Published Article - Marshall House by Bruce Rickard - What I Like About You for Green Magazine

Green Magazine has published studio director Simon’s article on the Marshall House by Bruce Rickard. The article is as follows:

My first encounter with the work of Bruce Rickard came from what felt to me like a quintessentially Australian experience: fishing on the Hawkesbury. An elevated volume nestled amongst the landscape of Cottage Point caught my eye for its understated simplicity and outlook; qualities I came to appreciate characterised Rickard’s work, as I came to know more of it and the wider Sydney School movement, of which he was a prominent figure.

The Marshall House in Clontarf has many features central to Rickard’s design philosophy; the use of natural materials, the positioning of social family spaces at the centre of the home, and stepped walls that serve to break down the form and bring the feeling of landscape into the interior. Visiting the house, you can feel the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright, and beyond that of traditional Japanese architecture, yet it feels carefully adapted to the Sydney topography and climate through its stepped form and generous verandahs.

The house is unostentatious and rugged, yet is welcoming and open. Materials and surfaces run uninterrupted from outside to inside, breaking down the threshold between the two. Views and natural light ensure the presence of nature is continuous throughout the home, with sandstock bricks (sourced from multiple sites around Sydney), clear-finished timbers and native planting all giving a feeling of synthesis between the house and its environment.

There is a beguiling feeling about the house that Jennifer Taylor, in her seminal 1972 book “An Australian Identity”, says “lies in a suggested ease and informality of living, a sense of security and belonging”; I can think of no better ambition for our studio to bring these qualities to each of our clients and homes.