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For Not All Architecture, environmentally conscious design starts with scaling down a home’s carbon footprint.
And one of the best ways to achieve this, is simply by scaling down a home’s size.
Pandora House is a project that perfectly captures this ethos, on an especially personal level – being the home of practice co-founders Phoebe Clarke and Tim Stelzer.
‘Initially, this house was a run-down rental that I bought with my sister; then Tim and I decided to make it our family home with this renovation. We have then recently sold it to my mother as a downsizer,’ Phoebe says.
Located in the coastal town of Jan Juc, the property started as an old weatherboard, with pokey rooms and a legacy of poor renovations that Phoebe recognised as rather typical of a 1980s beach shack.
However, the silver lining of the 100-square-metre floorplan was that it offered a large garden, and the modest scale felt inextricably linked to the home’s nostalgic character — two things Phoebe and Tim were keen to maintain.
‘We decided to work with the existing footprint; partly because this is our design philosophy of the practice, to design small, considered spaces that are a joy to live in; but also, to focus on quality over quantity,’ she adds.
‘We used this as an opportunity to prove living in a small house is not a compromise!’
The renovation focused on improving every inch of the house, from the building envelope’s thermal performance to replacing existing materials with high-quality, sustainable alternatives.
This included installing all-electric appliances and solar panels, while expansive new blackbutt timber joinery enhanced the functionality of the ‘clutter free’ kitchen and living space.
In transforming the dark and pokey lay out, custom sliding glass doors were were introduced along the length of the living area — allowing the heart of the home to serve as an indoor-outdoor space when the doors pull back, opening to the elevated deck that hovers over the backyard.
‘We were influenced by Japanese timber detailing, this informed the large sliding doors that create a “window wall”,’ Phoebe says.
‘It didn’t feel like we had neighbours at all. The glow of the foliage in the morning through the windows feels like you are deep in the Otway forest.’
The bathroom was also consolidated with the laundry to create a more generous space, with the washing machine concealed behind bi-fold flush doors. Port Fairy bluestone features across the sunken bath, which also doubles as a shower.
And it’s all hidden away behind an assuming weatherboard facade. But once you walk across the timber entry bridge, through the foliage, and step inside, you’re transported a world away.
