Why exploring this Sydney home is like finding an unplayed Mozart

Turning 89 on Friday, the Pritzker Prize-winning Australian architect Glenn Murcutt is still surprising fans who thought they knew all or most of his work.

Another home in Sydney’s St Ives by one of the world’s most internationally recognised and important architects, but the least “starchitecty” in style, has come to light.

Discovering an unseen Murcutt was like hearing an unplayed Mozart, said one Sydney devotee. Architect Nick Sissons said it was like finding an unknown Shakespearean sonnet.

Once found, the family home seems to disappear back into the steep bush block.

That was Murcutt’s intention, he said, visiting the home he designed 30 years ago for Dr Judith Preston and her husband, Brian Preston, the chief judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court.

“You could go past this house and not even know it was there,” Murcutt said.

“It’s always been my view that you design buildings that you go past, and every now and again, one might say, ‘Oh, better go back and have another look at that’. And I like that idea that there’s that privacy to the street, and then you bite the apple and you have all the fruit inside.”

Sissons, who worked with Murcutt on a book about his Unbuilt Works, estimates the architect has designed about 400 projects across 55 years. Murcutt has won gold medals from Australia and the US, and the Alvar Aalto Medal. As well as the Pritzker, he was the first Australian named a Praemium Imperiale laureate of architecture by the Japan Art Association.

Judith and Brian Preston, chief judge of the Land and Environment Court, and their architect Glenn Murcutt at their house in St Ives.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

No two Murcutt homes are the same; Sissons said the Preston home was “wonderfully subtle”.

“It blends seamlessly into the bushland context, responding to the steep topography, sliding, bending and dropping through the gully.”

He said the slender terracotta-coloured blade walls – requested by Brian Preston to match the pink angophora he loves – allowed glimpses into the surrounding bushland.

Sissons said it felt as if the house had always been there. “It isn’t a spectacular architectural statement, rather it feels like a logical and inevitable response to its unique context.”

To mark Murcutt’s 90th year, the foundation set up in his honour will launch the Murcutt Symposium from September 11 to 13 at the State Library of NSW.

It includes Murcutt in conversation with his friend Francis Kéré, another Pritzker winner, visiting Australia for the first time. It will include visits with Murcutt to homes he has designed, and a panel of top architects discussing ideas such as healthy buildings and designing for climate that drove Murcutt’s practice.

It is like forest bathing, Brian Preston says of his Glenn Murcutt-designed house in the Sydney suburb of St Ives, which was completed in 1992.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

One speaker, Carol Marra, an architect and Churchill Fellow, said Kéré and Murcutt seemed very different – Kéré has a mid-size practice, where Murcutt works solo. Yet both took time to understand what’s unique about a place, including its cultural and social history, the landscape and people.

“It is not trophy architecture but has a dignified presence of its own,” Marra said.

She said it was difficult to date Murcutt’s work. “They could be 40 years old or could have been built yesterday.

“It’s deeply human work, you can sense … a love of people, care for place and nature. It is incredibly hard to achieve this in our market-driven commercial world, but it is a reflection of who Glenn is, a beautiful human being, brilliant and humble in equal measure.”

Compared with nearby McMansions, the Preston home is modest and was unusual for its time because it incorporated a range of salvaged wood.

‘I like that idea that there’s that privacy to the street, and then you bite the apple and you have all the fruit inside.’

Glenn Murcutt on Preston House

Preston, a devoted gardener who also received the TAFE State Medal for Urban horticulture (1999), said it was a very therapeutic place.

“You think about the Japanese concept of forest bathing. You have that in your own house. We get all the birds, and we open the windows.”

Murcutt said it was important to have a client who understood beautiful landscaping. “And [Preston] has made a paradise. It is just paradise.”

Murcutt says the Prestons have created a paradise in St Ives.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

Murcutt is not looking for new work but trying to complete projects. That includes working with architect Angelo Candalepas on the new beachfront headquarters for Royal Far West at Manly.

Asked if he thought about his legacy, he said he left it to those managing the Murcutt Foundation.

“I am having a few difficulties, health-wise, falling over. It is knocking me about a bit. I say to myself if I get to 90 or 95 I will be very lucky,” Murcutt said. “I am very philosophical. I would like to be active until I have finished, and I don’t like the idea of slowing down, that’s been the curse of my life. I’m pretending I’m still 40.

“I don’t want clients to be waiting, and I die in the middle of it. So I’ve said basically no to every new project.”

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