Woolley House

 ( Houses In Sydney ) 

11 Bickell Road is an attractive two-storey Federation bungalow on a large sloping, sandstone terraced site which has been densely planted over much of the 20th century. In the 1950s this large garden won prizes. Late in the 20th century a swimming pool and tennis court replaced some of the lower garden near Bay Street. Jacaranda ( J.mimosifolia), Sydney red gum ( Angophora costata) and sweet gum ( Liquidambar styraciflua) and dawn redwood ( Metasequoia glyptostroboides) are among the mature trees on this site. The steeper section at the north/rear was more natural with some large Sydney red gums and regrowth on it. It is this latter section which was subdivided off to create the Woolley House's lot in 1958.

The Woolley House is an example of Ken Woolley's early work before joining Ancher, Mortlock and Murray in 1964. Woolley designed the State Office Block for the NSW Government Architect's Office, as well as Fisher Library at the University of Sydney.

At the time of the house's construction, Sydney had been developed to certain boundaries and most of the flat building sites had been exhausted. Developers therefore set their sights on land previously considered unfit for building (such as the steep bushland on which the Woolley House is built). A new house type that accepted that the land sloped was required for such sites. The split level form minimised the amount of excavation and filling that was required for construction.

This requirement led to amazingly spatially dynamic forms, space vertically through the interiors as well as horizontally. Internal spaces were staggered, a unique approach, and stepped down the sites so that sightlines could angle down and views could be achieved from remote areas of the house. Materials often used were quarry tiles, Thuja plicata boarding and panelling, clinker or sandstock bricks, polished timber floors, sawn and unfinished timbers. Colour schemes were typically neutral internally to allow the materials and spaces to speak for themselves.

Living spaces were generally open plan, connected but articulated by changes of ceiling height, changes of direction and screening with fittings or elements of the plan. The clever and complex manipulation of space meant that floor areas could be tight while maximising the feeling of space in the house. Visual separation was often achieved by arranging lines of sight to wholly or partially conceal some views (such as views of the kitchen from the living area). Decks and terraces which opened the interior to the exterior were common. Small bedrooms were generally chosen to allow living areas to be maximised.

This style of house became known as the Sydney School, and was used across Australia, but predominantly along the eastern seaboard, mainly around Sydney. This style offered charming and intimate spaces, beautifully crafted with naturally finished materials. It really only became possible at the end of the 1950s to use more interesting building materials as war time difficulties were at an end. Clinker bricks were imperfect and suited the aesthetic of the Sydney School, which was in part a revisiting of the Californian Bungalow aesthetic.

The design ideas were quite radical in one way, but the scale of the spaces and the palate of materials was very warm and human. The Woolley house and the other examples at the time were highly influential and affected the designs of many other contemporary houses, both one-off designs and, more directly, the project homes Ken Woolley went on to design for progressive housing developers, Pettit and Sevitt.

The stone retaining walls in the steep and undulating garden were laid by landscape architect Bruce McKenzie who also did some planting. McKenzie was a pioneer among early landscape practitioners of what would become known as the Sydney school, seeking to enhance Sydney's bush, bring it into gardens or bolster its condition in new development. He would go on to many large public jobs such as the UTS Lindfield / Ku-Ring-Gai campus (former Lindfield TAFE NSW), Botany Bay Foreshore Reserve and others. Examples of McKenzie's private garden work are rare.pers.comm., Ken Woolley; Stuart Read, 13/10/11

The current owners bought the house in 1985 and have retained the bush setting, encouraging regeneration of native species.

In 2014 a plaque was placed on the house, below its Wilkinson Award plaque, to commemorate former owner Yuana Hesketh who lived here from 1985 until 2014, and created the garden as it is now and was devoted to the ongoing conservation of the house. In 2016 the owner Stephen Kenneth Hesketh bequeathed the property to the University of New South Wales to be used as a residence for visiting academics.