CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW CUSTODIANS OF THE BALL-EASTAWAY HOUSE.
Ball-Eastaway House is a rare early work by Glenn Murcutt, set on 10 hectares of dry sclerophyll forest at Glenorie, around an hour north of Sydney. Completed in 1983, the long, low corrugated iron-clad house, with its gently curved roof and elevated siting on a sandstone platform, became a defining project in Murcutt's career and won the Wilkinson Award the following year.
Designed for artists Sydney Ball and Lynne Eastaway as both a home and a place of work, the house is carefully placed on a rock ledge above natural drainage lines, lifted on fine steel-pipe columns so air and rainwater can move beneath. Its planning is exacting yet understated - services at the gallery-like entry, living to the north-east, bedrooms to the south-west, and a concealed verandah behind the long internal wall designed to accommodate Ball's mural-scale painting.
What is less widely known is that the property also includes two large painting studios, specified by the architect as agricultural sheds, extending the original brief as a place for living and making. We look forward to welcoming prospective custodians to a real bush house in the original sense - light, exacting, and completely in tune with its site.
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OPPORTUNITY:
Ideal for those seeking an architecturally significant personal residence, a live-work retreat, or a deeply considered bushland escape within reach of Sydney.
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SPECIFICATION:
House: 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath (approx. 162.5 sqm total living)
State Heritage Register no: 02125, Biodiversity Conservation Area no: CA0730
Studios: specified by architect (approx. 232 sqm total floor)
Land area: 10.12 ha (25 acres)
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PROJECT TEAM:
Ball-Eastaway House
Designed and Built: 1980 - 1983
Architect: Glenn Murcutt + Associates Pty Ltd
Design Architect: Glenn Murcutt AO
Assistants: Graham Jahn and Rad Milatich
Engineer: James Taylor and Associates
Builder: John Smolders & Gerry Smolders
Photography: © Richard Glover 2025
Aerial photography: © Modern House
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SIGNIFICANCE:
A defining early work by Glenn Murcutt, recently State Heritage-listed for its importance within his oeuvre and Australia's built heritage.
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AWARD:
The Australian Institute of Architects The Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture Houses (New), Winner, 1984.
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Full design story and image folio at modernhouse.co
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VIEW BY PRIOR APPOINTMENT:
MODERN HOUSE ESTATE AGENTS 1300 814 768
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Ball-Eastaway House House presented by Modern House: the specialist estate agency for architect-designed residences.
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