Hill House rests on the Seaforth escarpment, overlooking the vast stretch of harbour toward Spit Bridge. Built in 1980 by Martin and Lisa Hill, the home was designed by a friend to suit their young family by the sea. Now, 40 years later, the couple lives there alone, enjoying visits from their grown children and grandchildren. The renovation gently evolves the house’s original layout and Sydney-School character whilst bringing the interior in contact with the hillside setting.

The renovation was subtle yet transformative; an act of continuity rather than reinvention. The house remained much as it had been, its structure left intact. The guiding principle was one of preservation—not only of materials but of memory. The old clerestory roofs, steep and sheltering, still rise from the hillside as they always have. The rooms are familiar, yet now enlivened by the harbour environment. The exterior was strengthened with layers of stone, concrete, and zinc to ensure the house would stand for many more years. Through new glazing, the colours of the harbour spill inside and soft reflections of blue water animate the timber joinery, the white vaults, and the shear curtains.

At the base of the house, a new concrete podium anchors the structure to the sandstone escarpment. This intervention, replacing the old deck and pathways, creates spaces for the family to gather. The podium, with its quiet horizontality, grounds the roof above, its four terraced levels connecting the house to the land. A staircase leads down to the pool, the jetty, and a garden that had, for a time, been forgotten. Hidden within the mass of concrete are rooms that seem to emerge from the rock itself—a cellar, a sauna, an entertaining room—each revealing the sandstone escarpment in a dramatic play of light and earth.

By Toby Breakspear, Tiffany Liew, Ciaran Acton, 2016-2020. Built by A.M. Custom Builders. Structural Engineering by Partridge.

2024 NSW Architecture Awards AIA, Houses (Alterations and Additions) – Shortlist