Architect models his own house on Angkor complex

When architect Drew Heath returned to Sydney after visiting Angkor, he mulled over how he could remodel his grandiose home. The house he created recently won the 2013 National Award for Residential Architecture. Cecelia Marshall heard how he did it.

The temples at Angkor have inspired travellers from all corners of the globe for generations from the first explorers to modern-day poets, artists, and musicians. But few decide to try to recreate them at home. Drew Heath, an Australian architect, first visited Cambodia five years ago as a tourist and came away from the ancient structures with an unusual plan. Last month, his $9 million Angkor-inspired home in Sydney won the 2013 National Award for Residential Architecture House.

At home, the 44 year-old runs the Drew Heath Architects firm, mostly doing residential home designs with illustrious gardens. But his schedule regularly takes him abroad to visit some of the worlds greatest architectural wonders: the mountaintop Greek Acropolis is one of his favourites.

This is the first time I fully embraced the landscape

With each trip, he takes away a different idea, he said in a Skype interview. But Angkor Wat was different. The sight of the once-forgotten temples overtaken by jungle an image of man cohabiting with nature offered an aha moment for Heath.

When he returned from Cambodia, he set to work on a new and personal project: one that would bring the outside into his own home.

The project, which he alone conceived and designed, took three years and involved four builders. His wife and four kids aged between two and 14 lived inside the incomplete house while construction took place. It didnt matter, he said, since the theme of the house was incompletion. This is the first time I fully embraced the landscape, he said. Its almost like living outdoors.

Various rooms of the home are on different levels of space. There isnt a basic ground floor, first and second. Climb a couple of steps, and youre in the living room where a giant window opens up to the outside and you can see the kitchen down the hallway. This type of layering is borrowed from the temples and offers privacy and enclosure but also openness and a certain vulnerability to the outside elements.

The name of the house, Tir na ng, comes from his wifes Irish background. In an ancient Gaelic childrens tale, Tr na ng means other worldly place. With this in mind, Heath wanted to create an otherworldly place of eternal youth and timeless jungle against timeless ruin, he said.

Heath said that the house incorporates his emotive response to visiting the temples. PHOTO SUPPLIED

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Architect models his own house on Angkor complex