Landscape Architecture Australia – August 2019

Clifftop Garden

Vaucluse, New South Wales

Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture

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uburbs in Sydney come burdened with associations.

Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east, is no exception. Poised at the

entrance to Sydney Harbour, and edged on two sides by

clifftops boasting jaw-dropping views of either the Tasman

Sea or the harbour, Vaucluse is a place perhaps more renowned

for its trophy homes than for sensitive, introspective spaces

such as gardens. Visiting a garden designed by Jane Irwin

Landscape Architecture (JILA) and perched on these very

eastern clifftops, however, I’m refreshed by what I find.

Prior to JILA’s engagement by the current owner, both the

shape of the house and the physical dimensions of the garden

had been predetermined, with the house designed by the

late Australian architect Paul Pholeros. The garden’s design

is an exercise in contextualizing the house, grounding and

orienting its relationship to an extraordinary position. In

relation to the landscape the house acts as a windbreak,

separating the exposed, east-facing rear yard from the sun-

drenched west-facing front. With the house and natural pool

completed prior to engagement, Jane Irwin, principal of

JILA, describes the design of the garden spaces as an exercise

in stitching.

At the front of the house, the tired tropes of the suburban

front yard are unpicked. Defying a stark boundary between

the private and public realms, the garden spills streetward.

Scented geraniums colonize the footpath, releasing perfume

with the contact of passers-by, and in their rapid growth hold

space while slower-growing plants, including correa and

westringia cultivars, establish themselves, acting as subtle

reminders of the site’s lost ecology. In place of the usual

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The house’s front garden spills

toward the street, blurring

the boundaries between the

public and private realms;

planting references the site’s

former ecology.