Dove House

About this home

The brief

The ask: a storm-proof modern home oriented to spectacular ocean views in two directions. The clients wanted us to bring the outside in, while managing strong winds and salt spray to create a comfortable, sustainable and low-maintenance home for their family of four. They requested an open-plan ‘cook’s kitchen’ for entertaining, private bedrooms and guest rooms, a home office on the top level, a two-car garage with storage for bikes and surfboards and a dedicated laundry. Passionate beachgoers who love snorkelling, surfing and swimming, they also wanted to make the most of rear lane beach access with an outdoor shower. They chose us for our deep understanding of residential construction and design, saying: “We loved the approach of CplusC being builders as well as architects. You don’t find many businesses that offer both. Plus, we loved their design aesthetic.”

“When CplusC shared their design for our home we loved how it let in the light. Having the pool close to the living areas made complete sense to us. And the kids loved the cargo net.”

–Owner

The site

High up in Sydney’s Clovelly, the site overlooks a clifftop cemetery buffeted by winds from three directions. Expansive sea vistas open to the front and rear. Northward, Waverley Cemetery unfolds serried rows of graves with marble headstones, finials and statuary down the grassy slope to the cliff edge, with Bondi Beach in the distance. Southward, the rugged coastline skirts Clovelly, Coogee and Maroubra beaches. The site slopes from north to south with street access from both directions. It was occupied by Dove Cottage, a dilapidated one-bedroom fisherman’s cottage, and dominated by a massive Norfolk Island pine. Challenges included mitigating extreme winds and salt spray, managing view loss for neighbours while securing the clients’ own views, and making the home’s external screens easy to clean to keep coastal spider webs in check.

The design

CplusC envisioned a storm-proof double-sided home that’s open yet protected from the elements. Conceptually titled Dove Cottage: A House of the Sun, Moon and Sea, our three-level design addresses the challenges of the exposed site while maximising light and views.

Principal Architect Clinton Cole says: “The site feels celestial. It’s on the crest of a ridge. You’re up in the sky, with winds coming from three directions and the angels and crucifixes of the cemetery opposite reaching to heaven. The idea was to bring the living spaces skyward, so the house would feel celestial too.”

Inspired by the finials and crosses atop the headstones in the cemetery, the design features a simple geometry of curves and sleek lines that brings to mind Art Deco styles. An external spiral staircase coils up the north-facing façade from the ground floor to the first floor living areas, mirrored by another spiral staircase spanning all three floors inside the home. Above the pool, the circular theme repeats in a halo roof cutout that frames the sky.

Neighbouring trees initially blocked the primary view. CplusC resolved this by mirroring the floor plan on either side of a sunken courtyard garden on the lower ground level. At the same level, there’s a wine cellar, gym, laundry, outdoor shower, clothesline and garage with south-facing street access. One floor above, at ground level, are four bedrooms, a rumpus room and the north-facing front entry. We placed the living areas and the pool on a third level instead of downstairs as in more conventional layouts.

Clinton says: “We nestled the garden in the heart of the home, protected from wind and spray. So there’s no need for a front or back yard. The idea was to dissolve the front yard so the home feels part of the cemetery and the clifftop, with no fence and minimal plantings.”

By connecting the first floor living areas by outdoor walkways to decks at the front and rear, we achieved a single integrated indoor-outdoor living space that drinks in the sweeping vistas. A small, glazed outdoor office pod at the rear provides a workspace with million-dollar views.

The client said: “We were blown away by the final concept. It was so different. It took us a little while, but we fell in love with it. So much so that we decided to fight for it in the Land and Environment Court.”

Clinton explains: “The first floor pool was boundary pushing. It set a precedent. It’s the first out-of-ground elevated pool ever built in that council area. It took three years to get it through the court, but by documenting it carefully we won approval in the end.”

To ensure outdoor areas are usable, the design cleverly situates the pool at the more protected front of the home. Another challenge was to preserve sightlines to the stunning views while protecting from wind and ensuring privacy and safety. To achieve this, we used an innovative combination of adjustable glazing, strategic plantings, fibre-reinforced lattice and stainless steel mesh screens. Screen heights were carefully calibrated to minimise view impacts. Insect screen placement was also meticulously considered so views weren’t obstructed and to ensure screens could be easily brushed or hosed to remove webs.

With the salt spray and wind presenting corrosion risk, we were concerned about fixing the lattice onto the galvanised steel surfaces using stainless steel hardware, which could cause reactive bridging between the two metal materials. So our architects specified a corrosion-resistant bridging strategy using stainless steel M-clips and an aluminium angle bridge to ensure an enduring result.

The clients disliked the idea of an outdoor toilet for the top floor in case of bad weather, so CplusC integrated a discreet powder room into the main building. We also added under-stair storage and enlarged laundry cupboards to meet the clients’ request for more storage.

The design had everything the client needed – even a wine room – plus many features that they hadn’t imagined before seeing our concept presentation. “The floating roof, above ground pool and large ocular window on the front terrace are design elements we’d never have thought of ourselves,” they said.

“We were blown away by the final concept. It was so different.”

–Owner