An award-winning Sydney home could have the solution to off-street parking woes, thanks to its revolutionary turntable driveway.
It’s no secret that parking is getting even harder in most Aussie cities, as an influx of residents and more cars on the road make finding somewhere to park your vehicle near impossible in some suburbs.
Meanwhile, city councils aren’t shy of introducing no parking zones across Australia’s biggest cities, slapping hefty fines on those who leave their car curbside.
For households with more than one car or no driveway/ garage space, this has created a huge issue, with some choosing to pay up to $300 a week to rent parking spaces from neighbours or even ditching their cars for public transport instead.
But one two-story newbuild located just south of Sea Cliff Bridge in Scarborough, New South Wales, may have found the solution to parking on a busy street thanks to its unique driveway feature.
Perched atop a coastal cliff on one of the suburb’s busiest roads, Lawrence Hargreave Drive, custom-builders Tass Construction Group had to juggle traffic, limited parking and access issues during the home’s construction.
The construction firm developed the ingenious idea of adding a turntable driveway to assist in both material deliveries and provide the property owners with ample off-street parking options once the home was complete.
Tass Group co-founder Ben Tass told Build-it the distinctive driveway has now become a standout feature of the prize-winning property.
“A home of this calibre requires a remarkable first impression, and in this instance, it begins with the turntable driveway,” said Tass. “The exterior design further attracts attention with its Silvertop Ash cladding from Victoria, enhanced by polished and unpolished concrete,” he said.
“From the initial concrete works to the final interior finishes, every aspect of this build demanded meticulous attention to detail, with a focus on incorporating the client’s vision into the design.”
The turntable driveway helped builders bring in the required materials as they faced challenges in positioning structural steel and incorporating plumbing and electrical services upon the property’s challenging location.
However, the unusual driveway isn’t the only eye-catching feature of the three-bedroom home with a statement-making iron door, 180-degree ocean views, a metal walkway, high ceilings and a suspended fireplace all adding to the property’s talking points.
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Mr Tass says finding a parking solution wasn’t the only challenge the team’s architects faced when designing the home, with its weather-exposed location, which required the very best in structural engineering to ensure its resiliency.
“The block’s position required heavy bracing to meet strict N5 wind ratings, and our team of expert designers and engineers utilised innovative strategies to ensure that the house could withstand the harshest weather conditions,” he said.
The home’s impressive innovative design hasn’t gone unnoticed, with the property picking up the 2023 NSW Housing Industry Association’s ‘Custom New Build’ award in its pricing category.
It was just one of six awards Tass Construction Group nominated for at the HIA ceremony earlier this year, with the boutique design and construction firm only taking on a handful of projects yearly.
