A Contemporary Beachside Pad Hits The Market
With panoramic ocean views, this Freshwater property is sure to make a splash.
2 min
A contemporary waterfront pile, footsteps from the sands of Freshwater beach has just come on the market.
This 5-bedroom, 3-bathroom, 3-car parking residence designed by award-winning architecture firm Brewster Hjorth spans three levels and maximises its coastal appeal through the use of raw timbers, off-form concrete, copper adornments and glazed glass doors and facades to soak in the incredible views.
The first-floor homes the open-plan kitchen, living and dining areas and is privy to high-ceiling and a glazed façade that overlooks the ocean. It’s also here that timber features of Spotted gum, Ebony and Oregon come to the fore.
The kitchen is replete with Marblo resin benchtops, stainless steel side benches alongside Gaggenau and Miele appliances. Also on this floor is the butler’s pantry, which offers temperature-controlled wine storage, a bathroom and a home office that can be converted into a guest room with a murphy bed.
Downstairs sees the bulk of the bedrooms, all of which enjoy built-in robes, alongside a home cinema, laundry, bathroom and storage room.
The master suite sits alone on the top floor and is privy to a walk-in-robe, ensuite and its own rooftop courtyard.
Also on the top level is the deck which offers panoramic watery views and is the ideal entertaining space with its own outdoor kitchen.
Further, two private rear courtyards are lined with a tropical garden, while a hot and cold outdoor shower is ideal for a post-swim rinse off.
Throughout the home sees a combination of terrazzo and timber flooring, which is all heated underfoot while a keypad entry and Sonos surround system round out the tech features.
Settled in the sought-after retreat of Freshwater Basin, the residence is a short stroll to Freshwater Village and Harbord Diggers and an easy walk to Manly beach.
The listing is with Clarke & Humel Property’s Michael Clarke (+61 402 425 486) and Mike Dunn +61 409 317 335). 48 Ocean View Road Freshwater, NSW, price guide, $10million.
This article was originally published by Robb Report ANZ
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
2 min
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
