In a quiet cul-de-sac in Castlecrag on Sydney’s North Shore, the Fishwick house by Walter Burley Griffin is approaching a century of occupation.
Emerging from the sandstone ridge like a medieval rampart – stepped around boulders, blended into the landscape with natural bush gardens – it looks impenetrable, yet intriguing. As the street name, The Citadel, suggests, the escarpment on which the houses sits enjoys a commanding outlook over bush headlands, Middle Harbour and, in the distance, the Pacific Ocean. With its flat roofs and walls built largely from sandstone quarried on site, the house offers a series of spatial experiences orchestrated through controlled volume, ceiling height, natural light and outlooks.
An exemplar of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin’s vision for an architecture in harmony with nature, it was built in 1929 for Englishman Thomas Fishwick, the local manager for Leeds-based firm Fowler & Co, which
