A Multi-Generational Family Home Keeps Sustainability Front of Mind

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details: 

Location: Frankston South, Australia

Architect: Christopher Botterill

Architect: Jackson Clements Burrows Architects / @jcbarchitects

Structural Engineer: Vistek

Photographer: Tom Blachford / @blachford

From the Architect: "Located in Frankston South on Bunurong Country and backing onto the regionally significant Narringalling (Sweetwater Creek), Sweetwater House provides flexibility and respite for a maturing family. Designed and built during Melbourne’s extended Covid lockdowns, the home reflects an inventive response to low-cost, multi-generational, and sustainable living while also telling a story of personal and ecological renewal.

"Our ambition was to create a materially honest and highly sustainable home for a family of four. We developed a plan arrangement that could adapt to the changing needs of two teenage children and allow for multi-generational living and visits from family interstate. Parent and children’s bedrooms are located at separate ends of the house, each with generous garden views, while a series of four, two, and one meter spatial arrangements create ‘zones’ that encourage different modes of occupation. 

"The gravitational heart is an open plan living room and kitchen overlooking the creek to the north over a generous deck and a small orchard of fruit trees. The space doubles as an area to entertain guests, with large doors opening to an expansive outdoor lawn and entertainment area that in turn brings the bush surrounds into the home. The home’s exposed mass timber interior has an enduring and tactile quality, illuminated throughout by low voltage LED track lights and embedded linear lights. 

"The home’s unique dual entry points allow for flexible multi-generational habitation. The primary entrance provides direct access to the master bedroom and main living space, and the second entrance provides access to the kid’s bedrooms, lounge, and bathroom areas. A door can be introduced to provide separation within the plan and provide privacy for the maturing family, if required. Drawing on knowledge and experience gleaned from previous mass-timber projects, the home was constructed using a prefabricated methodology that offered both a highly time and cost effective solution, and vertical supply chain security."