2019 Project Round-Up | Playoust Churcher Architects

Killara heritage alterations

A heritage project on the North Shore is always a challenge, due to the complexity of designing within heritage constraints.

Playoust Churcher Managing Director Brett Churcher explains the complexities around this project:

“This project was a balancing act of working within the council heritage controls and adapting our design to achieve the best result for our clients.

As with any contentious project such as heritage alterations, we went to council with a pre-DA.

This helped us to ensure a seamless DA process, as we could respond to any concerns from council very early on. When it came time to submit the DA, the process only took four months… which wouldn’t have been the case without the pre-DA.”

Construction is well underway on the home and we look forward to completion towards the end of 2020.

Read more about our approach to the heritage DA process.

Playoust Churcher - Home-in-East-Lindfield

New home in East Lindfield

Moving from the traditional to the modern, just around the corner in East Lindfield we have recently received DA approval for a large contemporary home. The home is three storeys, with five bedrooms and multiple living spaces, including a very open plan living area opening to a north-facing rear yard.

The materials used in the home will include stone and off-form concrete to achieve a modern finish. We are currently tendering the project, with construction due to commence in February 2020.

Wahroonga multi-generational residence

For this heritage-listed Wahroonga home, we have combined principles of multi-generational design within council heritage requirements to create a well-balanced design.

Playoust Churcher - Wahroonga-multigenerational

Brett explains the philosophy behind the design:

“Our clients approached us to make alterations to their home, because their parents are planning to move in with them. We have created a discrete wing within the house to ensure that each generation within the family has privacy within the home.

We like to future-proof our designs so in the future, if our clients decide to sell, that additional wing could be used as a guest suite, games room or a library for a larger family.

Particularly with a heritage-listed home where the heritage requirements may tighten or change in the future, it’s important that we plan for years to come to help our clients protect their investment.”

We will be lodging the DA for this property very soon, with construction to commence in 2020.

Read more about how we design for multi-generational living.

Southern Highlands retreat

While we are known as North Shore and Northern Beaches architects, we do work outside of the Sydney boundary.

For our clients in the Southern Highlands, we have created a master plan for their retreat.

Brett explains the scope of the work:

“The main residence of the property is remaining as is, but we have incorporated additional accommodation as a separate wing with both living areas and bedrooms. We have also added a multi-car garage.

The home sits within the hillside, so we have designed a lap pool which will be built into the hillside with a meditation room, gym and sauna underneath.”

The work on the retreat will happen over five years to meet the needs of the family.

Freshwater SEPP Seniors living

On the quiet side of Freshwater a SEPP Seniors living development we have been working on is due for completion in February. This is one of many SEPP Seniors housing projects we have completed with our client Bill Jenner. Playoust Churcher Director Luke Playoust explains this project:

“The site was originally a single residential block and once completed will include 11 SEPP Seniors living units.

The majority of the units – including two bedrooms + study and three-bedroom units – were sold off the plan.

The development is in an ideal location. It’s away from the beach with great district views into the valley.”

We are also in the process of lodging a SEPP to council for a nine-villa project in Beacon Hill.

Contemporary homes in Freshwater

Also in Freshwater, we have recently received DA approval from council for two new three-storey contemporary homes… on the same street. As with any Northern Beaches home, we faced challenges in the design due to the landscape.

Brett explains:

“The challenges for these homes were drainage, flooding and stormwater. We worked in collaboration with our own stormwater engineers and the council stormwater engineers to think outside the square. Ultimately, we were able to achieve the accommodation that our clients required.”

One of these modern beach homes has already commenced construction with the other due to start mid-2020.

Looking forward to 2020

We will be hitting the ground running in 2020 with five projects starting construction in the new year, five new homes on the drawing board and 15 alterations and additions projects at various stages of design across North Sydney, Mosman, Northern Beaches and the North Shore.

If 2020 is the year you want to start the journey towards your dream home, contact us to speak with one of our talented architects about our expertise in bringing your vision to life.