An extended family enjoy life together in a home built for collective, and private, living.

WORDS Verity Campbell
PHOTOGRAPHY Judy Sederof

THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA, just outside of Melbourne, is the classic weekend getaway. With its rugged ocean beaches, national parks and undulating hills dotted with wineries and pick-your-own orchards, it’s no surprise so many Melburnians decide to relocate there permanently. But for one family of sea-changers, the move to Merricks North in the hills of the Peninsula was no hasty decision.
For over 20 years Marie and her family had tended the land around their weekender, lovingly revegetating their six and a half hectares with more than 3000 trees. They even co-founded a local Landcare group and won an award for their revegetation work on Merricks Creek, which borders the property.
But the existing house was badly insulated, dark and ill-equipped to accommodate an extended family – Marie, her partner, their child and his grandfather – so they chose to build a new dwelling to meet their need for both shared and independent living.
The brief to Andreas Sederof and Brent Lamb of Sunpower Design was to keep it simple, make it energy efficient, build to last, and meet the family’s need for both communal and private living. And so project architect Brent set to work, ensuring the woodworking passion of the owners was fully incorporated into the design. The superb recycled cabinetry is a credit to this successful client-designer partnership.

The plan of the 21 square (196 square metre) home is linear with east–west orientation to maximise northern light. The two wings pivot either side of the shared entry corridor, laundry and living-kitchen room – a lofty space with Australian quarried sandstone flooring, large island bench, cheery canary-yellow tiled splash back and a corner butt-joint window with views to Western Port. “Real estate agents would make a big deal out of that glimpse of water,” jokes Marie.

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A Queensland renovation lifts a Brisbane home’s energy performance and liveability significantly and sustainably, with just a few changes to the floor plan.

WORDS Francene Ridley
PHOTOGRAPHY Lara Masselos

Gillian Moody thought she was pretty savvy about sustainable design until she and her husband Warren McGregor renovated their post-war house on 620 square metres in the northern Brisbane suburb of Gaythorne.
Having worked on a Queensland government sustainable living initiative, Gillian felt she was “very aware” of how to make a house more environmentally sound. After the renovation, however, she and Warren realised that green living is about more than simply turning the TV off at the wall and switching to LED lights.

“We didn’t really comprehend how the orientation and layout of the house can make such a difference,” says Gillian. “One of the smartest things you can do is make sure your house is facing the right direction, and if you can’t do that,
relocate windows to catch sun and shade.”

Luckily, orientation wasn’t a significant problem architect Stephanie Skyring of Skyring Architects faced when Gillian and Warren asked her to design a better performing house. The property’s north-facing backyard and vegetation providing shade to the west were positive features she could make the most of. It was the home’s dark and poky floor plan that was the main problem. As it was, life for Gillian and Warren was almost unbearable during Brisbane’s stifling subtropical
summers.
“There was absolutely no cross-ventilation in the house; the walls were in the wrong place and had no insulation,” Gillian says, adding that they had even considered getting an air conditioner despite her strong opinions against them. “We thought we’d have to build a whole new house,” she says, “but Stephanie said we could just reconfigure the original floor plan.”

The main aims of the redesign were to link the living areas to the back northwest-facing deck, improve the layout of the kitchen, give more space to the main bedroom and allow cooling breezes to flow through the house. All this was achieved with the addition of just 2.2 square metres of floor area and, wherever possible, the reuse of material salvaged from any demolition work, and staying air conditioner free. “I’ve always been against air-conditioning. Now, I’m even more against it. You just don’t need it if the house is designed properly,” says Gillian.

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A renovated Melbourne apartment steeps its guests in local creativity, eco design and sustainable living.

WORDS Verity Campbell
PHOTOGRAPHY Fernando de Sousa

It’s usually a cliché to describe something as a labour of love, but you’d be hard pressed to find a more appropriate descriptor for ‘The Nest’ apartment in St Kilda, Melbourne. Owner Jane Maher pursued her passion for locally made, environmentally conscious products meticulously and almost compulsively as she prepared the apartment for its new life as a holiday rental. The outcome is a study in placemaking; an interpretation of a city’s uniqueness through its local creative industries by ensuring the locally produced mantra informs every detail, from the artwork and iPod playlist, right down to the tea leaves (Melbourne Breakfast blend, of course).
The idea for the apartment germinated while Jane was on holiday in Paris. One morning, lying in bed in her hotel room, she realised that “the only thing in the room that was actually French was the linen curtains – everything else was flat-pack furniture. I could have been anywhere in the world … Later, back in Melbourne, I was casting around for a new project and struck upon creating a real ‘When in Melbourne’ experience.”
Combined with her newfound passion for local, Jane also knew she wanted best practice environmental specifications. So began the renovation.
The 1960s apartment needed an overhaul. The small galley kitchen was divided from the poky living room by a wall. Jane opted to remove the wall, but the engineering challenge of this seemingly simple task blew what should have been a four-month renovation out to a year. “One of themain pieces of advice I would give a renovator is to choose the people you work with wisely. Use word-of-mouth wherever possible. And when you first meet the tradesperson if you don’t click then don’t proceed. Because ultimately, if things go wrong you need to make sure you’re working with someone you can discuss any difficulties with.”

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A Japanese-influenced and passively designed house in Hamilton, New Zealand, seeks to cross cultural borders.

WORDS Sarah Robertson
PHOTOGRAPHY Angela Keoghan

Fusing their New Zealand and Japanese Heritage with their commitment to sustainable living, New Zealand designer Nathan Edmondston and his wife Yuki Fukuda are finally living in a home that reflects who they are.

“Japanese traditional architecture has had an influence in New Zealand house design for over half a century,” explains Nathan. “Our challenge was to create a building that subtly referenced these traditional ideas whilst maintaining an understanding of its New Zealand context.” The couple spent three weeks researching architecture and garden design in Japan. Nathan and his colleagues at MOAA Architects then set to work integrating Japanese influences into the house’s design. The result is a neat three-bedroom home that replicates traditional Japanese timber and tatami mat homes. “It’s amazing to be able to live in a house with a Japanese touch while living in New Zealand,” says Yuki.
The house is comprised of two parallel rectangular wings. An open plan kitchen, living and tatami-mat dining area, an entry and toilet make up the first wing while in the second there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. A large northeast facing deck extends the main living and dining wing out into the garden. A small study – a bathroom and laundry tucked in behind – connects the two wings.

With the tatami mats down, the raised dining (or sleeping) area is distinctly Japanese, albeit with the hidden practical twist of 10 square metres of storage space beneath. The Japanese use space wisely, Nathan says, adding that although their house is a modest 133 square metres it would be considered luxurious in Japan. Hidden storage is built into other parts of the house, too. Under the deck there is 20 square metres of storage space for wood, Nathan and Yuki’s main source of fuel.

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A lightweight treetop extension gives a young Sydney family a little extra space and a more comfortable lifestyle

Words Fiona Whitelaw
Photography Adrian Boddy Photography

Brett and Joanne Green couldn’t have been happier when they bought their house in Sydney’s northern suburb of Hornsby. “It was set amongst other houses but because it was surrounded by trees it really didn’t feel hemmed in,” says Brett. However, when their first child Lara came along, the couple realised their little oasis could do with some help. “It was a totally standard 1970s house with all the rooms facing into a central living area. It was noisy, and after Lara was born we got pretty tired with tip-toeing around after 7:30 at night,” says Brett.
Noise wasn’t the only problem. The small living room and poky kitchen of the three-bedroom, 100 square metre house felt increasingly inadequate for their changing needs. The uninsulated living and kitchen area, where the family spent most of their time, was uncomfortable year-round. In summer, an external wall exposed to the fierce westerly sun saw the living area heat up quickly and in winter uninsulated walls required them to push their ducted gas heating into overdrive.
In addition to making their home more comfortable, Brett and Joanne were keen to expand it with as small an environmental footprint as possible. They wanted a second living space that maximised the available sun but also blended into the surrounding bush. “I’d been reading about passive solar and energy consumption so I had a fairly clear idea that was the path we wanted to go down. The problem was we knew that getting there was going to be tricky,” says Brett. The house’s location on a steep slope rising to the east gave the couple their sense of bushy seclusion but the ridge of the hill overshadowed the east-facing house. An extension, they realised, would require attentive design to maximise solar access.

In response to their brief, Sydney architect Ben Giles suggested a pavilion or ‘living pod’ extension to the back of their house. A combined kitchen, dining and outdoor area, the resulting pavilion is a light and airy second living space that connects to the existing house through an enclosed breezeway. A large deck skirts the breezeway and joins the old and new parts of the house, providing a spacious and semishaded outdoor living area.

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Veggies out front, scooter out back, an eco makeover pays homage to this Melbourne bayside home’s past and a more environmentally sustainable present.

Words Sasha Shtargot
Photography Rhiannon Slatter

For Geoff Fagan, restoring and renovating his Edwardian weatherboard home was like “dressing up a 100-yearold grandmother for a birthday party”. The makeover of the four bedroom house in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Hampton was designed to give it a modern commitment to energy saving and sustainability, while retaining its heritage charm and quirks.

Traces of uneven skirting board, cracking plaster and a sloping floor despite restumping are just some of the imperfections that hint of the faded glory of this workers’ cottage built in 1912. “We like her old lumps and bumps,” Geoff says with a smile.

Geoff, an electrical engineer, and his wife Lindy, an aspiring sculptor, decided to sell their large family home in nearby Sandringham after their four children moved out. They bought the smaller Hampton house two years ago with the aim of tackling a renovation. Initially it was suggested they demolish the house and build a new dwelling, but for the self-described sustainability “fanatics” that would have meant tonnes of materials sent to landfill. It would not do.

Architect Roberta Rees identified the need to widen the passageways to bring more light and air into the house. Bizarrely in the old design, a person opening the front door was immediately faced with a toilet on their right. The toilet was removed, increasing the sense of space in the entrance and a new bathroom was built next to the main bedroom.

To make full use of the sunny northwestern side of the house the old kitchen was replaced with a deck, onto which the dining area now opens through double-glazed bifold doors. A former sitting room on the south side of the dining area was taken out and a new kitchen installed. Moving the kitchen from one side of the house to the other was a major plumbing headache – “the plumbers weren’t impressed,” Geoff quips – but it was important to improve the home’s passive performance.

Bifold doors in four places in the new open plan dining, kitchen and lounge create passive cooling through cross-breezes. The couple have barely used their evaporative cooling air-conditioner. “We nearly always get sea breezes at the end of the day, even on days of hot northerlies,” Geoff says. To create a cooling microclimate, star jasmine has  been planted and trained up trellises along the fences at each side of the house.

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A committed team find themselves rebuilding a weekender destroyed in the 2009 Victorian bushfires. The outcome is an energy efficient home away from home with a small footprint, increased fire resistance, and strong connections to the bush around it.

Words Beth Askham

Photography Brendan Finn

Sometimes you get a second chance – and even when you haven’t chosen it – all you can do is step up and make the most of the opportunity. Jonathan and Jane’s new weekender in Marysville, Victoria, is part of a bold reimagining of the area and a commitment to be part of the new town. The result is an unobtrusive building that appears effortless and uses simple measures to connect the building and its inhabitants to its environment.

Snuggled next to the state forest and shaded in the winter by tall mountain ash, the block is situated on the north-east ridge of Marysville where it looks down above the town. Jonathan and Jane spend their weekends here with friends and family, enjoying the bush.

The destructive force of the fire was shocking and sobering. “[The original double-brick house] was destroyed along with the extensive mature garden,” says one of the project’s architects, Damien Thackray. “Timber balconies were reduced to a feint ash outline on the ground. Glazing had melted and congealed into eerily beautiful pools and teardrops. Double brick cavity walls had failed, the inner and outer leafs peeling away from one another. Tin roofing sheet had been blasted into the sky, twisted and warped and planted in the ground as mimetic sculpture.”

It was not long after the fires that Jonathan and Jane made the decision to rebuild their weekend home. They felt it was important to stick by the community that was struggling to rebuild itself. New bushfire building regulations, however, meant this project was going to be more difficult than they expected. The challenge soon became how to meet the new regulations without the rebuild looking like a bunker, a building hunched up in defence against the natural environment.

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A light-filled extension connects a Melbourne family to their history, environment and the character of the home they’ve loved since they first walked through the door.

Words Sasha Shtargot

Images Erica Lauthier

Renovations are often about leaving the old behind for a bright, new look. In the process, much of what gives a home its character can be lost. Not so when Melissa Abrahams and Rafael Epstein decided to extend their house in the Melbourne suburb of Balaclava.

Reusing materials was central to the couple’s plans for their semi-detached Queen Anne-style house – not just for environmental reasons, but as a way to enjoy and connect with history.

They fell in love with the place, Melissa says, as soon as they walked through the front door in 2002. An attraction of its feel and architecture was the ornate pressed metal ceilings. However, the couple realised the house needed a makeover to bring more light and space inside and to connect the internal spaces with their cosy backyard.

Typical for the period in which it was built, a corridor acts as the spine of the building, with three bedrooms leading off on one side. The corridor ends in a living room. In the original design, the living room connected to a bathroom and lean-to kitchen with a small dining area. This effectively blocked the relationship between the house and the backyard, which could only be accessed through a door on one side of the kitchen.

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This Perth extension is a light, open and thoughtful response to the need for space in our ever sprawling cities.

Words Robin Barton

Photography Jody D’Arcy, Ben Price & Justine Monk

What happens when two architects plan an extension to their own home? The answer, it seems, is a decade of discussion and many late nights resulting in an award-winning addition to their property. Husband-and-wife team Philip Gresley, co-founder of Perth-based architecture firm Gresley Abas, and building designer Justine Monk moved into the Bedford neighbourhood in 1999. “We always had a keen desire to extend in a responsible way,” says Justine, “but for the first few years we concentrated on building our careers and having children; the house was on the backburner.”

Originally built for workers laying the local railway line in the 1950s, Philip and Justine’s two-bedroom cottage, a 10-minute train journey north of Perth’s city centre, was swiftly outgrown by two fast-growing children, now aged 12 and eight. “Our living room had lost out to the need for bedrooms and had migrated to the middle of the house where it had no window to the outdoors, and the kitchen was our only dining space; our family and social lives were being limited by our home,” says Justine. Rather than retreat into Perth’s suburbs, the couple decided to extend. “Instead of demolishing and rebuilding, we were keen to exploit what was valuable about the original house and reuse the materials it offered. Seasoned jarrah from the old sleep-out became a deck, re-milled floorboards became a fence.”

With a limited budget, Philip and Justine focused on getting the basic elements right. Solar PV and greywater recycling are planned, explains Justine. “We spent our initial outlay on achieving the best passive design we could. On our budget it couldn’t be a flight of fancy. And, yes, it took time to get a consensus on some issues but invariably the simple response was the best.”

The original cottage performed badly in Perth’s climate: it was hot in summer and cold in winter. Taking the form of a box, the couple’s single-storey addition is suspended from the back of the cottage, stepping out and down the garden’s slope. The addition incorporates an open-plan living, dining and kitchen space, and a second bathroom and laundry. The extension’s low-maintenance, burnished concrete slab floor– tinted with black oxide that required no other treatment or covering – radiates warmth in winter as sunlight falls through large north-east-facing windows. During summer these windows are shielded by motorised blinds. The addition uses its orientation to suck Perth’s cooling afternoon sea breezes through small windows at the front of the house and out louvre windows and a large sliding door at the rear. The couple’s frugality extended to investing in indoor and outdoor thermometers: rather than switching on the air-conditioning, when it is cooler outside they simply open the windows.

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An interactive beachside Sydney home blends cutting edge technology with innovative design solutions and committed owners to place it firmly in the green zone.

Words Mary Temelovski

Photography Nick Bowers

Smart homes could one day be as popular as smart phones. All those predicted futuristic fad gadgets that sparked our imaginations about 21st Century living are here, controlled with the simple touch of a wireless control. Cameron and Anna Kennard’s Sydney home in Waverley is proof. It ticks all the right boxes when it comes to what is now possible when building a contemporary, energy efficient home that’s as high tech as its long list of impressive eco features.

“Building a home from scratch has been a dream of mine for a long time,” says Cameron. His ‘before’ photos document the renovation of a run-down weatherboard house and an overgrown garden on the 340 square metre block he and Anna bought in 2008. They lived in the house for two years while planning the build of their new four bedroom, three bathroom residence, designed by Simon Anderson of Anderson Architecture and completed in April this year.

A centralised home automation system controls their lighting, stereo, gates, garage door and security system that was extended by their electrician to include a rooftop weather station. Cameron and Anna are able to switch appliances throughout the house on or off remotely using a mobile phone app. The automation system also controls many of the windows. “If the house is warming up too much and the wind is blowing from a certain direction and it’s not raining, certain windows will open slightly to exhaust hot air,” explains architect Simon. “I think the technology is very exciting but it still has a long way to go. One day it will probably be the standard in monitoring indoor and outdoor air quality, helping to make our environments healthier.”

“I was very passionate about the green aspects, such as passive solar design,” says Cameron. “We really wanted the house to have a very natural connection between the inside and out so our brief to Simon was for a house with double height living and natural ventilation, natural heat from the movement of the sun, thermal mass and double glazing.” A garage, an open plan dining, living and kitchen space, a walk-in pantry and a separate family room were also requested.

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