It’s been a while, so I thought I’d better update this little site of ours as 2024 draws to a close. To say there has been a lot going on in our lives, is an understatement.

Despite moving on from our beloved Pettit+Sevitt, the experience of owning and loving such a home so much has very much informed our present and future. We found a late-1970s Split-Level “copy”. I say so generously, although the GIPA report from council did confirm it was a copy built by a Melbourne company and completed in 1980. As such, it has great bones but many features which are different to our P+S, a Lowline. Clinker brick, a high elevation on a hill, an amazing rock integrated to the front, and exposed brick internally. We’re enjoying living near the ocean and with a view, something we have not experienced before. Like many true P+S Split Levels, it comes with an interesting access challenge…a staircase of 49 steps and you can’t really see the house from street level! As before, we’ll be looking to update it but aim to incorporate its warm features like the current raked ceilings and brick interiors as-is.

In other news, our lovely friends Margaret Bishop and John Dunn have retired from their publishing business, Piper Press after over 34 years. We decided to take on the next phase of the business, and we are thrilled to be writing a book about Pettit+Sevitt, among other things.

Contribute to the book on Pettit+Sevitt

With the exception of Judith O’Callaghan’s PhD thesis on project homes (see reference below), I always felt that the cursory paragraph in (many) architecture books just doesn’t do justice to the history and enjoyment we all derive from P+S’s legacy. Much thanks to Colin Sevitt for his support, and also to Alistair of Secret Design Studio who started the P+S Facebook group and invited me to it some years ago, and to Architect Steven Coverdale.

In addition to the history, the book will include stories of at least 10-20 intact or updated homes (or that’s the goal). I’m looking forward to meeting several owners who I’ve come into contact with, or made friends with via the P+S group over the years, and to doing more interviews in the new year.

In the meantime, if you built your P+S, or have purchased or lovingly updated a P+S, and are willing to be included, please get in touch. You can contact me at: sydneyhouse64(at)gmail.com if you feel your home might be a good feature. Small testimonials about living in your P+S are also welcome, as are photos, old brochures, plans or anything else you feel would be essential to the telling of this history.

One thing that has become apparent is that the history of Pettit+Sevitt is very much likely to be a collective memory, and will need to come from homeowners past and present, in addition to archival material. While some records exist in national and state archives, some of Pettit+Sevitt’s records were lost when Landall, the company that bought Pettit+Sevitt, collapsed. So whatever we all have lying around in drawers or old files, will be vital. I am very lucky to have a modular planning brochure which I hope to include. It had die-cut shapes of the floor plan arranged to ‘pop out’ and be an aid to new owners who were planning their layout. Inventive! The book will be a hardcover and published by Piper Press in 2025.

Piper Press has specialised in creating artist monographs, art history, architecture, photography and design titles for over three decades. From the earliest days publishing the work of Tracey Moffatt, Fiona Hall, Julie Rrap, Del Kathryn Barton, Patricia Piccinini and Bronwyn Oliver’s monographs, John and Margaret’s work has put a spotlight on contemporary art, architecture emerging artists and women. In the 2000s, they have published architecture and photography books including Twelve Australian Photographers, Sirius, Paddington: A History and creating a sense of place.

We recently reprinted Sirius, by popular demand and we’re looking forward to more projects in the new year.

Photo: Courtesy Ben Peake, Save Our Sirius.

Reference: O’Callaghan, Judith, Project Housing and the Architectural profession in Sydney in the 1960s: A Thesis, University of New South Wales, 2007.