Designed between 1988 and 1993, this house in Mount Wilson was commissioned by Geelum and Sheila Simpson-Lee, a retired dean of economics and a potter, who asked for a “secular monastic” house and studio with a “minimal tough simplicity.”1 They required an extremely light building. This was sometimes in the sense of a visual and physical lightness; at other times, it was unpretentiousness. Architecturally knowledgeable, their decision to work with Glenn Murcutt was deliberate. In their ethics and aesthetics they felt aligned with the minimal impact of his approach.
Located in the Blue Mountains, a World-Heritage-listed landscape to Sydney’s west, the site is in bushland on the edge of a national reserve. All projects here are subject to conservative regulatory prescriptions regarding appearance, heritage concerns and bushfire management. Murcutt has noted the difficulty of working in this context, his architectural preferences not easily accommodated. Terse argument and detailed adjustment gradually allowed the design to comply with governmental regulations. Reflecting on the arduous process, he commented, “It finally took twenty-one months to clear the planning and building authorities.”2
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