Jamie Durie’s house on Sydney’s Northern Beaches was going to be a prefab that took three months to build, but ended up being a vast concrete new build on nine levels – involving 16 trades and 30 suppliers. It all began in 2015 with a call from a friend, alerting the high-profile landscape designer and TV personality to a deceased estate for sale on a coveted patch of Avalon waterfront.
The original 1950s ‘beach shack’ on the block was cute and livable (its black mould, asbestos and invasive weeds were just about under control), so bachelor Jamie moved in and began planning his ideal home.
“I wanted to see where the sun fell et cetera, and to modify it from there,” he says. “In my business as a landscape architect, I’ve designed a lot of big projects and many hotels worldwide and my head was exploding with ideas.”
By 2020, Jamie had met singer/songwriter Ameka Jane, with whom he now has two children: a daughter, Beau, and a son, Nash, aged three and two, respectively.
A luxurious family home was on the cards, but there was a catch: the 37-degree block and seven large native trees to protect meant no builder would attempt the prefab concept. Instead, Jamie worked with mentors and industry friends on a floor plan that was DA approved, before handing it to architecture firm Silvester Fuller for documentation. “The design was complicated, and I needed someone with a refined eye to bring it to life,” he explains.
Life is a key concept in the finished home, which houses a growing family (two with asthma) benefiting from top-to-toe eco principles and biophilic design (there are 330 oxygen-emitting plants in the living room alone).
All of it, from the EV-charging parking zone and eight more levels – a child-friendly rooftop garden, a mezzanine, living areas, sleeping areas, a gym and wellness level, a guest house (below the main house), a grotto underneath and a boathouse at water level – meet Jamie’s brief for “a functional, beautiful home that’s also kind to the planet.”
Such consideration began with the construction of the garden, installed three years before excavation to control erosion. Dilcara, a specialist in multi-residential projects, helmed the 21-month build and shared Jamie’s commitment to sustainability from the outset, when they arranged to recycle the old concrete slab through Boral Australia. The new ones, made from ‘Envisia’, have vastly reduced carbon levels and the formwork on top is CSR’s ‘Rediwall’.
Five years of Jamie’s research into green techniques and materials has resulted in a solar-powered, off-grid home heated and cooled by geothermal energy (“In Europe it’s been used for over 100 years,” he points out), without using fossil fuels or gas.
The lighting is LED, the lift (barely used by the energetic family) and garden inclinator are electric, and the internal temperature is moderated by heated slabs and walls coated in zero-VOC paints that actually absorb carbon dioxide.
Topping the kitchen bench is almost indestructible Neolith silica-free stone (not engineered), which is recyclable. Sustainably sourced spotted gum was chosen for the feature staircase and shelving, the carpets are made from ocean plastic and all the fabrics are natural fibres.
Aside from being a bastion of eco-friendliness and energy efficiency, two key elements were essential to Jamie’s vision: sandstone and native plants. “This site was full of Sydney sandstone,” he says.
“I pushed to keep that stone because I wanted people to feel like they were walking into what was already there, which is why the facade is heavily articulated with sandstone screens and I created vertical gardens of predominantly natives structured by geotextile fabric, made from plastic bottles. I’m big on turning waste into wonderful.”
In addition to the hundreds of metres of green walls are 14 garden spaces resplendent with more than 2500 plants, among them rarities like the Wollemi pine. Clear favourites of Jamie’s are the two 400-year-old Macrozamia moorei cycads from Queensland, each weighing 3.5 tonnes, craned in and planted behind the boathouse.
Outside the mezzanine level, near the entrance, is Jamie’s cherished collection of bonsai. “I have a ginkgo biloba, peach, juniper and willow,” he says. “I love looking after them – it’s my forced meditation. I chose the plinths because they’re the closest thing to Kimberley sandstone that I could find. Back in 2008, I received a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in London and got to meet the Queen. We spoke for about 10 minutes and all she talked about was the colour of the Kimberley sandstone I’d used, so that was a big moment in my career.”
Also on the mezzanine is a vintage Blüthner piano, where Ameka has been prepping for an upcoming album release. She met Jamie in the US as a TV producer and has maintained that behind-the-scenes stance while clearly demonstrating her exquisite taste in all the joint design decisions. Those include an original 1970s ‘DS88’ leather sofa by de Sede in the living room (bought on a trip to Copenhagen for a considerable sum) and a number of pieces from Fanuli, some designed by Jamie for Italian artisanal furniture company Riva 1920. Indigenous artworks and nature-themed sculptures also abound.
Since the house was finished late last year, Jamie’s focus has been on its eco features to demonstrate how promoting sustainability needn’t compromise on aesthetics – and sharing the property’s incomparable light and views over Pittwater with a stream of lucky guests. “This place faces due west,” he points out, “which is why I called it Belah House, the local Indigenous term for ‘sun’.”
Few people have travelled the world as much as Jamie, but what’s crystal clear is how much the design star is in his element here. In his own words, it’s “a refined piece of living sculpture.”
ON THE MARKET
Jamie Durie might not have envisioned ever leaving his sustainable masterpiece – at least anytime soon – but when offers started rolling in for numbers in the $30 millions, the family began to reconsider. Especially when a 30-hectare farm in the Byron Bay hinterland was calling their name. “We want to give the kids a couple of years on the land before they start school, and if we don’t do it now we’ll be trapped in the city and private schools forever,” Durie explained to AFR Weekend about the couple’s decision to move on.
Now, the 9-level, eco-friendly family home is looking for its next owners via expressions of interest to McGrath’s James Baker.
The Design Team
Jamie Durie: jamiedurie.com
Silvester Fuller: silvesterfuller.com
Shop the look
Jamie Durie for Riva ‘Bungalow’ bench
Fanuli, $8,190
Natural Cameron Throw
Country Road, $299
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Cleo Collects, from $190
Liquid Vase Medium – Cappuccino
Dinosaur Designs, $145
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