Jamie Durie Unveils Sustainable Dream Home on Sydney’s Northern Beaches
Award-winning landscape designer Jamie Durie has completed “Growing Home,” an eco-focused residence that balances sustainability, comfort and style.
2 min
Award-winning landscape designer and television host Jamie Durie has completed building his eco-friendly dream home on Sydney’s northern beaches.
Over a three-year journey, Durie and his partner Ameka Jane created what they call “Growing Home,” designed to prove that sustainability doesn’t have to mean sacrificing comfort or style.
The five-level residence includes five bedrooms, a gym, an office, landscaped gardens and an infinity swimming pool.
“The house is full of eco-innovation like our state-of-the-art geothermal heating and cooling system, this combined with our Solar system gives us the ability to be ‘grid independent’,” Durie said.
“Every element in this house has been engineered to serve a purpose – whether it’s saving energy, providing healthier air, or a greater connection to nature, the house was designed to be healthy for our family and the environment.”
Set on a steep 37-degree slope surrounded by native spotted gums, the home’s design responds closely to its environment.
“Building on a site like this means every decision has to respect the landscape,” Durie said. “It’s not just about fitting the house onto the land, but making sure the land feels part of the home.”
Large windows and open-plan spaces encourage airflow and blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors.
“We wanted the house to feel connected to the landscape through natural materials, textures, and light,” he added. “It’s about creating a calm, grounded space where we can grow as a family.”
Durie chose Bradford Gold High Performance insulation to help maintain stable temperatures, reducing reliance on artificial heating and cooling.
“Every detail in the home needed to elevate our quality of life and respect the environment,” he said. “With Bradford’s products, we’re able to create spaces that are peaceful, energy-efficient, and functional without sacrificing style.”
Other features include Luxaflex Duette Shades, crafted from 95% recycled materials, designed to regulate temperature while adding comfort and privacy.
“It’s not just about insulation,” Durie explained, “but about creating spaces that feel cosy and considered, no matter the time of year.”
Curved interior walls made possible with Gyprock Flexible add flow between spaces, while high-density Gyprock was used to reduce sound transmission.
“It’s all about layering softness and light,” Durie said of the use of Luxaflex® sheer curtains throughout the home. “The sheers run like waves along the track, wrapping the room in a way that feels both open and intimate.”
Outdoor living was another focus, with a patio leading to the pool and shaded by motorised Luxaflex Nordic Folding Arm Awnings.
“We knew we’d be spending a lot of time outside,” Durie said, “so it was important to have a solution that could handle Australia’s unpredictable weather.”
Durie describes the project as more than just a build, but an example of sustainable design in action.
“This project is about showing that sustainable design isn’t just possible – it’s beautiful,” he said.
“It’s about how thoughtful design and innovative products can make a house not just a home, but a legacy. Building smarter, creating homes that feel good to live in, and respecting the environment along the way.”
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Australia’s housing affordability crisis is being fuelled by chronic undersupply, planning delays and rising development costs, as politicians continue to focus on the wrong solutions.
3 min
Australia’s housing crisis will not be solved by first-home buyer incentives or tax changes alone, with leading property figures warning governments must tackle supply constraints if affordability is to improve.
Speaking at the Kanebridge Quarterly Property Leadership Summit in Sydney last week, expert project marketing specialist Sam Elbanna, property investor and fund manager Paul Miron and property consultant Karla McNeice said that a lack of housing supply remained the central issue facing the market.
Elbanna, Director of CPM Realty with more than 30 years’ experience in project sales, argued that successive governments had focused too heavily on stimulating demand rather than addressing the barriers preventing new housing from being delivered.
“The misconception is that politicians think the way to solve the housing crisis is to drive demand,” he said.
“The reality is that’s not the way. This is a supply-side problem, and it needs to be solved on the supply side.”
Drawing on his experience in project sales, Elbanna said policies designed to help first-home buyers often had unintended consequences, pointing to previous grants that ultimately flowed through to higher property prices.
Instead, he said developers were facing increasing red tape, approval delays and rising costs, which were discouraging new housing supply.
“In the absence of stock, demand exceeds supply,” he said.
Miron, a Co-Founder and Fund Manager of Msquared Capital, said the housing debate had become overly focused on tax policy while overlooking broader structural issues.
He argued that affordability challenges stemmed from a combination of factors, including planning constraints, supply shortages, migration levels and interest rates.
“No-one can be 100 per cent certain on the real reason for property prices is going up,” he said.
“The reason why property prices are higher is a combination of interest rates, lack of supply, migration, vacancy rates and maybe taxes play a role.”
Miron was critical of recent federal housing policy changes, warning they could reduce the number of new homes being built and further constrain supply that was even highlighted in the budget.
He also highlighted the importance of the property sector to the broader economy, noting that residential real estate and related industries employed more than one million Australians.
McNeice, who advises developers on sales strategy and market intelligence, said understanding buyers had become increasingly important as affordability pressures intensified.
While affordability remained a major consideration, she said today’s buyers were focused on value rather than simply price.
“People are looking for value for money,” she said.
She said buyers were increasingly evaluating factors such as transport connections, walkability, nearby amenities and flexible living spaces that could accommodate changing family needs.
“What infrastructure is going on? Can I walk to the shops? Can I meet people at the local cafe?” she said.
The panel also discussed the mounting pressures facing developers, with Elbanna arguing that many projects become financially unviable from the moment a site is purchased.
“The viability of a development happens at the moment the site is bought,” he said.
He said rising construction costs, higher interest rates and overly optimistic feasibility assumptions had left some developers exposed as market conditions changed.
While acknowledging the growing number of smaller and first-time developers entering the market, Elbanna said property development required expertise across finance, construction, marketing and legal disciplines.
“It is actually a business that requires a level of expertise,” he said.
Looking ahead, the panel agreed opportunities remained in the market despite current challenges.
Miron said property should continue to be viewed as a long-term investment and cautioned against trying to time short-term market movements.
McNeice said success would increasingly depend on identifying projects that genuinely met changing buyer expectations.
Elbanna said affordable housing remained achievable, but developers needed to deliver more than just homes.
“We can provide affordable housing in this country,” he said.
“But we’ve got to wrap that affordable housing with the things that people want.”
As Australia’s housing affordability debate intensifies, the panellists agreed on one point: without a meaningful increase in housing supply, demand-side measures alone are unlikely to solve the nation’s property challenges.
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