DURBACH BLOCK JAGGERS
ESTABLISHED AS DURBACH BLOCK 1998
SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES
It could easily be argued that Durbach Block Jaggers (DBJ) is responsible for some of the most outstanding residential architecture in Australia today. The Sydney-based practice, led by Directors Neil Durbach, Camilla Block and David Jaggers, has a way with form, light and materiality that’s nothing short of masterful. They’re curious in their methodology, committed to testing new ideas and compelled by critical analysis.
Each new DBJ project is indirectly informed by ones that have gone before, and within the past ten years the practice has produced some of its finest work in the form of Holman House, Garden House, Roslyn Street and Tamarama House. The latter is remarkable for its north-facing garden that lets the natural light pour into the living spaces, and also for its panoramic view of the ocean to the south.
Tamarama House, 2015 Tamarama
New South Wales
The power of concrete is that it’s actually liquid and can take on any shape, so Tamarama House’s canopy and staircase, for example, were only limited by the concrete’s formwork, which was tested in this project.
Camilla Block.
Occupying a compact site on Sydney’s popular Tamarama Beach, hemmed in by large homes on either side, Tamarama House is bookended by a north-facing street and the southern view to the ocean and coastal walk. Concrete invests Tamarama house with a sense of the handmade as it oscillates between being incredibly savage and completely seductive—qualities that appeal to the architects’ sense of exploration and desire to find new forms of expression.