A Striking Black Residence Energizes a Neglected Lot and Its Neighborhood in Melbourne

Melbourne Design Studios creates a net-positive passive house and rear garden that freshen up the area’s industrial feel.

Text by

Mandi Keighran

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Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners.

Project Details:

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Architect: Melbourne Design Studios / @melbourne.design.studios

Builder: Owner-builder in cooperation with Home by Hütt

Contractor / CLT Install: G-Lux Builders

Structural Engineer: Global Consulting Engineers

Landscape Designer: Eckersley Garden Architecture

Lighting: Mint Lighting

Cabinetry Designer: Jensen & Row

Cross Laminated Timber: Hütt Sustainable Building Supplies

Photographer: Marnie Hawson / @marniehawson

From the Architect: "The Hütt 01 Passive House regenerates a forgotten piece of land in the middle of Melbourne’s ‘urban jungle,’ creating a ‘wedge of calm.’ It is a building that not only provides a healthy home for the people living in it, but a building that is also good for the planet. It creates more energy than it uses and doesn’t require heating or cooling for most of the year. The architects call it TMRW by Hütt: A Beacon of Hope for the Future.

"The 250-square-meter, wedge-shaped site has an industrial feel, accessed off an unnamed bluestone back lane. The four-bedroom home, with two living spaces, three bathrooms and a roof garden, occupies a footprint of only 78 square meters. The two-and-a-half level plan connects with its garden to create a relaxing inner-urban oasis. The design also responds to the adjacent train line, referencing dynamics of the passing carriages in design and materiality, with the metal facade and roof appearing to be a single story volume floating above the fence line from certain angles.

"The raw materials—recycled bricks, charred timber, and black metal cladding—sit well within the context. The bricks were all salvaged from demolition sites throughout Melbourne, many of them disassembled, mapped, and hand-cleaned by the owners and their children.

"Utilizing cross-laminated timber (CLT) prefab methodology and material for the construction not only meant substantial reductions in its carbon footprint and construction time but also a reliance on fewer finishing materials and trades like plastering. This prefab method also made an owner-builder contract much more achievable, thus providing further project savings."