Woolley House is a heritage-listed residence located at 34 Bullecourt Avenue, Mosman, in the Mosman Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Ken Woolley and built during 1962 by Pettit, Sevitt and Partners. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 25 May 2001. The Woolley House is considered a classic example of the Sydney School style of architecture and was the recipient of the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter Wilkinson Award in the year of its construction, the highest award for housing in New South Wales. In 2016 the house was bequeathed to the University of NSW. In 2022 the house was awarded the National Award for Enduring Architecture by the AIA.
History
The block on which the Woolley House is built was a subdivision of the adjoining land at 11 Bickel Road, Mosman which was approved by Mosman Municipal Council on 26 August 1958. Another block north of the Woolley House's block (the current 34A Bullecourt Avenue) was similarly subdivided off 11 Bickell Road.
11 Bickell Road is an attractive verandahed 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, western red cedar 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.