Architect
Ken Woolley of Ancher,
Mortlock and WoolleyPractice profile
Ken Woolley (1933-2015) was a
leader in Australian architecture.
After a successful early career
in the NSW Government
Architect’s Office, his project
housing for Pettit and Sevitt
during the 1960s and the
Wilkinson Award-winning
Mosman House contributed to
the development of vernacular
building and the regional
romantic Sydney School
movement. Woolley joined
Ancher, Mortlock, Murray and
Woolley in 1964 (the practice
later became Ancher, Mortlock
and Woolley), was made
a Member of the Order of
Australia in 1988 and received
the Australian Institute of
Architects’ Gold Medal in 1993.06 Acollectionof
buildings and shapes
inaseeminglyad
hoc arrangement, the
house was designed to
resemble a small village.06
when we were first married, but they
were out of our budget,” recalls Louise.
“So a friend told us to take a look at this
new company, that was Pettit+Sevitt. The
Lowline design was exactly what we were
after, and they let us customize it with
recycled sandstock bricks and a deep-red
sandstock fireplace.”
What had set the now iconic Pettit
and Sevitt apart from other project-
home developers was its focus on design,
craftsmanship and connection to landscape- which are also the hallmarks of Pitt Point
House, a dwelling virtually unchanged by
the decades. Over more than twenty years,
Greg and Louise have altered very little here,
except to renew the kitchen floor, replace
a glass shower screen and discreetly add a
timber balustrade to the upstairs landing.
That the house has endured so well
is testament not only to the Roberts’s
stewardship, but also to a skilful balancing
of opposites in its design – light and shade,
prospect (a lens to the view) and refuge
(a cocooning space from which to view it).
A variety of moods and architectural
moments are orchestrated within a
relatively modest footprint, and its passive
environmental design measures are as
relevant today as ever: cross-ventilation,
roof and wall insulation, and shallow
awnings (“eyebrows,” as Greg calls them)
that allow winter sun to flood through the
big picture windows while blocking it in
summer. “It’s a very comfortable house
to live in.”
Woolley once said there was not much
point practising architecture unless it was
“approached as an art form.” Pitt Point
House captures the island spirit not only
artfully, but also playfully. What appears
from the water as a prosaic pair of huts
unfolds into something infinitely more
satisfying, primal and complex. A treehouse
and a cave, right on the water’s edge.