Buhrich House II

Buhrich House II is a heritage-listed residence located at 375 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.

For many years Buhrich's assistant, Bill Chambers lived on the site in the remnants of a dwelling designed by Walter Burley Griffin in the 1920s.

Fleeing the Nazis by way of London, where he worked briefly, Buhrich migrated to Australia in 1938 with his wife Eva Bernhard.

In 1945 Hugh and Eva Buhrich established an office in Pitt Street, Sydney but were not recognized as qualified architects until the 1960s.

The heavy sinusoidal roof mass passes over as a visually uninterrupted form from the interior to the exterior, and appears to float above the windows on this elevation.

The deck, with no handrail, is reached by an external spiral concrete stair which cantilevers precariously above a sheer drop to the water's edge.

The house is "consciously not very carefully crafted but like a Yangtse junk is intentionally slightly rough and with a mixture of off-the-shelf components and materials".

[1] The lower level of the Buhrich House has been recently enclosed in part to create additional living areas.

[1] Contemporaries of Buhrich are Sydney Anchor, Harry Seidler, and Arthur Baldwinson, all of whom worked in the Modern Movement Internationist style.

[1] It is worth noting that Walter Burley Griffin and Hugh Buhrich both studied architecture overseas, migrated to Australia, settled in Castlecrag and lived and worked in a similar environment.

[1] The Buhrich house is of State aesthetic significance as a unique building which retains its original integrity as an architecturally sculptural element on the water front escarpment.

The choice of materials, structural elements and furniture (both fixed and freestanding) create an architectural organic form of high integrity.

This style of modernism contrasts with the "Sydney School" houses being constructed contemporarily, whose architects followed a different aesthetic approach - less geometric, and more attuned to the use of natural materials (sometimes referred to as 'nuts and berries').

[1] The Buhrich House is also of historical significance as it represents an aesthetically significant modernist contribution by a second outstanding migrant architectural couple to the delightful harbourside suburb of Castlecrag, first subdivided by the American architectural couple Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.

[1] Buhrich House II was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 25 May 2001 having satisfied the following criteria.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

[1] The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

)[1] In 2015 the Burich House II won the New South Wales Enduring Architecture Award 43 years after construction.