Sixel Miller Cottage | Durbach Block Jaggers Architects

A new cottage in the Watsons Bay heritage conservation area is an exploration into the language of weatherboard seaside cottages, street verandas and simple connections to gardens. A dense brief on a petite site insisted on a concise design that permitted spaces to interlock with the play of light and ventilation through the insertion of the light scoop, skylights and shutters. Essentially a south facing site, the ground floor is designated to one primary space of garden, living and dining with a service core buried into the stepped site. The upper floor plan of bedrooms and bathrooms departs from conventional cottage planning by being bisected by the void that scoops down into the living domain below and up towards the sky above.