Ken Woolley had a knack for making the most of a difficult site. Far more than a laboratory for a young architect’s ideas, the Mosman home he designed and built for his family in 1962 is a testament to his considerable talent.

Situated below street level, this modest-sized home comprises a series of garden terraces clinging to a steep and rocky bush block. It is defined by its rough-sawn timber beams, angled roofs and classic Sydney School clinker bricks.

Architecture books and lecture notes contain numerous descriptions of this house, but its enduring legacy is arguably more important than other buildings awarded this prize in the past. Its impact goes beyond those who have lived in it and the architects who have been inspired by it.

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. More importantly, the house reflects a time when our architecture became a central part of how we began to truly discover our sense of Australian identity.

Bequeathed to UNSW Sydney by the final owners, the Heskeths, the house currently lies empty, with its future use remaining unclear. Its current status is a sad indictment on how we view our architectural history in this country. The jury hopes that this award may go a small way toward helping to change this situation.