David Droga is working with Luigi Rosselli Architects to turn his beach land at Tamarama in Sydney’s eastern suburbs into a unique house to match the location, aiming to create an Australian icon.
The founder of Droga5, Accenture Song CEO and AdNews' Hall of Fame inductee, last year snapped up Lang Syne, a 100-year-old oceanfront bungalow for around $45 million.
He told AdNews the purchase was a “wonderfully irresponsible” thing to do. Tamarama was his first home out of school, sleeping on the couch for six months in an apartment with two of his brothers.
Droga, still living in New York, wants to spend time at the beach house at Christmas with his wife, Marisa, and four children.
“The design [for the house] will be unique befitting the unique location, it has the potential of being our best building for the decade…. or longer,” said Luigi Rosselli.
The brief given to Luigi Rosselli Architects: Design a family home worthy of such a special and breathtaking location. Something beautiful, and organic, that exists in harmony with its natural surroundings and its occupants. A generational home that gives more than it takes.
“The family were seeking a home where they could come together from their scattered locations across the world and get back to the source: a place to be reunited, replenished, and cocooned,” said Rosselli.
The goal is to retain the organic beauty of the site, with its wind-carved rocks, through an organic plan with a counterpoint play of eroded horizontal slabs and cocoon shaped vertical breaks, constructed with the bricks, slate roof tiles, and sandstone retained from the demolition of the existing home.
“Though the practicalities of the brief were fairly modest, its realisation will seek to foster a sense of connection, both human, and to the natural surroundings,” said Rosselli.
“Every aspect of the design is a sympathetic dialogue between the house and its natural surroundings; expansive windows frame the ocean views, and carefully curated outdoor spaces and generous landscaping featuring majority native planting, embed the home within the landscape.
“Planted into the tightest gaps of the structures, over the roof, and cascading from the balcony edges, fast growing plants and lichens will rapidly assimilate the house into its natural surroundings.”
An impression by Luigi Rosselli Architects:
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