Bunkeren by James Stockwell

The earth-filled concrete plates of Bunkeren are balanced carefully on a coastal site within the lands of the Awabakal people in Whitebridge, Newcastle. The project is an incredibly photogenic study in concrete textures and form, the considered result of a collaboration between architect James Stockwell and design-savvy Danish-Australian clients.

Bunkeren is underpinned by an appreciation of – and set of connections to – the work of Jørn Utzon, as well as the concrete architecture of coastal bunkers. As Stockwell recalls, Utzon loomed large from the very first project meeting. “When we first met and as I walked into the existing house, on the wall right in front of me was the most beautiful drawing of the Sydney Opera House in pencil,” he recalls. “That moment was quite magical and it just kind of introduced the project for us.”

Bunkeren is underpinned by an appreciation of – and set of connections to – the work of Jørn Utzon, as well as the concrete architecture of coastal bunkers.

Building on discussions about the use of concrete in the Sydney Opera House, the architect and clients also discovered a shared fondness for bunkers. “You can’t really suggest to someone to do a house like a bunker,” explains Stockwell, “but we both realised– and it was a bit of a watershed moment – that we really loved them and all thought it was a great idea.”

The challenge was to design for a high degree of resilience without creating oppressive or cramped interior volumes that shutdown connections with the surrounding landscape. At the same time, the project’s location on a dramatic sloping site with spectacular bushland and ocean views also provided a unique opportunity to challenge more conventional massing strategies. This was achieved by prioritising connections to the immediate landscape, something Stockwell sees as respecting a set of existing flows through the site. “Often people just build bang in the middle of a site and then across the contour to see the view, and that blocks off the natural systems. The way we set up this plan is really to allow passages of water and wildlife through and around. The building is partially dug-in, but the idea is that – if you’re on a steep site like this – there’s a journey to be made by animals, yourself and by water. It also gives you the ability to go from inside to outside on level ground.”

Nestled into the hillside, traces of the building are almost completely camouflaged from the street, save for a small volume containing the entrance and main bedroom.

Nestled into the hillside, traces of the building are almost completely camouflaged from the street, save for a small volume containing the entrance and main bedroom. The gardens held within the concrete plates are already beginning to fulfil their role as shrouds that stitch the building together with the wider landscape. Providing “an introduction to the landscape and not the house” on approach, Bunkeren recalls the experience of a descent into a garden, taking its cues from local flora and fauna to extend the existing ecosystem over the house’s concrete structure.

Designed for a couple and their four children, Bunkeren is a relatively large five-bedroom home and studio. Part of a generous L-shaped plan, the project’s main kitchen, dining and living spaces stretch out towards the ocean views from the bottom of the entry stair. To the left, tracking along the contour are the children’s bedrooms and bathroom. At the intersection of these main wings of the home, an adaptable sitting room or study can be generated through sliding panels. Tucked behind the kitchen are a series of smaller storage and study spaces, leaving a set of communal spaces with an uninterrupted view of Dudley Beach.

The challenge was to design for a high degree of resilience without creating oppressive or cramped interior volumes that shut down connections with the surrounding landscape.

Accessible from the north terrace, surrounded by landscape, is a raised concrete pool that separates the main house from a self-contained guest studio, which comprises a bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Along the southern edge of the plan, prior to stepping down into the sunken lounge space, an unassuming narrow stair connects the kitchen to the lowest part of the house. The back of the stone room is, as its name suggests, carved directly from the sandy conglomerate rock that runs through the site.

As Stockwell notes, the rock was an important initial consideration. “We observed on the site early on that the conglomerate rock, which is almost like concrete in itself, had a certain kind of shape to it and that if we could carve into the rock a bit, we could make a cellar and a room that was half-rock, half-architecture – part-landscape and part-building.”

As much clarity as there is in the impressive concrete frame of Bunkeren, its job is also to choreograph unfolding experiences of ambiguity and complexity.

The life of this project, Stockwell explains, is closely connected to a kind of open-endedness that makes way for multiple forms of occupation and use. “I do like the idea of architecture being not so contrived, in that it makes itself all complete and finished. I like an unfinished quality to things – a sketchiness, if you like – because it means that it gives room for people to inhabit and invent.”

As much clarity, structure and materiality as there is in the impressive concrete frame of Bunkeren, its job is also to choreograph unfolding experiences of ambiguity and complexity. In addition to being a much-loved family home, Bunkeren is both a sketch and a ruin, slowly becoming more finished at the same time as being gradually reclaimed by the flora, fauna and flows of its site.

Architecture by James Stockwell. Build by Ledbury Constructions. Furniture supplied by Spence & Lyda.