Rippon House 1969, Wahroonga

摘要

A highlight of the recent Sydney Open 2010 was the opportunity to view the Rippon House on Burns Road in Wahroonga. This house has been an object of bemusement and admiration by locals ever since it was built in 1969 due mainly to its projected boxes of banded timber slats and translucent opal glass and its light-framed, airy structure. The house was designed by the architect Gerry Rippon for himself and his family who lived there for about 15 years. Rippon was the younger partner of the firm Towell, Jansen and Rippon, which became Towell, Rippon and Associates in 1965. The site was chosen because it was dense with trees and allowed Rippon to explore his notion of what a 'house in the bush' could be, continuing the architectural experiments that began in Sydney in the 1950s. Rippon retained as many of the existing trees as possible and designed a pavilion-like structure to match the height of the gum trees surrounding it.