[1] 11 Bickell Road is an attractive verandahed two-storey Federation bungalow on a large sloping, sandstone terraced site which has been densely planted over much of the 20th century.

Developers therefore set their sights on land previously considered unfit for building (such as the steep bushland on which the Woolley House is built).

Internal spaces were staggered, a unique approach, and stepped down the sites so that sightlines could angle down and views could be achieved from remote areas of the house.

[1] The stone retaining walls in the steep and undulating garden were laid by landscape architect Bruce McKenzie who also did some planting.

In 2016 the owner Stephen Kenneth Hesketh bequeathed the property to the University of New South Wales to be used as a residence for visiting academics.

[1][3] The basis of the Woolley House design was derived from a series of garden terraces, most of which were covered by sections of timber roof sloping parallel to the land.

A geometric order was applied to the plan as a series of 1.1-square-metre (12 sq ft) units that combine to make up the main central space.

Natural materials were exploited, with neutral colour schemes of dark tiles, western red cedar boarding and panelling, and painted bricks, creating a feeling of warmth in the house.

The house is located on a steep hillside, covered with large rocks, trees and ferns and that originally looked out over Middle Harbour.

[1] A geometric discipline was imposed on the plan, the basis of the which is a series of 1.1 square metres (12 sq ft) units, several of which combine to form the main central space.

It is an extremely important example of the "Sydney School" of architecture, using natural materials, stepping down a steeply sloping site.

The Woolley House is an early and classic example of the Sydney School, a movement which was emerging at the time of the building's construction.

The building has a strong association with Ken Woolley and is a very important example of his early work, demonstrating his young and idealistic vision.

It is also a rare example of the private garden design and construction work of landscape architect Bruce McKenzie, better known for large public projects.

Before he was 30 he had completed a number of highly regarded Sydney buildings, including the University of Sydney's Fisher Library, the State Office Block on the corner of Macquarie and Bent Streets (demolished in 1997 for Aurora Place), the Woolley House in Mosman, the Lidcombe Hospital Recreation Hall and Chapel and the first Pettit & Sevitt project home houses.

Woolley studied at the University of Sydney through a traineeship from the NSW Public Works Department that paid the fees and an allowance, with holiday employment and a five-year contract after graduation.

He was awarded the Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship for 1955, working in London for Chamberlin Powell and Bon, in the midst of discussion about modernism and the International style.

[1] In 1964 Woolley went into partnership with Ancher Mortlock Murray, and on to a career including over 6,000 dwelling units and production houses and his own three Wilkinson Award-winning homes.

He saw himself as a late modernist, invludenced in various ways by Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier and attuned to the development of regionalism, New Brutalism, the theoretical aspects of post-modernism and reattachment to traditions.

[1] In the 21st century came the latest refurbishment of the Queen Victoria Building, an effort at revival of the Pettit & Sevitt houses and other collaborative projects with his former practice, Ancher Mortlock Woolley.

[1] Woolley was appointed a member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1988, awarded the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1993 and elected a fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2001.

In acknowledging that as being perhaps more perceptive than he intended, or as others have taken it, I have shown that it is not a straight example of the "New Brutalism" any more than it relates to the designs of other architects whose work, while influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, is also included in the notion of Sydney School.

At the time, I was reluctant to assert any such thing as a Sydney School, firstly because there was no such group consciously attempting to create a consistent movement.

Concurrent work was the State Office Block documentation, the construction detailing and interiors of Fisher Library, the Kingsdene exhibition (at Carlingford) and the early Pettit and Sevitt houses.

I had seen it used in a building at Sydney University by Fowell Jarvis and MacClurcan in which the texture was maximised, with projecting lumps and raked joints.

I determined they would be selected by the bricklayers for the relatively smooth side, minimising the texture and enabling the joints to be cut flush and showing a range of beautiful colours.

The main frame, posts and rafters of the house and the roof decking are of Canadian Pine – similar to Oregon but paler.

The reflections and shadows on this roof, the soft textured rose, brown and grey of the bricks and the dark stained boarding are seen through a screen of angophora trees, which vary through the season from soft grey to orange.In July 2022, the Woolley Hesketh House — in its 60th year — was awarded the New South Wales Enduring Architecture Award in recognition by the NSW Chapter of the AIA.

Designed to "cope with the slope," the Woolley Hesketh House is a pioneer and icon of the Sydney School movement and contains the DNA of the Australian suburbs of the 1960s and '70s, when architect-designed project homes expressed the desires and dreams of a broad middle class.

Bequeathed to UNSW Sydney by the final owners, the Heskeths, the house currently lies empty, with its future use remaining unclear.