Australia's iconic Ball-Eastaway House is on the market

The Ball-Eastaway House, on the market with Modern House — (Image credit: © Richard Glover 2025)

One of Australia’s most celebrated properties, the Ball‑Eastaway House, is on the market for the first time. The residence is remarkable for many reasons: its location deep in the Australian bush, which demanded inventive, climate-sensitive solutions by Australia’s Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt, and its history as the home, studio and contemplative retreat for the abstract artist couple Sydney Ball and Lynne Eastaway. Completed in 1983, the house combines functional requirements with a profound responsiveness to its natural surroundings.

Situated in Glenorie, roughly an hour northwest of Sydney, the rugged site spans 25 acres of dry sclerophyll forest with a prominent rock ledge forming a natural platform. True to Murcutt’s philosophy that a building should coexist with the landscape rather than dominate it, the long, low house is elevated on slender steel-pipe columns, allowing air and water to flow beneath, and construction was carried out without removing a single tree.

The house is clad entirely in corrugated iron – and was Murcutt’s first residential project to employ the material in this way. Its gently curved roof and linear plan are deceptively simple, yet the design is rich with finely tuned details tailored to its climate. Edges are ‘feathered’ and steel components tapered to reduce visual and structural weight, while aluminium shading devices and timber interiors moderate light and temperature. Expansive north-facing glazed walls and skylights flood the interior with natural light – vital for Ball and Eastaway’s studios – while also subtly regulating ventilation and shading. The house exemplifies what Murcutt describes as a ‘real bush house’ – one that engages with the landscape as a living system of light, air, heat, rain and seasonal change rather than treating it as mere scenery.

Inside, the design is deeply informed by the creative lives of its occupants. Ball’s expansive paintings line a long internal wall, forming the spine of the house. Behind this wall lies a ‘secret’ northwest verandah, originally conceived as a meditation space. Two large studios, designed with the same sensitivity as the main house, have been the birthplace of many key works by Ball and Eastaway. During a jury visit for the 1984 Wilkinson Award, which the house subsequently won, the chair described this as ‘the most serene space he had ever been in’.

The home's environmental intelligence was pioneering in the early 1980s and remains influential in Australian architecture today. Its long, low form, finely crafted materials, and integration with the landscape reflect Murcutt’s dedication to sustainable, context-sensitive design, as well as achieving a rare harmony of art, life and nature.

The Ball-Eastaway House is listed with Modern House for a guide price of AUD 2.4-2.6 million (approx. £1.2-1.4 million)

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Anna Solomon is Wallpaper’s digital staff writer, working across all of Wallpaper.com’s core pillars. She has a special interest in interiors and curates the weekly spotlight series, The Inside Story. Before joining the team at the start of 2025, she was senior editor at Luxury London Magazine and Luxurylondon.co.uk, where she covered all things lifestyle.