Point Blank House

Named for its prime vantage point views of the Harbour Bridge, Point Blank House in Sydney’s Vaucluse was designed from the outset to maximise the home’s visual relationship to the harbour and its iconic landmarks, taking full advantage of its location. With an external design anchored in restraint and an internal scheme which portrays a heightened sense of opulence, the home is both elemental and extravagant, the marriage of which has produced an aesthetic, as well as experiential, sense of residential elegance.

In form, the house is a purposeful play on simplicity, allowing the spectacular views of the harbour to take centre stage. With an intentionally rational design approach, we cultivated a clean façade and limited decorative aspects in order to stay in keeping with our client’s desire for true unambiguity. This lack of ornamentation elucidates a sense of power and beauty in the white, rectilinear form, its design in keeping with the home’s remarkably close-ranging views to the Harbour Bridge. Shielding the home from the school next door, vertical pillars carry the façade’s minimalistic rectilinear and white form to the side of the house, the bars acting as balustrades to provide simple detailing as well as a protective barrier. Embracing both a dynamism and a directness, the home neither seeks to compete with, nor shirk from, the pre-eminence of its harbour foreground. The muted structure sits in reverent yet confident company alongside the city’s most quintessential vantage points, both natural and architectural. The liberal use of marble as the primary materiality on the project is key to the home’s external and internal presence. Following our client’s wishes, we have drawn upon its opulent nature to define the residential ambience, the marble even used to clad the outdoor pool and the sides, floor and ceiling of the home’s entry, as well as the pivot front door and internal staircase.

Internally, the home projects a sense of grandeur, a distinction which aims to honour the rarity of its positioning and provide residents with an elevated living experience. Pulling out all the stops to dedicate as much openness to the harbour and bridge views, we crafted a column-free span across the living space; a dividing wall between two bedrooms on the level above used as a beam to carry the weight of the slab.

The interior scheme by Lawless and Meyerson embraces the magnitude of the home’s predominant material, using warming timber joinery as a contrasting element to soften the luxurious extensivity of the Calcutta marble. Patterned brass screens used to divide the entry hall from the dining and kitchen area provide a contrasting textural addition, enhancing the grandness of the entrance and directing sightlines to the centrality of the Harbour Bridge backdrop.