Recent News
Christopher Polly Architect included in Archello’s 25 Best Architecture Firms in Sydney
Archello has published the “25 Best Architecture Firms in Sydney” and it’s a great thrill and privilege for my practice to have been selected for inclusion amongst a stellar group of architecture practices producing great work in Sydney. Many thanks to the editorial team and writer at Archello for the recognition.
Sketch designs prepared for a new off-grid house in the Blue Mountains
Sketch design concepts have been prepared for a new off-grid house in the Blue Mountains region west of Sydney. Based on an efficient 4m x 3.8m structural grid, the design option pin-wheels a series private and public rooms around a central courtyard to provide a modest internal floor area of 100 sqm with a low environmental footprint of only 129 sqm on the site.
It enables strong connections to its surrounding landscape and vast views of the escarpment and mountains beyond, while also allowing its entire envelope to be fully shut down when unoccupied. A robust low maintenance palette of fibrecement cladding, galvanised metal panels, concrete and zincalume roofing provide long term durability and make reference to the various grey and silver tones of the eucalypt and angophora trees on site.
National House visualisations showcase the design of a modestly sized two-storey skinny house
Visualisations of National House have been uploaded in ‘Projects’. The design makes geometric and elemental references to neighbouring houses of its immediate context while also alluding to the formal qualities of various compact housing types in Japanese, Dutch and Belgian inner urban neighbourhoods.
Its exterior is predominantly articulated by a ‘jacket’ of charred timber cladding, black aluminium glazed doors & windows, black metal hoods, and black standing seam metal roofing for a restrained and singular external expression in counterpoint to its neighbours. Internally, a composition of certified ash timber walls and joinery, black steel, terracotta, and burnished concrete create a series of warm and pared-back spaces.