordered and considered plan, is its clarity of spatial sequencing, and the intensified and harbouring nature of the garden court. Shielding the residence from an active arterial road, the exterior intensifies a gentle, protected landscape strategy, which has been iteratively honed through Archier’s considerable research into the idea of the garden room.
The plan arrangement is ambitious, nuanced and carefully composed, creating a new internal topography that is warm and delightful. The garden court section is subtly terraced and modulated as a series of stepping rooms, which work with the transparencies of the cruciform courtyard plan. Climateameliorating and tectonically rich, the house establishes a clear strategy of a protective exterior alongside welcoming interiors.
Architect Archier; Builder PMV Built; Landscape consultant Openwork; Windows Binq; Photographer Rory Gardiner
“The presentations expressed a welcome casualness in the way we live now ... The front yard is no longer the front yard, it’s whatever you want it to be, and policymakers will have to respond.”
Tony Giannone, Jury Chair, 2022 National Architecture Awards