Buhrich House II
Castlecrag NSW
The Buhrich House II is an architect’s own house, considered to be one of the finest modern houses in Australia. It was designed and built 1968-1972 by architect Hugh Buhrich (1911-2004) for himself and his wife Eva Buhrich on a site that included the remnants of a dwelling designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the 1920s.
The house is set high above the water’s edge on a steep rocky escarpment at the northern end of Sugarloaf Point. It is built using a mix of materials ─ precast concrete, metal -framed glazed walls, sheet copper roof cladding, steamed cedar sinusoidal ceiling, slate flooring, threaded timber panels and hand-cut local sandstone. The fixed and free-standing furniture was designed to complement the space as sculptures within a sculpture.
The house is considered to demonstrate a particular evolution of the influence of Modernism in Australia, an influence which Buhrich brought to Australia as a migrant from Germany in 1938. The Buhrich House II is listed as an item of state significance on the NSW State Heritage Inventory. It was photographed for the Historic Houses Trust shortly after Hugh Buhrich’s death in June 2004.
Photographer: Brenton McGeachie
Date Photographed: July 2004
Original image format: transparency film: 6x6cms
Copyright: Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Photograph © Brenton McGeachie
Further reading: House: Hugh Buhrich 1972, exhibition curated by Neil Durbach and Cathy Lassen, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney, 10 September-5 October 1991
Peter Myers “Buhrich House” in Architecture Australia July/August 1992 pp.40-42
Hugh Buhrich in conversation with Elizabeth Farrelly “Hugh Buhrich’s house” in Architecture Australia July/August 2004 pp. 86-91
Karen McCartney “The Buhrich House II” in 50/60/70: iconic Australian houses, three decades of domestic architecture, Millers Point, Murdoch Books, 2007
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