Taking a long view.

Completed by CplusC Architectural Workshop and designed by Clinton Cole, the residence has long been recognised for the clarity of that idea. It received the 2009 HIA People’s Choice Award and the Corian Design Award in the same year, and was later featured by Architizer as a Project of the Day. Yet the greater measure is its ability to remain remarkably relevant after 17 years of family life.

For owner Marina Leong, that was built into the architecture from the beginning.

“The home was conceived with the idea of an evolving family,” she says. “Our kids are 11 years apart, so they had different needs at the same time. It was also designed for a family with different generations being together and separate at the same time.”

Across its four levels, the floorplan creates both connection and separation without becoming fragmented. The main living and entertaining spaces occupy their own generous domain, while bedrooms and private areas offer genuine retreat. There is room for formal gatherings and everyday life, with separate living, family, office, rumpus and gym spaces allowing the house to adapt as its occupants do.

It is architecture with enough structure to be purposeful, and enough flexibility to absorb change.

The material palette is equally restrained. Warm timber, expansive glass and salvaged sandstone establish a connection with the water with visual restraint. Large stacking doors and windows open the interiors to terraces and decks, while louvre glazing and banks of aluminium shutters offer control over privacy, weather and light.

“The simplicity,” Marina says, when asked what she has come to appreciate most over time. “It’s a very sophisticated and well-thought-out house disguised to appear as clean-lined as possible.”

Much of its technical sophistication remains deliberately unobtrusive. Solar-control systems are integrated with CBUS automation. Ducted air conditioning, vacuum systems and integrated media are embedded within the architecture rather than competing with it. Storage is extensive. The double garage connects directly indoors. Everything has been considered, but little wants to be noticed.

The result is an environment that exudes calm.

“There is no fussiness,” Marina says. “Nothing to take away from the water and the relationship it has with the interiors of the house.”

That relationship shifts throughout the day. Light moves across the bay and into the interiors. Water becomes backdrop, outlook and activity space in equal measure. From the king-sized main suite, the view is experienced as retreat; from the living areas, as part of the social life of the house. Below, the pool and extensive decking form an outdoor world of their own, with direct access to the waterfront beyond.

And while the architecture has earned its share of recognition, the life lived within it has been far less formal.

“Parties,” Marina says. “We had many, many parties: Christmas, Easter, birthdays, farewells - we had them.”

There have been countless barbecues, children fishing from the seawall and afternoons spent by the pool. Her daughter and friends have sunbathed beside the water. There are smaller memories, too: “The sound of the dog’s nails clicking on the timber floors.”

It is often those incidental details that reveal whether a house has genuinely embraced its occupants.

Beyond the home, Tennyson Point has offered another form of continuity. “It’s a small community, blessed with lots of open spaces, parks and water everywhere,” Marina says. “A short walk to Putney for a coffee at Dolcini or sushi at YUI, where there is always someone to say hello.”

After almost two decades, Marina hopes the next owners will understand that the house was never intended as a static architectural statement.

“It has given us such special memories,” she says. “And it deserves children running around and splashing in the pool and kayaking off the seawall - but mostly, to make special memories.”

It certainly appears ready to adapt again.

View the listing: 129 Tennyson Road, Tennyson Point