Like so many of his fellow Kiwis, John Deuchrass was lured by the golden sands and easy lifestyle of Sydney’s beachside suburbs. Born and raised in Dunedin, Deuchrass gained his qualifications in Auckland and began his career there under esteemed New Zealand architect Pete Bossley.
After cutting his teeth for four years on a mixture of commercial and residential projects, Deuchrass, in the proud tradition of many restless young professionals, came to Sydney for a weekend and never left.
Settling in Manly, he spent the following four years refining his skills at two separate firms, Turner Studio and Mathieson Architects, experiences that served as an introduction to Sydney’s world of high-end architecture while also proving instructive in showing what he didn’t want from his career. One day, during his time at Turner, Deuchrass received a phone call from fellow young architect, Matthew Woodward, who made him an offer.
“He said, ‘I know you want to do your own work, would you consider working for me part-time and building up your own practice on the Northern Beaches?’”.
Since then, Deuchrass has spent six years quietly establishing a name for himself, a process that was, expectedly, not an easy one. There were a lot of Saturday nights, he tells me over Zoom, spent working from the spare room of his Manly apartment. Though the practice is young and his portfolio relatively small, Deuchrass has already demonstrated a sophisticated and coherent design language that’s been synthesised and refined from his early days as a junior architect.
Deuchrass has never had a desire to create buildings that are hulking masses but to design homes that are “sensitive to the land and fit the environment”.
The influence of Mies van der Rohe and Deuchrass’ own time at Mathieson Architects is evident in his work and openly acknowledged – “I love that crisp, minimilastic design” – but where they differ is in what Deuchrass calls a “warm, modern approach to architecture”, and his ability to make a building become part of the site it sits on. Projects such as the Anzac Bay and Beacon Point houses feature the clean lines and concrete forms that typify Deuchrass’ modernist approach but are broken into a series of pavilions that fit into the landscape instead of squatting atop it like some sort of glass box. By reworking the geometry of their simple forms, Deuchrass creates sheltered courtyards and private places of refuge that still maintain a sense of openness and offer his clients the indoor-outdoor flow that we Kiwis adore so much.
Inside, warm timbers clad the ceiling at Anzac Bay and are liberally fitted to the joinery at the Newtown Terrace and Riverview Courtyard properties. The result is that, in spite of their large dimensions and solid forms, spaces like bathrooms, living rooms and kitchens never feel monolithic or oppressive and, most importantly, feel like homes instead of showrooms. Deuchrass has never had a desire to create buildings that are hulking masses but to design homes that are “sensitive to the land and fit the environment”, and as we talk it becomes clear that his approach is influenced not just by this sensitivity but also by a deeper understanding of the role a home plays in the lives of its occupants.
“It’s a big role, designing, documenting and making a house for someone because their kids are going to experience that space for 10 years or more.”
“I think that predominantly comes back to how it sits on the site: the forms, setting up your orientation, where you want to be standing at the island with a glass of wine, looking at the view… For me, that’s what it always comes down to rather than any great idea about an object.
“It’s a big role, designing, documenting and making a house for someone because their kids are going to experience that space for 10 years or more.”
For Deuchrass, the personal element is central to every other aspect of his job: it determines the projects he takes on, the opportunities he is afforded during design, and ultimately, what he finds most rewarding about being an architect. It’s the texts he receives on a Friday night from a client who can now see their young child from every room in their new house, or the ones that thank him for something they never even thought about but now can’t live without.
Moving forward, Deuchrass has no extravagant dreams of enormous projects and giant teams, “maybe have a few staff and a little boutique, creative studio environment”. For now, his plan is to keep his head down, continue to take on projects that excite and challenge him, and design beautiful homes that people will cherish and remember for the rest of their lives.
Words — Nick Ainge-Roy
