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Project Details:

Location: Manly, Australia

Architect: CplusC Architects + Builders / @__cplusc__

Footprint: 2,476 square feet

Builder: CplusC Architects + Builders

Interior Design: Jase Sullivan

Structural Engineer: ROR Consulting Engineers

Landscape Design: Duncan Gibbs

Landscaping and Natural Pool: Land Forms

Photographer: Felix Mooneeram / @felixmooneeram

Photographer: Michael Lassman / @michaellassmanphotography

Photographer: Renata Dominik / @photographybyrenata

From the Architect: “Holocene House is like being in nature. The home is canopied in plants, water flows through it like a creek in a rainforest, and every room opens to the outdoors. Balancing residents’ health and comfort with environmental performance, the carbon-positive residence is the first in Australia to be certified by the global Active House Alliance.

“Holocene House replaced an existing home with million-dollar views to Sydney’s Shelly Beach from the front and a national park at the rear giving a delightful outlook to coastal heath. This proximity to bushland brought unique challenges: the design needed to achieve a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating of 29 and provide a bandicoot corridor so endangered fauna can forage undisturbed at night.

“The owners wanted their home to feel like a rainforest creek. So CplusC designed Holocene House around a water source shaded by plants. Cleansed by a biofiltration system of polishing ponds, reeds, charcoal, and pebbles, water flows from the rear to form a natural swimming pool that animates the living spaces and outdoor deck. Tumbling to the entrance in a waterfall, the water is recycled back into the system.

“To enter the home, you step from stone to stone, ascending beside the cascading waterfall to the living space. All around you is what feels like a quiet watercourse shaded by a veil of plants and open to the natural world. The air is filled with a play of water, light, and soundscape awash in color from colored glass windows in the double-height front living space.

“To create this playful and rejuvenating space for family life, the home turns inward, away from an ocean view. People can still enjoy the views by climbing a spiral stairway to an intimate roof garden. They’re also perfectly framed through the unconventional patchwork of the stained-glass windows, inviting a different perspective on how a harbor city like Sydney fetishizes every water glimpse. Light streams in, creating beautiful and unexpected effects that uplift and delight—a reminder that here, what’s sacred is the relationship with nature, and sustaining ourselves within it.

“Regenerative thinking guided every aspect of design and construction, from the use of low-embodied-energy spotted gum yakisugi for exterior cladding to the natural swimming pool and extremely low-toxicity finishes throughout. The home will soon generate more energy than was used to create it. Its photovoltaic system generates twenty percent more energy than the family needs and a 15-kiloliter underground rainwater tank provides water self-sufficiency. Gray water sustains the carefully selected local plants year-round. The natural swimming pool is a reservoir, recycling and cleaning water to nurture coastal ecology—and our friends the bandicoots.”

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The Natural Swimming Pool at This Australian Home Also Nurtures the Landscaping