Sacred Mountain House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture
New house Mulbring, NSW
The courtyard is one of the most celebrated architectural gestures. From the ancient Roman peristyle colonnades to the ambitious mid-century project homes built by Petitt and Sevit that are dotted around Sydney’s suburbs, the idea of enclosing a space that is open to the sky has been explored for thousands of years.
In spite of this long history, contemporary living expectations have made adopting the simple diagram of the courtyard a difficult task to master. The courtyard has been plagued by problems, among them the preconceived idea that an open area is a wasted space, as well as the added cost involved in building the external layer of wall surrounding the courtyard (a move that essentially doubles the length of external walls). The additional expense generally leads to the immediate deletion of these immersive spaces of infinite volume, especially in mass-produced project home models. Government sustainability initiatives (such as BASIX in New South Wales) often reject courtyard designs because the ratio of glass-to-house tends to be higher than what is deemed acceptable, incurring additional consultancy and time costs for the client in order to prove that the house is, in fact, a sustainable offering.
Sacred Mountain House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture (PSA) is a testament to the spatial intelligence of the practice and their ability to respond to site, brief and budget. The house is located among farmland in the frequently forgotten patch between the Central Coast and Newcastle in New South Wales, where the climate is so wonderfully temperate that you