Downsizing in your own backyard

Designed by Austin Maynard Architects

From the architects:

This home is built on the land of the Wurundjeri clan of the Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.

Alternative solutions

Advances in medicine and a rise in life-expectancy has resulted in people remaining in their homes for longer than ever before. 

Factor in the statistical spike in sole occupancy after the age of 65, and the contributing causes to the growing housing crisis are evident.

Studies in the US have shown that the financial benefits of creating a second dwelling on your land are only part of the incentive, as many older households have formed strong attachments to their suburbs and communities and simply do not want to leave. 

In Australia, research by the AHURI (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute) shows the same is true here.

Retirees and empty nesters are looking to alternative solutions in housing, in a bid to lead simpler lives, focus on what matters, reduce costs and free up physical and mental space. 

Part of the drive is to make a positive environmental impact by taking up less room.

The where

This home is located on Alfred Crescent in North Fitzroy, Melbourne, one of the most  significant and important heritage protected streets in the northern suburbs. 

A number of homes here, this one included, present dual street access, typically with the front entrance on the shaded southern street and a garage facing (blocking) the sunny northern park. 

Seizing the opportunity, the block has been subdivided and reconfigured, retaining the original house and adding a new building at the rear to provide two separate family homes. 

Although directly responding to the housing shortage and the urgency to increase density within the inner-city suburbs, this home is the antithesis of a quick-fix solution. 

It is a resilient, efficient, longterm and flexible home that increases connectivity and liveability while respecting the heritage and character of the area.

In a nutshell

The home is an environmentally adaptable and deeply sustainable home intended for aging-in-place. 

This compact two-storey house realises the owners' longstanding retirement plan; to downsize into their own backyard.

The home embraces harder-working design elements and plays with natural light and vertical space, providing single-level living, plus a guest bedroom, bathroom and art studio on the first floor, accessed via a sculptural bright yellow spiral stair. 

The central courtyard invites sunlight, fresh air and greenery directly into the open-plan layout, while the park opposite serves as their garden – an abundance of grass, trees and flowers they have the fortune to use and look at, but don’t have to maintain.

Potential and liveability over profit

The owners had purchased a single-fronted Victorian terrace in Fitzroy almost twenty years ago.

 Drawn to the vibrant location, the 50m-deep block and the dual street access, they saw the potential for future subdivision.

The plan would release the original family home at the front of the site and make better sense of the northern orientation at the rear, opening views of the park that were previously blocked by a garage. 

With the housing crisis continuing to deepen, their decision to downsize into their own backyard meant doubling the density of the block, although not at the expense of their neighbours, or the heritage of the area.  

The home is an exemplar of maximising potential and liveability rather than maximising fast profit. 

The high-value inner-city block could have been developed cheaply for greater investment return, instead the owners asked for a highly-considered home that would “inspire and bring joy” and ensure they could remain in the suburb they love.

Owner: “I celebrate Fitzroy and I embrace dense population, I think more population gives us better transportation, better facilities – like this home which is fantastic. 

"I think it’s great sharing a roof, garden, laundry, bike store, and having community. 

"I like the environment and Fitzroy has got that, it’s always been important to me. It is a retirement – I’m well into my 80s, but that doesn’t mean stopping – it’s just stopping being 9-5.”

Value of community

The benefits of remaining engaged within a vibrant community are immense. 

In Japan, for example, loss of social interaction and lack of community ties has resulted in a ‘Lonely Death Crisis’, with more than 68,000 (mostly elderly) citizens, dying alone and left undiscovered. 

Efforts are being made to reduce these statistics, and one answer might be to increase generational connection.

According to a report in the Scientific American, collated from research conducted by the University of Arizona, youthful energy can have a significant positive effect on the older population. 

Through general association and engagement young people can effectively pass on some of their vigour, improving a more senior individual’s cognitive abilities and vascular health, happiness and mood and even increasing their life span.

Remaining actively engaged is one key to increasing quality of life and the owners of this home are acutely aware of this.

They chose to stay put in their vibrant neighbourhood, install a spiral staircase to climb up and down, and most importantly, embrace the sights and sounds of living opposite a park and a playground, reverberating with life and youthful energy.

The owners

Parkside is the home of Bryan Mackenzie, founder of Enzie spiral staircases, and his Artist wife Marija. 

Enzie stairs have featured in numerous Austin Maynard Architects projects over the years, so when Bryan Mackenzie sought an Architect to design his own home, we were honoured he came to us.

The brief

Presented with a northern facing block directly opposite open parkland, the brief was acutely focused on making the most of the views and the light. 

The owners asked for a sustainable, functional and contemporary home with two bedrooms, plus a studio space for Marija Mackenzie's art work. 

There would be a large kitchen and dining area, open and flexible, to easily accomodate 20 plus people for their regular group dinners; a bathroom on both levels, a concealed laundry and pantry, an open-air ‘dry off space’ outside the shower, a herb garden and, of course, an Enzie spiral staircase.

Downsizing from a larger family home they also wanted lots of drawers and recessed storage to 'conceal as much as possible' with only their art and books on display.

A crucial part of the brief was fundamental functional design, as the owners surmised that the feature of good architecture is that 'it can be customised to people’s requirements'. 

With this home, the focus was space, light, flexibility and storage solutions rather than maximising square meterage.

“As a perception of success and wealth, you can build a house three times the size you need,” says Bryan Mackenzie.

“Or else build efficient, well designed and high quality. 

"Size and cost per metre are irrelevant in terms of the value of good design – it just depends what you place most value on."

Spiralling

From very early on in conservations it was apparent that the design would feature an Enzie staircase. 

The only question was whether it would be a spiral or a helical. 

Marija Mackenzie chose a yellow spiral stair, for its form, bold colour and light, translucent quality.

"Though the home has been designed to facilitate single-level living as an option, the stair keeps us fit and inspires us,”  Brian Mackenzie says.

An award-winning authority with fifty years experience in his field, he says that a spiral stair may look scary but it is proven to be safer than a traditional, conventional straight staircase.  

“Even people with disabilities have confirmed that – because you have a handrail in front of you all the way," he says.

"A spiral is easier to climb due to the ergonomics, it turns your whole body with it, rather than against it.”

See the light

All good design begins with great site analysis. 

With this home, context, land size, orientation, potential views and neighbouring buildings have been diligently considered to ensure maximum potential with minimal negative impact. 

Although the block has been subdivided, the original workers cottage and the new build both have access to light and private open space. 

With the challenges and restrictions presented by working within a relatively narrow block, the design sought to pinch light wherever possible and with every nuanced opportunity.

The home's internal courtyard has been designed to line-up flush to match the neighbour’s light well. 

This alignment between the two courtyards allows greenery and light to be freely shared between the two properties. 

The central courtyard, with a Japanese Maple tree, serves in lieu of a traditional backyard. 

This internal open space affords an aspect of sky and garden providing cross ventilation and visual connectivity through a green space. 

This allows air and light to flood directly into the kitchen and main bedroom.

The design of the home emphasises flexibility, light control and ventilation, achieved though a combination of operable panels, the central courtyard and strategically placed skylights and louvres. 

This confluence of strategies allow the owners complete control of their environment, their light, privacy and their connectivity.

A large skylight above a two-storey void in the dining area harnesses even more light.

This is fitted with rotating louvres to control and deflect direct sun – necessary during warmer months to prevent overheating. 

The materiality of the spiral stair beneath – constructed almost entirely from perforated steel – serves to filter the light through from all directions, rather than inhibit or obscure. 

The landing walkway at the top of the stair is also forged in the same perforated yellow steel, linking the art studio with the guest bedroom and bathroom at the rear.

While the guest bedroom is more private, the studio has full height windows (overlooking the park) and a series of sliding wall panels allowing the whole internal side of the room to open up to the void. 

This layer of flexibility allows for multidirectional aspects of natural light penetration as well as spatial connectivity to the living area below.

Animated street face

The front facade of the house is divided into a series of full-height modules – fixed timber panels, fixed glass panels and operable panels; each identical in size and arranged in an alternating pattern. 

Behind the operable panels there are windows that can be opened to allow ventilation throughout the house. 

The operable timber panels are adjustable, operated on an automatic remote system, as are the full height external window blinds, affording full control over sunlight and privacy.

“The first thing I do every morning is open up the shutters and blinds. I can’t do anything until I’ve done that. I love the openness to the park, it’s absolutely magic. It’s like being in the country,” Mackenzie says.

Sustainability

Sustainability is an integral core principle in all our work, a value-code that was shared and equally prioritised by our homeowners.  

Fossil-fuel-free/100% electric, the house is oriented to make the most of the northern and eastern sun, warming the polished concrete floor which acts as a thermal mass (assisted by hydronic heating coil in the floor), radiating warmth in the cooler months. 

Double glazing within steel frames is installed and north facing windows all have external shading to block direct sun reaching the glass in the summer. 

Rotating louvres protect the home's only west facing window and a horizontal louvre system protects the skylight over the void.

Ceiling fans are installed in all the bedrooms, studio and living area for air-flow without resorting to air-conditioning. 

Cross ventilation to passively cool the house has been integrated, with all ground floor windows opening onto the courtyard and windows on the first floor venting the house vertically through the void.  

All services are located in the rear and on the lower roof at the back of the house. 

A wall mounted clothes line is set up in the courtyard for air drying clothes.

The home is fitted with LED light fittings and has an energy efficient refrigerator, oven and induction cooktop. 

Low VOC paint was used everywhere, and low VOC coatings were used on the timber flooring of the first floor. 

Flooring is sustainably sourced and certified.

A solar boosted hot water system is located on the roof at the rear.

All gardens are permeable surfaces that absorb water within the site. 

A 3000L water tank is buried in the central courtyard – harvesting water from the roof to use for flushing toilets and watering gardens. 

All fittings within the bathrooms, laundry and kitchen are flow restricted to save on usage. 

A WSUD (water sensitive urban design) process was carried out resulting in a rain water system that filters and restricts the amount of storm water being discharged onto the street.

The highest value insulation available for the structural thickness of the walls and roof was specified, and a ventilated facade system reduces opportunity for condensation build-up and thermally separates warm external finishes from insulated internal walls.

Story by: Trendsideas