In a World Tour of Midcentury Moderns, This Book Is the Final Stop

"I like things not to have a beginning and an end," says Stan Symonds, an Australian architect obsessed with circular forms and curving walls. Many of his projects feature circular forms of one kind or another, including his Dome House in Seaforth. Just a year after building finishing that project, Symonds completed this striking house nearby for John and Margaret Schuchard that has also been known as the ‘Space House’ or ‘Spaceship.’ The building, resembling a lookout station or observation post, sits on a steep hill with panoramic views out across Middle Harbor. The house mushrooms upwards and thrusts outwards at one and the same time, like the rounded bow of a ship emerging from the rock.