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| Spaceship house |
| Rebecca visits one of Sydney's most extraordinary homes. |
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If you don't believe in UFOs or spaceships, then you've never been to Sydney's Bayview. There, clinging to a sandstone cliff, is a 60s home with a difference. It's a huge sci-fi style building nicknamed "the spaceship." And it's just gone on the market.
Construction of the spaceship was completed in 1963. It was designed and built by its original owner, Eugene Van Grecken. The controversial building was so advanced that local engineers couldn't comprehend its genius and so it was never approved by local government.
Visiting the spaceship is an odyssey in itself. First you drive up a long and very steep driveway. This leads to a wooden ramp that zigzags 200m down a precipitous slope to a sandstone escarpment 153m above sea level.
The spaceship's most dominant feature is its roof. Nearly forty years on, it still boasts the largest single span concrete roof in the southern hemisphere. The roof is an ellipse, resting on 11 boomerang pillars. Five of the outer posts are tied to a central point by steel cables. The roof is unattached and sits atop the pillars on 5cm thick neoprene pads. As the concrete roof heats and expands in summer, it rises and falls.
Brett Falkner is the current owner. When he bought the house it was a rental property in dire need of some tender loving care. Renovations included opening the master bedroom to improve the view from the bed and relocating the kitchen to improve access from the lounge. The dining room was sacrificed and the 2300mm diameter tiled dining table was relocated to the lounge room.
All the windows have been replaced with 10mm laminated glass. All 14 skylights have been fitted with a solar tinted variation of this glass. It has been estimated that the combined weight of glass in the spaceship is more than five tonne.
The front door is stainless steel, weighing in at half a tonne. It is remote controlled, opening inwards just like a spaceship. A large angophora tree stands just inside the doorway and reaches to the skylights above.
A professional was brought in to advise on the colour scheme but everyone who worked or visited the spaceship during the renovations contributed in some way.
Other interesting features include sloping windows and a hidden staircase. The windows are designed to look down on the view, rather than out. Under a swivelling coffee table is a spiral staircase. This leads to the office, bathroom and second bedroom.
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