Jury comment
This cleverly layered home succeeds in providing abundant opportunities for outdoor living in a suburban setting, skilfully meeting disparate needs for refuge, retreat and conviviality. The planning of the external spaces finds joy and value in the elements of an existing garden, while improving and expanding it out to the very edges of the site. In the centre, an existing elm tree was retained, with the floorplate of the new addition dancing around it to create a central focus. A deciduous tree with leaves that turn distinctly orangey-red in autumn, the elm provides shade for outdoor dinners and play.
Autumn House maximizes the potential for landscape connection, both for its owners and for the wider neighbourhood. The interior courtyard is a secluded garden for daily life, the front yard is a social space with herb and vegetable planters addressing the street, the rear yard provides a place for afternoon sun, and the rooftop is a quiet and protected terrace.
An ethereal mesh screen wraps the top of the addition, providing a frame onto which a climbing garden of scented and seasonally flowering plants will grow, giving life and vibrancy to the laneway. Importantly, this above-ground planting explores alternative opportunities for biodiversity in increasingly hardscaped inner-suburban areas.
In this home, the gardens are considered as a series of outdoor rooms – each with their own features, character and purpose. Autumn House sees the garden as we should in a home: exterior spaces that are treated with equal importance to their interior counterparts.
The Award for Garden or Landscape is supported by the Australian Institute of Horticulture. See full image galleries of all the winning and shortlisted projects here.
For more coverage, read the project review by Michael Macleod.
Autumn House is built on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people.
Project credits
Architect: Studio Bright Project team: Melissa Bright, Scott Leung, Maia Close Landscape architect: Eckersley Garden Architecture Builder: Provan Built Landscape contractor: Normark
Source
Award
Published online: 29 Jul 2022
Words:
2022 Houses Awards Jury
Images:
Rory Gardiner
Issue
Houses, August 2022
