Designing for the daily flow

A lot of people describe architecture as a form of sculpture or 3D art, something that can only be experienced by being in the space. Even with the advent of virtual reality goggles and other simulations, there really is simply no other way to experience a space properly than to be there in person.

Furthermore, to really get an understanding of a space, you would need to spend almost an entire year or longer and at multiple times of the day. Visiting the Sydney Opera House at sunrise in summer is going to be a very different experience as visiting a night time opera in the middle of winter. 

In our house, we have a west-facing window seat that is best experienced in the winter months when the sun stays low and can find its way below the tall trees in our front yard. On one of those delightfully sunny winter days, from about just after noon until 2:30pm there is the softest, warmest, most delightful sunlight penetrating into the window reveal. Perfect for an afternoon nap or reading a book with a cup of tea.

This window pre-dated our moving into our house and so it was fortuitous in its placement. We added the window seat internally to capture some of this sunlight but also to create a frame for the front yard. It’s an example of how sometimes very small interventions can improve the feel of a space.

What happens when you get to customise a space to suit all of your needs and capture a site’s best elements whilst moderating its worst?

In last year’s Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design, we were lucky enough to have an open home in just such a building.

The OK house in Scarborough is the home of architect Stephen Collier. The home was designed around a theme of respite, refuge, resilience and joy. It’s on one of those super-tricky, upper escarpment, sloping blocks of land that usually result in multiple levels of terraced excavation and retaining walls everywhere just to provide a flat base to build off. It was also hemmed in on its upper side by the train line and surrounded by large gum trees.

Another architect friend of mine looked at purchasing the block and decided it was just going to be too expensive to build his dream home there.

Stephen took his theme of healing and decided the best way to address the sites restrictions was to lift the house up to match the canopies of the trees and access some of the ocean views. Rather than the usual acres of glass facing the views, Stephen allocated most of the glass to an internal courtyard that is lifted up off the ground and positioned in the centre.

The result of this is solar penetration to all of the spaces that surround the courtyard. The internal spaces are colour coded by bright pastel floor tiles which creates a colourful diorama at different stages in the day, season, year.

The end result successfully creates an internalised place of refuge with small moments of framed views to the surrounding environment. There is a sense of deep healing here that would not have been achieved with the standard approach of terracing into the site.

It’s a great example of where architecture can shape how we feel. It must have worked well for the 2026 NSW architecture award judges as well, because it won an award in the residential houses (new) category.

As a local architect I get super excited when we see these award-winning designs shaping our beautiful region!