Site Overview
site name:
Prevost House
architects:
Prevost & Ancher
date of completion:
1937
address:
65 Kambala Road Bellevue Hill NSW
typology:
Residential / Houses (RES)
protection status:
– Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014, item 39.
– Register of the National Estate (17307)
Submitted by:
Scott Robertson, Louise Cox, et. al. in 2014, docomomo Australia
Description
The Prevost House built for Mr and Mrs R. [Reginald] A. De T. Prevost was designed during Sydney Ancher’s architectural partnership with Reginald Prevost. An early Sydney appearance of International Modernism and materials and methods of the 1930s, the house was composed of rendered brick with a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass bricks surrounding the main entrance.
The open foyer led to a glazed, west-facing sunroom to the left while a generous open-plan living and dining area opened to the east. The dining area plan was defined by a circular enclosure drawn from Mies van der Rohe’s 1930 Villa Tugendhat interior in the Czech Republic. On the Prevost House’s upper level, strip casement windows were used and a sundeck linked three of the elevations.
Despite the doctrinaire white exterior, Prevost and Ancher used blue-painted eaves and a primary red-painted steel column supporting the entrance canopy. Internally, the circular dining area was painted pale blue with a pink ceiling. In the living area, low built-in timber cabinets for books and a phonogram terminated the far wall.
Text adapted from an entry by Michael Bogle in Australia Modern: Architecture, Landscape and Design 1925-1975 (2019, Thames and Hudson).
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Statement of Significance: A house of considerable architectural significance as one of the finest Functionalist style houses in Australia. An early work of the prominent architect Sydney Ancher, which is a sophisticated interpretation of nautical and other overseas influences. The flat roof, which is symbolic of the modern movement, is one of the earliest in Australia. The house marks a turning point in the history of twentieth-century architecture in Australia.
Description: The house is a two storey rendered masonry structure on an L-shaped plan with a flat roof. The massing is cubic and the proportions horizontal, relieved by a large circular window on the south elevation the small portholes on the western elevation and the curved corner window, sun room, deck and pipe balustrade on the south-west corner. The entrance door was originally set in a wall of glass bricks. A similar wall has been restored. The colour scheme was originally off white with Wedgewood blue eaves. The nautically flavoured design has much in common with contemporary interpretations of European modernism. The structure, except for the flat roof, is the traditional load-bearing brick. (source: From the Australian Heritage Database: Prevost House)