Stacked Assortment – The Books House by Luigi Rosselli Architects and Alwill Interiors

Words by Bronwyn Marshall
Photography by Prue Ruscoe
Interior Design by Alwill Interiors

Taking its name from the form that appears like a cascading stack of books and the sandstone stratum surrounding the home, The Books House traverses its steep landscape with a linear-banded approach. Luigi Rosselli Architects and Alwill Interiors combine textural and sweeping motions throughout to craft the unique and responsive home.

Perching looking out over far-reaching coastal views in Mosman, The Books House optimises the steeply sloping site it sits upon and embraces the sandstone base as an expression of place. Anchored to the site through the combined use of masonry architectural gestures, the home appears to reach out through generous cantilevers across its multiple layers. Both in providing a solid base for the home and as a response to context, the incorporation of such weighted materiality incites a permanency and ensures the buildinger will endure for many years. Approaching both exterior and interior with a shared vision, Luigi Rosselli Architects and Alwill Interiors further expand on ideas of flow and subtle movement between layers and interpret principles of shifting and stacking through the architectural and interior areas respectively.

Built by Evolve Building Group Pty Ltd, The Books House looks to the nearby steep escarpments of sandstone and how they reveal their inner stratum layers and look to integrate this patterning and formation on site.

Drawn to a previous home by Luigi Rosselli Architects, the owners wanted to bring similar expressions for form across a sloping terrain into their own home, through a nuanced lens built specifically for them. Built by Evolve Building Group Pty Ltd, The Books House looks to the nearby steep escarpments of sandstone and how they reveal their inner stratum layers and look to integrate this patterning and formation on site. Using off-form concrete slabs to mirror a monolithic feel, curved edge forms jut out from their base, opening up to generous outdoor terraces to engage with the views and the natural elements. In a pivoting motion from the internal helical stair, the floor plates across each level hinge outward, differing in aligning from the floor above and below.

Sandstone is featured heavily throughout, forming the foundational base and leading up through the home, where it is left uncovered as a textural feature. As the home carves an opening amongst the rockface to sit upon, the exposed sediment creates a unique backdrop and encourages an engagement at the same time as a series of curved steps allows access within it. While the exterior is refined and restrained in its banding of concrete and open allotments, the interior balances a warmth together with a textural calm. A similar sensibility sees a snaking path from the entry through the home, leading up through the stair and across the levels, where the changing direction of the journey through the home reinforces the idea of flow and an engagement with the various rooms along the way.

While the exterior is refined and restrained in its banding of concrete and open allotments, the interior balances a warmth together with a textural calm.

In its slight and shifted movements, The Books House stands boldly amongst its residential context. Luigi Rosselli Architects and Alwill Interiors continue the important narrative of the geological area the home sits within.