A Brutalist-Inspired Home in Australia Maintains a Breezy Connection to the Bush

Between the 1950s and 1980s, a new architectural style called the Sydney School was developing in Australia as a reaction to Euro-centric modernism. Architects began building homes that responded to the landscape of the bush, often borrowing elements of modernist, brutalist, and vernacular architecture to create a new style that emphasized indoor/outdoor living. The village of Pearl Beach, a couple of hours north of Sydney, is home to a lot of the beautiful designs that emerged during that period.

So when Sydney-based architect Polly Harbison was commissioned to build a secondary home for a couple who bought a plot of land in Pearl Beach, the Sydney School became a reference. Except there was one problem: As a response to a recent string of bushfires, Australia introduced legislation with stringent rules about the materials you can—and can’t—build with in the bush.

"You just can’t build that type of house anymore—you can’t build a timber, open, indoor/outdoor pavilion in the bush anymore and comply with our new codes," Harbison explains. "This whole project was really about how do we maintain a strong connection to the landscape and the bush, which is why people love these houses and these areas, but have a different type of building that protects and responds to bush fires?"