BREATHING SPACE

Building a spectacular new home without chemicals or compromise has been a labour of love for Jamie Durie.

- Words DEBORAH GRANT Styling MARIA PAPANTONIOU Photography ALANA LANDSBERRY

Jamie Durie's house on Sydney's Northern Beaches was going to be a prefab that took three months to build, but ended up being a vast concrete new build on nine levels - involving 16 trades and 30 suppliers. It all began in 2015 with a call from a friend, alerting the high-profile landscape designer and TV personality to a deceased estate for sale on a coveted patch of Avalon waterfront. The original 1950s 'beach shack' on the block was cute and livable (its black mould, asbestos and invasive weeds were just about under control), so bachelor Jamie moved in and began planning his ideal home. "I wanted to see where the sun fell et cetera, and to modify it from there," he says. "In my business as a landscape architect, I've designed a lot of big projects and many hotels worldwide and my head was exploding with ideas." By 2020, Jamie had met singer/songwriter Ameka Jane, with whom he now has two children: a daughter, Beau, and a son, Nash, aged three and two, respectively. A luxurious family home was on the cards, but there was a catch: the 37-degree block and seven large native trees to protect meant no builder would attempt the prefab concept. Instead, Jamie worked with mentors and industry friends on a floor plan that was DA approved, before handing it to architecture firm Silvester Fuller for documentation.

"The design was complicated, and I needed someone with a refined eye to bring it to life," he explains.