Around twelve years ago we found a weekend farm less than two hours drive from the city.
Bellevarde run the smoothest building operation I have seen.
This is the second house that John and the Bellevarde team have built for us.
John Fielding and the team at
Bellevarde build arguably the finest
architectural homes in Australia. After
John built our house in 1994 and
became a friend, we discovered that
he doesn’t like to talk much about his
work—but other people do.
My conversations with the owners and
architects of all the houses built by
John revealed that everyone greatly
enjoyed the building experience.
If you are contemplating building an
architect-designed house, I believe
you will find their comments both
interesting and useful.
As a bonus, please enjoy the images of some of Australia’s most beautiful homes.
Hugh Spencer
Just two months before completion, two floors of my three-storey home were flooded—the result of a most unlikely act of god.
I was an apprentice carpenter at the Canberra Institute of Technology when John was an apprentice bricklayer.
By nature my wife and I enjoy immersing ourselves in the important things in our lives. And this house was important.
At first, we were uneasy about embarking upon such a comprehensive renovation.
John’s house is special. It perfectly reflects his design and construction philosophy of seeking to execute everything perfectly.
John Fielding really understood what Andrew Coomer, our architect, and we were seeking to accomplish.
Ours is a beautiful house, designed by master architect Graham Jahn.
Most builders simply say 'Give me your plans and I will build the house'. John isn't like that. He respects great architecture.
The owners wanted to transform this beautiful site into a stage for enhancing the spiritual side of life.
Thredbo always offers challenges.
Our house fuses Japanese and Western influences. We are on a surf beach, which allows us to view the waves from a tatami platform.
From the outset I wanted to be involved in the rebuilding of our beautiful old 1924 home, which was designed by Professor Leslie Wilkinson.
Bellevarde are the finest builders we have ever experienced. They are millimetre perfect.
When we met John we had great faith he would build our house to the highest standards.
Our practice divides evenly between the creation of top-class luxury homes, and apartment buildings.
Initially I would describe John as a bit of a rough diamond—a no-nonsense genuine Aussie builder...
We use four builders. John gets the ones where quality is paramount and attention to detail is crucial.
John builds houses the way craftsmen build beautiful pieces of furniture.
John is a very unusual builder. He is driven by excellence of delivery.
We did the usual inspections of John’s previous work and felt pretty happy that he could tackle the job.
The site is precipitous and exposed—on a 100-metre cliff, facing into southerlies of up to 130km/hr.
Architecture appropriate to its time, place and purpose, beautifully created, delivers an immediate sense of harmony and well-being.
We enjoyed building this house, mainly because of John and his team.
In 1984 Glenn Murcutt designed a house for us to be built at Bingle Point near Moruya.
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