Terabithia House | Clinton Cole

Terabithia House’s metal roof looks like a butterfly about to take flight. An oculus opens cheekily like an eye, throwing light on the pool below. Behind this dramatic and playful facade, the home unfolds downhill, drinking in light and views. Jade-tinted lattice screens it from the outside world.

The site

Terabithia House replaced a 1930s home in Sydney’s Northbridge. The sloping site was ideal for a light-filled multilevel home basking in stunning views to Northbridge Golf Course, Quakers Hat Bay and Beauty Point. But it would take creativity and meticulous planning to manage privacy and preserve neighbours’ views.

A private haven

CplusC’s design for Terabithia House bridges opportunities and constraints to create a spacious family heartland filled with light and air. Translucent fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) screens alive with plants provide delightful seclusion for a multilevel design carefully calibrated to align with council height limits. Circular geometry governs all, emphasising balance, unity and oneness. Just for fun: pops of bright yellow.

The design

CplusC’s concept for the four-bedroom, four-bathroom home invites you to relax and enjoy family time. A 10-metre lap pool runs almost the length of the social living spaces, separated by glass louvres so it’s easy to watch kids from inside. Cascading down the slope, flexible indoor living areas culminate in two covered open-air living and dining spaces. From the kitchen, a double-height spiral stair leads up to the bedrooms on the first floor – or down to the practical lower ground floor with its guest room, storage room and two-car garage. Throughout, FRP lattice is used innovatively to manage privacy without compromising the airy feel, screening the pool, living areas and walkways from neighbouring properties and passersby.

Signature curves

Passing through the privacy lattice, you enter the home via an intimate courtyard garden. The living spaces immerse you in views and natural light. Beside you, the pool sparkles under the oculus and two semi-circular roof cutouts. The roof openings invite you to look skyward. At night, the oculus glows with strip lighting, floating over swimmers like a halo.

The home’s circular signature softens its practical lines, humanising the disciplined architectural language to bring balance, lightness and transcendence. Outside, it’s present in the circular windows and roof openings, curved roof and brickwork and barrel-shaped custom mailbox. Inside, it forms the kitchen bench, cabinet handles and the bathrooms’ round mirrors and orb lights. And it’s wittily elaborated in the pool’s cylindrical steam room, with its penny round tiles and oculus shedding light through a sky tube in the ceiling. Most breathtakingly, it’s embodied in the bright yellow triple-height spiral stair that coils through the living space. 

Sustainable

The home is energy self-sufficient with a 13.28-kilowatt photovoltaic solar energy system and two rainwater tanks with a total capacity of 10,000 litres. The kitchen bench, stair treads and hardwood flooring are made of recycled timber. Energy-efficient hydronic underfloor heating and cooling ensures year-round comfort.