Waterfall House

The brief

A new beginning on a hidden hillside.

Our client Robert purchased a completely overgrown site perched above the street — an old cottage and detached garage on an extraordinary piece of land. We were engaged to design a new family home he planned to owner-build, with a separate suite that could serve as a granny flat or overflow accommodation.

We sat the house up the hill to capture district views and created a meandering driveway that allows for a large garage, internal access, and the ability to drive both in and out forwards. The result is a clean contemporary home with a feature pool, rooftop lawn, and excellent flow from front to back.

The house sold mid-2020 for the highest price in East Killara for a new build — the market's verdict on the quality of the design.

Accounting for a sloping block, he created a beautiful, architecturally stunning house with street appeal.

Robert Fechter · Owner builder, East Killara 2019

The design thinking

A hillside home designed from the inside out.

The brief was unusual in that the client planned to build it himself — so every detail needed to be achievable by a skilled but non-commercial builder. This discipline made the design more considered, not less ambitious.

The external louvre system to the north facade is a simple passive solar solution that provides shade in summer and admits winter sun, without mechanical complexity. The meandering driveway, which reads as a landscape gesture from the street, solves three practical problems at once: a level approach, a large garage, and turnaround space.