Letting the outdoors in: A cliffside cottage re-invented to 'float among the trees'

Architect Vivianne Marston and her Middle Cove clients were considering remediation – again – on a post-war cliffside cottage with chronic damp issues and a very steep driveway, when they concluded it was going to cost an awful lot to make what would only ever be a temporary solution. 

It would require a sum equal to a new-house build.

So, on what Marston describes as “an amazing site that faces due north and is sunny all day long”, the smarter decision was to begin again, fix the drainage issues, and design to a brief for a four-bedroom home “that would float among the trees”.

In essence, the task was to build a tremendously comfortable arboreal abode with a pool at the high point of a site that has been divided into three distinct strata of usable amenity, and that is so changeable in its indoor-outdoor character that it makes many similar claims an empty cliche.

On the upper living-dining-kitchen level there are no side windows, but a behind-the-scenes “snug” for telly watching and home-gym action, and an all-in space.

Stacker glass doors open to let the interiors expand into the volumes of wood-surrounded and deliciously deep decks.

“The verandahs were a feature the clients talked about a lot. So, we made them rich, welcoming, liveable spaces,” says Marston.

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The front verandah, in the tree canopy and with views to Castle Cove, is 3.5 metres deep.

The rear is only 1.5 metres wide but, in stepping directly onto the garden level, renders the lawn as the living carpet “in an outdoor room”.

“The floor plan is simple and the spaces aren’t unnecessarily opulent,” says Marston. With almost three-metre ceilings “they’re well proportioned and every part of every room is working hard”.

The bedrooms downstairs are on wooden floors “to give a warm, cosy vibe”.

The master bedroom has that borderless quality, too, with a cavity door that disappears to open to a deck sitting above the street-level garage – another variation on boundless northerly views.

“We created a quiet, understated place that we think will age very well,” says the architect.

“But our main intention was always to invite the beautiful natural environment of Sydney inside.”