17 Mildred Street

Warrawee NSW 2074

Edmondson liked the idea of the house hugging the ground, fitting into the slope of the land, and excavated two separate levels to achieve that. Its always bothered him, he says, that houses face the street and put important things on street side no matter what the orientation is. In this case, the block faces south west, which Edmondson saw as an opportunity at a time when few were thinking of such things he designed the house to turn its back to the street, keeping out hot summer sun and westerly winds, and remaining completely private.

From the garden side, though, theres a lovely openness to it with its banks of windows, and yet its a design (made up of the original sixties house with a later addition, also by Edmondson) that still manages to retain enough privacy and sense of discovery to remain architecturally interesting by cleverly interlocking spaces.

The L-shaped design maximises the northern sun to the principal rooms to the rear of the original house that contains the kitchen, laundry, study, living room (with fireplace) and dining room on one arm of the L, with three bedrooms and bathroom, reached via a stairway from the kitchen, on the other. The later addition, tucked in beyond the dining room and continuing the long arm of the L, is made up of winter sitting room, main bedroom and ensuite. Almost all rooms in the house look out over the well-established garden, with a brick-paved covered terrace opening from the living room.

Some time before Edmondson designed the house, he had visited Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wrights house in Wisconsin, and, with its floating roof planes and broad eaves, its possible to see echoes of the American architects work in the Warrawee house. Edmondsons colleagues were such architects as Bruce Rickard, Ian McKay and Philip Cox, and, at the time, they were all working with similar materials and ideas.

In this case, the materials are essentially western red cedar and sandstock brick, used externally and internally to great effect. Giving some idea of the architects attention to detail, Edmondson particularly liked those that had been placed close to the fire holes in the kiln, and would make regular trips to a brickyard in St Leonards to hand-pick suitable ones. They were all stockpiled before we started laying them Id intermix them with commons on site.

And it is the attention to detail, as much as the overall design, that makes this house so appealing. Edmondson designed the built-in furniture and lighting; those in the soffits; the light around the skylight in the dining room; the inset low-lights in the bedroom corridor. There is also wonderful detailing in the asymmetric structure of the fireplace, the brickwork of the small stair, and the positioning of windows to capture framed views of the exterior.

With only three owners since Edmondson and his family lived there, thankfully, virtually everything in this beautifully understated house is still intact. It is one that stands quietly but head and shoulders alongside some of the finest examples of mid-century architecture in the Wahroonga, Warrawee and Turramurra area.

FULL DESIGN STORY AT: modernhouse.co

SPECIFICATION:
4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car
Approx. gross land area: 1,442 sq m / 15,522 sq ft
Established landscaped garden

PROJECT TEAM:
Edmondson House
Designed: 1965
Built: 1966-67
Architectural Style: Mid-century, Sydney School of architecture
Architect: Howard and Edmondson Architects
Design & Project Architect: Terry Edmondson
Photography: Tamara Graham Photography

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VIEW BY PRIOR APPOINTMENT:
MODERN HOUSE ESTATE AGENTS 1300 814 768
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Edmondson House presented by Modern House: the specialist estate agency for architect-designed residences.