Discover our 2022 multi award-winning Clareville project

The brief

The owners of this property, nestled on Clareville Beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, wanted an outdoor haven they could enjoy year-round.

Having relocated from Sydney’s upper north shore to the northern beaches, they were looking to create a relaxed haven that melded beautifully with the surrounding environment.

“Our focus was to ensure a connection between the house and garden and create a design and plant selection that would enhance their home, newly renovated by Utz-Sanby Architects, and the coastal setting.

With its breathtaking location and wonderful garden-loving clients, this landscaping project was a labour of love,” says Phil Antcliff, Fifth Season’s Director of Design.

Read on to discover more about the team’s ‘labour of love’, which has won multiple industry awards since its completion, including LDI 2022 Landscape Designer of the Year and three TLA 2022 Gold and Best in Category awards.

A plant design for the home’s coastal aspect and location

“Being garden enthusiasts, the planting design was a key focus of this project, with the intent to develop a scheme that met both style and site-specific requirements, like aspect and soils, and complemented the home’s architecture,” explains Levi Carter, Fifth Season’s Design Manager.

Flowering natives that thrive in Sydney’s coastal areas were chosen for the front garden, including Banksia serrata, Doryanthes excelsa, also known as gymea lily, which produces striking towering flame-red flowers, and Carpobrotus glaucescens, also called pigface, a creeping succulent with bright pink petals. Although this plant palette is often associated with a dry, sparse environment, the team achieved a layered softness to create inviting and interesting spaces in the front and beach-front gardens.

Zoysia tenuifolia, a grass that boasts a lush and fine yet dense foliage and grows in gently curved balls, was laid in the front and side garden to soften the custom burnished concrete steppers and create a cool green look. For the beach-front and front garden lawns, Empire Zoysia was chosen for its lush soft look and feel and ability to endure hot and dry conditions and both full sun and shade.

The result is a garden that is relaxed yet robust, a style developed to align with the clients’ interests and lifestyle while also responding to the unique challenges of the property’s coastal location. “It showcases what can be achieved with a largely native palette, with each species hand-picked to thrive in harsh conditions,” adds Levi.

'Pause' spaces to relax and unwine

Our design incorporated a number of inviting ‘pause' spaces in both the beach-front and front gardens where the owners can relax and enjoy their garden and views, including a floating concrete bench beneath the back deck, a fire pit zone with outdoor beanbags, and second floating bench overlooking the front garden and its family of sculptures.

Custom concrete features throughout

To create a harmonious look throughout the property, wide burnished concrete stepping stones were chosen for the beach-front, front and side gardens. Two 'floating' concrete benches - one in the front garden and another in the beach-front garden - a custom concrete letterbox and custom concrete cooking station all double as design and practical elements. The concrete letterbox also complements the hues of the stepping stones and ball sculptures that welcome visitors.

Low fences maintain the outlook

To maintain the water views and blur the line between beach and garden, the design team chose a low-level aesthetically pleasing timber fence and hardy plants that would thrive in the salty sandy largely west-facing environment. 

The owners’ beach-side living wish-list features

Given the owners’ love of outdoor entertaining and water sports, we added lifestyle enhancing features, including a custom concrete built-in cooking station with charcoal smoker and gas cooking options, outdoor showers, casual seating alongside the entertaining area, and water sport equipment storage.

The side gardens: far from an afterthought

The side gardens were very much a part of the overall design and needed to be both attractive and user-friendly, to enhance the property and provide ease of movement between the front and beach-front back gardens – and reduce the need to enter the home – and bring unwanted sand indoors.

Landscape Design and Construction: Fifth Season Landscapes

Awards:

Landscape Design Institute 2022 Landscape Designer of the Year

Landscape Design Institute 2022 Silver Award – Residential Design, Large Scale

Landscape Design Institute 2022 Gold Award – Plantscape

The Landscape Association 2022 Gold and best in category Residential Design over 200m2

The Landscape Association 2022 Gold and best in category Residential Construction $150k - $350k

The Landscape Association 2022 Gold and best in category maintenance up to 1000m2