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The intimate scale of
the house’s rear garden
counterbalances the
immense drama of the ocean
panorama. Photo: Jane Irwin
Landscape Architecture.Sandstone rough backs – waste material sourced from a
Sydney stoneyard – bridge the garden’s spaces, nestling into
the site in a balancing act that melds the existing with the
conceived. At the garden’s base, a trickling rill gently filters
water through aquatic plantings that is later fed back into the
pool. The folded landscape echoes the Japanese influence
in the house’s architecture, filtered through a uniquely
Australian lens.This corner of the rear garden also functions as a clever
counterpoint to the site’s sublime view, which, framed by
the floor-to-ceiling glazing of the house’s rear, requires little
embellishment. In contrast to the immense expanse of
ocean that unfolds behind the building, the garden exists
at a micro scale, rewarding more intimate forms of
engagement. A sunken seating area turns inward, using
stone recycled on site to anchor sitters in place. This most
intense part of the garden also subverts expectations of
usability, with the owner recalling that her most enjoyable
moments have been watching her grandchildren playing,
not on the lawn overlooking the ocean, but hopping
between the stones, spotting lizards.Our discussion creates curiosity about the brief. An initial
impetus was to live in the landscape, not just admire the
view – a preference for experience over appearance.
This has presented a refreshing challenge for JILA.
The result is a garden that highlights natural phenomenon
and the elemental over the pictorial, something we
experienced that day as swallows skimmed the natural
pool and a visiting kookaburra inelegantly snacked on a
blue-tongued lizard.For landscape architects, the opportunity to work at the
garden scale is often dismissed in favour of grander public
gestures. Noting this, I ask Irwin for her thoughts on the
benefits of working at this smaller scale. Her answer centres
on the chance to establish and maintain a relationship
based on observation, consultation, continuity and care –
a compelling argument for maintaining a critical voice in
shaping gardens as intimate places in which we live.06