The Design

To visit Pearl Beach House is to experience a series of joyous “arrival” moments.

The first: glorious glimpses from a car window, quick flashes of an idyllic beach, unspoilt bush, majestic angophoras and eucalypts, the open sea, sparkling sunshine, a distant uninhabited island, the drive across Mt Ettalong down into the Pearl Beach.

Then, of a gently inhabited place. A small town speaking of coastal life as it used to be. Modest houses, quiet streets, sensitive, easy living, relaxed walks to the beach and the ocean pool, through the bush.

And, ultimately, delivery to the spectacular north-east facing site overlooking Pearl Beach and the glorious waters of Broken Bay itself, offering a further sequence of delightful moments to pause, to slow down, and breathe.

Entry to this level offers a very special arrival moment, with Mazlin creating a set of elegant timber stairs for the original owners – his sister and husband and two young children. Designed pragmatically to “allow children to run up and down” effortlessly and easily, they are equally poetic – offering transparency through the structure and a joyous sense of anticipation as to what lies ahead.

Above the privacy of the guest suite, one enters the main house, a serenely simple, two-bedroom, two-bathroom home, that rests easily and artlessly. Living spaces open to the north-east and south-west to ensure year-round cross-ventilation, connection to the outdoors and ample winter sunlight from its ideal north-east aspect.

The centrally located open fireplace acts as a beautiful room divider between the main living and dining spaces. Opening to two generous decks, wide expanses of glazing bring the landscape inside. The kitchen remains in its original position, bordering the front deck to optimise social interaction and views, elevating the sometimes pedestrian to the sublime. As Mazlin says, true beach houses draw you again and again towards the sea. To the east, two appropriately sized bedrooms, an ensuite and the main bathroom rest behind a cedar-panelled wall, offering a nurturing sense of retreat in a dramatic landscape.

Location

Pearl Beach is located 90 minutes North of Sydney. Residences have been constructed over time to blend with the local vegetation, which has been maintained mostly in its original condition. As such, the site is a stunning bushland dotted with houses, rather than the expected opposite.

Nearby Mt Ettalong offers several views of the surrounding area, with one of the most picturesque views experienced from the cliff face overlooking beautiful Pearl Beach. From here it is easy to see Green Point at the beach’s southern end with views of the grand Hawkesbury estuary and Broken Bay, speckled with white sails in the distance.

Nearby is the Crommelin Native Arboretum, a truly lovely 4.5 hectare flora sanctuary with grassed areas, wetlands, patches of temperate rainforest and open forest crisscrossed by easy and beautiful walking tacks. This is one of the most attractive sites of the area.

Pearl Parade, and the beach itself, are the perfect resting places with a reserve, a picnic and barbecue area, a children’s playground and well maintained tidal baths. The ocean rock pool is perfect for lap swimming and family outings.

Architect

“It took a lot of determination and drive if I was going to succeed, since I realised I would just have to get out there and do it.” – Brian Mazlin on the struggles of breaking into the Architecture Industry as a young “country boy”.

In the early years of his career, Brian Mazlin worked in the architectural office of John Allen & Russell Jack. At the same time he was completing the six-year, part-time architecture course.

Sydney design practice, ‘Devine, Erby and Stowe’ was established in 1962 by Jonathan George Erby, Grant Irvington Devine and Ronald William Stowe. Brian Mazlin joined them as a partner in 1969, and the practice then became known as Devine Erby Mazlin (DEM). By this time Mazlin already had an impressive twelve years of experience under his belt including a year in Italy and two in London. Mazlin has described his time at DEM as “the most creative period of my career”.

DEM diversified into landscape architecture, interior and industrial design, planning and urban design, with offices in Sydney and Brisbane, Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand, and Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia. Some of their best-known buildings were designed from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, and include the renovation of Campbell’s Storehouse in The Rocks (part of the Sydney Cove Redevelopment), the master plan for Bruce TAFE College in Canberra (1973), the Surf Pavilion at Manly Beach (c. 1980), and the IBM Headquarters at West Pennant Hills in Sydney’s North West (c. 1983-7).

Awards and Publications