Vivarium by Architecture Architecture
This revitalized Melbourne cottage intertwines house with landscape to create a spatially generous family home in harmony with the environment. A courtyard at the home’s eastern edge has been planted with thriving ferns, which welcomes the morning sun into the kitchen, animating it with the shifting patterns of daylight. In the backyard, the rear addition is entangled with native grasses, whose annual growth cycles help to track the seasons. More…
Twin Houses by John Ellway
In the design for the street-facing elevations of Twin Houses, John Ellway wanted to counteract the “ocean liner” facades that dominate the area.
Image:
Toby Scott
Just south of Brisbane, Twin Houses offers a new response to its low-density postwar context, providing amenity beyond the individual dwelling and contributing generously to the suburban microclimate.The passionfruit vine that flourishes on the street facade provides acoustic comfort for the front bedroom and visual privacy for the shower. Externally, this green facade gives back to the street both as an attractive visual amenity and by contributing to a cooler microclimate for neighbouring houses. More…
Autumn House by Studio Bright
Virginia creeper is already colonizing this new addition, and the intent is that planting will soon turn building into “hedge,” part of a consistent desire to balance individual privacy with neighbourly generosity.
Image:
Rory Gardiner
The name of this home says it all. A double-story addition sits south of the original house, opening to northern sun and making space for the large existing elm tree that is the heart of the home. The entire first floor is conceived as an arbour, wrapped in integrated planters and a filigree skin of expanded mesh the colour of autumn leaves. More…
Sunrise Studio by Bark Architects
The house appears to nestle into the surrounding hillside and affords views of the Noosa coastline.
Image:
Christopher Frederick Jones
In the Noosa hinterland, this modest studio, a companion building to a 1980s Queenslander, is a compelling prototype for prefabricated subtropical homes. The location of the building on the site defers to the prospect of the existing dwelling, prioritizes the retention of all the existing, mature trees, and is oriented to maximize northern light and cooling breezes.
The secluded studio is diagonally offset from the main house and carefully nestled back into the steep terrain. This arrangement amplifies the enveloping experience of the stunning landscape. More…
Glass House by Bill and Ruth Lucas
Glass House by Bill and Ruth Lucas.
Image:
Brett Boardman
Designed in 1957 by Bill and Ruth Lucas, this home was an experiment in radical design for its time. Elevated on a sloping site in Castelgrag, the building was both a prototype for an economical structural system and a vision for life lived in the landscape. The featherweight structure appears to float above the tree canopy, providing a curious perspective that is deeply tuned in to nature and its seasons. More…
Garden House by Baracco and Wright Architects
The house is pared down to the barest of essentials: a steel shed kit with polycarbonate cladding, three large facade walls, a raised deck, timber mezzanine and plumbing.
Image:
Erieta Attali
Baracco and Wright Architects’ Garden House blurs the boundaries between garden and home while redefining what it means to be minimal. The house is pared down to the barest of essentials: an off-the-shelf steel shed kit with polycarbonate cladding, three large facade walls, a raised deck, timber mezzanine and plumbing. The house sits lightly within a strip of remand vegetation among cleared farmland. The material form is of almost second-order significance to the ground conditions and consists of a raised deck eight hundred millimetres high, which allows seasonal floodwaters to move through, and an off-the-shelf kit shed of steel with polycarbonate cladding and three large (four-metre-wide) sliding facade walls. More…
