The modern beach shack that almost turned its back on the view

When architect Kirsty Hewitt first looked along the street where this award-winning Adelaide property is now situated, one thing stood out.

“There’s just unending empty balconies on this frontage,” she says.

While outdoor spaces are understandable inclusions for properties that enjoy an exceptional view, these had failed to hit the mark in terms of useability.

Because, while the view — the point of convergence for the River Torrens (also known as Karrawirra Parri) and the ocean — is indeed a drawcard, it is also to the west where the sun is strongest.

“It was finding a balance between opening to that view, which was west south west, and managing the weather,” she says. “The sunsets are amazing but in summer, the western coastal frontage is hammered, right where you want the view.

“It’s also where all the cold weather comes across the ocean, as well as the wind and rain.”

Solving this design puzzle was one of several challenges this block presented for KHAB Architects, which was part of a subdivision.

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“The clients bought the skinny portion that had been cleared and someone else had built a large house on the northern side,” she says.

After some discussion, and considering the planning regulations which limited the height of the property, and the noise from the traffic along the busy street between their block and the water, the clients decided on a design that would be about one third of the size of their neighbour’s home.

“The big draw was the amazing ocean view across this opening where the river enters the ocean,” Hewitt says. “It was on the south side adjoining the reserve along that river, with native vegetation. But it was a 8.5m site and in Adelaide, we’re not used to something that narrow so it was a very skinny site to achieve all the things the clients wanted.”

Instead of excavating into the site as some other properties along the row had done, Hewitt designed a house that looked as though it had emerged out of the sand dune. Working on the Indigenous principle popularised by legendary architect Glenn Murcutt of touching the earth lightly, Hewitt sought to resolve the tension between the desire for the view and the need for privacy with a lightweight building that still delivered the functionality the owners required.

The idea of a balcony facing onto the water was the first thing to go. Instead, Hewitt proposed placing a slightly raised, enclosed living room at the front of the house and positioning a double glazed window to frame the view and minimise noise. The owners took some convincing.

“The clients wanted floor-to-ceiling windows but if we did that, they would see the traffic, and the house next door and it would not emphasise the ocean in the way they imagined,” Hewitt says. “We experimented with masking tape and worked out ways to emphasise the horizon from the living room when you’re seated, and then from the kitchen when you’re standing.”

To create some outdoor living space, Hewitt cut out an internal timber deck with a curved opening above down the southern side of the house that was protected from the wind while acting as a sun trap and providing views of the ocean.

Corrugated steel has been used extensively to reference the old beach shacks once common along the Australian coastline, as well as to allow for a considerable amount of design flexibility.

“We wanted to create a shell over the parts of the house that needed to be protected,” Hewitt says. “We wanted to use the corrugated material to morph from roof to wall, and then parts of it to peel off to become the fence to the south.

“In some places it has this strategic ‘bite of the apple’ where it reveals the inner material, which is the timber on the deck inside, like the flesh of the apple.”

The house has been heavily insulated for thermal comfort all year round, while the spaces have been designed to be flexible now, and into the future.

“We wanted to create different qualities with the living spaces. One has the view and the other is the only room in the house that sits on slab with a connection to the rear yard,” she says. “The clients didn’t have children when they came to us but they now have two babies. The kids’ rooms both have lofts, which they can’t use yet, but they will grow into them.”

Hewitt thinks of the house as the new kid on the block that can hold its own against its bolder and brasher neighbours.

“We were so thankful that our clients were on board with the concept of a smaller footprint,” she says. “The budget was not enormous and we wanted the money we had to go into quality rather than quantity. We wanted to be as clever as we could.”

Images: Peter Barnes

A Perfect Storm Claims a Major Player

Western Sydney’s property development sector was rattled this week by the collapse of Bathla Group, one of the region’s most prominent builders of affordable housing.

Administrators from Teneo were appointed to the group’s main entity, Universal Property Group, along with related firm Raj & Jai Construction, after months of mounting financial pressure.

The scale of the fallout is significant. Universal Property Group reported liabilities of $3.2 billion as at June last year, the bulk of it owed to private credit funds, a detail likely to draw scrutiny as administrators work through the group’s finances.

Founder Bhart Bhushan pointed to a “perfect storm” of softening sales, the impact of May’s federal budget changes and rising construction costs. Bathla’s chief executive was more blunt, acknowledging that falling property prices and climbing build costs had squeezed the business over a sustained period.

The human cost is already visible. Off-the-plan buyers across Bathla’s Western Sydney projects, including in Schofields, Marsden Park and Tallawong, suburbs at the heart of the group’s development pipeline, are now facing uncertainty over deposits, settlement timelines and unfinished builds.

It’s a story that has become depressingly familiar in NSW, with more than 1,500 construction firms going under in the state this financial year alone.

A Market Searching for Certainty

Bathla’s failure isn’t an isolated event. It’s a symptom of the conditions squeezing developers across Western Sydney, and Marsden Park sits right at the centre of that pressure.

Rising construction costs, tighter lending and softening buyer sentiment have combined to push even large, established players to the wall.

For prospective buyers looking at Marsden Park, the collapse has sharpened a question that was already on many minds: not just whether a development looks good on paper, but whether the developer behind it has the staying power, capital discipline and planning relationships to actually deliver.

In that environment, track record has become the differentiator that matters most.

Buyers are no longer simply comparing floorplans and masterplans. They’re asking who has the balance sheet, discipline and history to see a precinct through from approval to completion.

KDMC: 25 Years, Zero Incomplete Projects

Against that backdrop, KDMC’s position in Marsden Park stands out.

The Kanebridge Group development arm has been building in Northwest Sydney for 25 years and, in that time, has never left a project unfinished.

That’s not a marketing line. It’s a completion record buyers can check against a market that has just delivered a stark reminder of what happens when developers overextend.

KDMC’s flagship Marsden Park project, a roughly 1,320-home precinct at 264A South Street, reflects the scale of ambition the suburb now needs from a developer that can actually deliver it.

It’s also a project with history.

Back in 2017, KDMC launched Stage One of the development and sold 49 units in a single day, a result that speaks for itself in terms of market confidence.

Shortly after, the project was abruptly put on hold when Transport for NSW halted the DA to reserve the site for a future train line. It would have been easy for a lesser developer to walk away.

Instead, that pause has turned into the site’s greatest asset.

With the train line now set to connect Marsden Park directly to both Sydney Airport and the CBD, the residual site has become one of the most sought-after development opportunities in Sydney, a rare case of patience and planning discipline converting a setback into a generational upside.

The current stage of the project is backed by lodged State Environmental Assessment Requirements and formal development applications, along with independent valuation and transport infrastructure analysis.

The aim is to ensure the precinct is grounded in real, defensible fundamentals, precisely the kind of financial and planning discipline that was missing in Bathla’s playbook.

KDMC has also backed its recent projects with a 10-year defect warranty, well beyond the statutory minimum most buyers have come to expect.

For anyone who has just watched a major developer collapse mid-build, that kind of guarantee isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a confident purchase and a leap of faith.

The Bottom Line for Marsden Park Buyers

Marsden Park’s growth story doesn’t need more supply promises. It needs a developer who delivers on them.

With Bathla out of the picture and its Marsden Park buyers left assessing their options, KDMC’s quarter-century of completed projects and extended defect cover offer something increasingly rare in the current climate: certainty.

For anyone weighing up where to place their trust in Marsden Park right now, the calculation has become simple.

Choose a developer with a story of every project finished, and a site whose fortunes have only strengthened with time, not a headline about one that wasn’t.

For more information email propertyconcierge@kanebridge.com.au

The modern beach shack that almost turned its back on the view

This unassuming house emerges from the sand dunes to punch above its weight

A Perfect Storm Claims a Major Player

A Market Searching for Certainty

KDMC: 25 Years, Zero Incomplete Projects

The Bottom Line for Marsden Park Buyers