A Home for Every Season – Slipway House by Arent & Pyke

Inspired by the interconnecting courtyards and open spaces that embrace its location, Slipway House is a home for every season. Arent & Pyke creates a series of spaces that speak to a social home, where entertaining and living convene with ease while nurturing key connections to the home’s unique and enviable siting.

Designed in response to the curving lines of the architecture by Walter Barda Design, Slipway House is inspired by activity and connection. Located in Sydney’s North Shore, the resulting home sits enviably overlooking a sparkling blanket of moving vessels in the water, basking in the meditative quality of the sun engaging with the moving ripples. Throughout the home, staged over many levels as it navigates its steeply sloping site, the interaction between the indoor and outdoor spaces aids in defining the experience of the home. Large glazed openings allow natural ventilation and illumination internally and in select courtyards that are drenched in sun at various points throughout the day. Arent & Pyke ensure the site is embraced, with views and access to sightlines a priority, while fusing both the personalities of its owners together with key contextual cues from elements that surround.

Arent & Pyke ensure the site is embraced, with views and access to sightlines a priority, while fusing both the personalities of its owners, together with key contextual cues from elements that surround.

Sitting on its clifftop outpost, the home is anchored to its site with the use of heavier masonry elements aiding in fastening the structure to its terrain. The resulting openings act as carved elements into the whole where each internal room rests, looking out over the views beyond. The interiors takecues from its architectural foundations, expressing the exposed concrete elements and large spans, while also taking reference from the surrounding landscape. Warm timbers and textural elements are layered to add variety and depth to the spaces, while softly muted colourings take inspiration from the surrounding native flora.

Home to well-travelled owners, Slipway House embodies an eclectic love of global experiences through artwork, objects and collected items along the way. While the adjacent water and harbour provide a calm sanctuary for its occupants, the internal layering is a celebration of travel. Both in character and how everything comes together, the home reflects its owners’ personalities, and the diversity of elements adds interest and unexpected gestures throughout. With the clients being keen entertainers, the spaces all allow for flexibility of use, and the free-flowing nature between inside and outaids in the expansive feel of each resulting floor.

Home to well-travelled owners, Slipway House embodies an eclectic love of global experiences through artwork, objects and collected items along the way.

Slipway House is both inwardly focused while embracing its unique location. Through the injection of treasured and curated elements, Arent & Pyke has created a home of depth and meaning, deeply connected to its place.