The beauty of this site is the grand view to the south, and it was my job
to make sure that we captured that view and framed it from different locations within the house.
My name is Ian Bennett, I am the principal of Ian Bennett Design Studio
and I was the principal designer of Grand View House.
Grand View House is situated on the southern side of North Mona Vale headland,
it has views to Mona Vale Beach, Turimetta Headland, Long Reef and Manly to the south.
As you enter through the large pivot door, you come into the entry which gives you a taste
of the view to come, as you walk further in under the bridge there are two voids either
side that are letting in light and as you come in further into the space you're greeted by the
kitchen, living, dining and the grand view opens to the south.
As you walk up the stairs you land on the bridge, to the north you have two kids' bedrooms and to
the south, you have a master suite with an ensuite and one more kid's bedroom.
This project was an alterations and additions to an existing house,
the existing house was defined by being quite cold and dark because it faces south to the
incredible views of Mona Vale Beach the challenge for this project was how to capture those views
whilst getting light and natural sunlight into the main living spaces.
My name is Elliot and I'm Sam and we're the owners of the Grand View House.
We were looking for houses for a couple of years and we went to quite a few open homes,
then we were sat at home one night and this house popped on the market and we came here
that first Saturday, as soon as we walked in we knew that this was the family home for us.
Originally the house was a curve-shaped two-story home and the house itself is
just under 450 square meters.
I've worked with Elliot from Northern Beaches Constructions
on two projects prior to Elliot's own house and we're currently working together on another house.
So after Elliot met Ian we set up a meeting and he came round
and Ian asked to go through the house and ask us questions. What do you want?
What did the kids want? And basically we wanted open plan, lots of light, and a good family home.
Yeah with the house we didn't have any non-negotiables, we were just sort of
open to seeing what Ian's design was in terms of the floor plan.
It was really designed for family living and it's designed as an open floor plan,
so there's this play of light that's happening up
there but it's also quite fun for a family to live in a space like that.
Architecturally the way that we worked with getting the light into this main living space
was to create a void to the east and to the west. The void areas feature louvre windows for
maximum cross ventilation and the allowance of light. Another key feature that brings
light into this home is the apertures located in the concrete awning.
Another way in which we've designed this house with a family in mind is with the materiality,
we try to use a limited pallet of materials and in this case we've used a limited pallet
of robust materials such as the concrete, the black aluminium and in the kitchen
we used a hearty material of caesar stone so that you feel like you're in a luxurious space but
not an art gallery where you can't touch anything.
So in terms of the materials Elliot loves concrete,
I wasn't too sure at first but I saw some pictures and decided we would give it a go.
Yeah I really like concrete, especially this sort of off-form sort of finish although it's a hard
surface I think it brings a soft feel to the home and it's durable I'm big into whatever products we
bring in standing the test of time and I think that this product is definitely going to do it.
The reason we do love to use concrete in our projects is because we work
on houses in coastal locations which are inherently harsh environments,
concrete is great in that you don't have to maintain it, there's nothing you have to do,
it ages gets a beautiful patina, it only gets better with age.
In terms of challenges on site, there weren't many as Elliott works in this coastal location as I do
and he's used to doing this sort of work day in and day out.
There's no surprise what the favourite part of this house is for me and it's the voids.
When you walk in here and you've got light coming in from all different directions
any time of the day there's nothing better than that.
As with all my houses, I'm proud that I've been able to deliver a house that has met my client's
brief and that at the end of the day they are happy and that's the greatest part of my job.