It could have been the same old story: A city couple looking to start a family give up their one-bedroom apartment to buy a fixer-upper with the cash they have and renovate down the line. But architect Chris Gilbert, founding director of the studio Archier in Melbourne, Australia, and his partner, Miranda Louey, who handles the firm’s marketing and communications, weren’t interested in buying anything outdated. The cost of updates to a run-down home, not to mention making it energy efficient, would be expensive, they knew, and others close to them felt the same way.

Chris shares an office with Peter Steele, an environmental consultant and cofounder and former director at sustainable development firm Hip V. Hype, and Liam Wallis, the firm’s founding director. The three discovered they were all in the same boat—ready for a family home but one that reflected the values of their practices, especially sustainability (though Chris makes it clear he hates that word, acknowledging that building anything is inherently wasteful). So they formed a collaborative of sorts, pooling their resources to design and develop a row of three energy-efficient townhouses.

After six months of searching—“Chris was constantly scanning blocks and assessing whether we could make something work,” says Miranda—the group purchased a 1970s single-family home in Brunswick, a Melbourne suburb a few miles north of the city’s center. The house was from “an era of Australian development that shouldn’t be celebrated,” says Chris. In other words, it was a teardown with a desirable lot, with laneways on two sides and only one neighbor.

But at about 3,900 square feet, the house’s parcel was small. It made designing a multifamily arrangement a game of architectural Tetris. Chris managed to create a row of three 1,500-square-foot, square-shaped homes, each with an open-plan living space, rear courtyard, and garage on the ground floor, with three beds and two baths upstairs. The key, he says, was limiting circulation areas like hallways. For additional space, the families share a garden along the front of the development.

He used blizzard counters from Caesarstone, and mirrors behind the shelving add to the open feel of the space." layout="bleed" credit="Photo by Sharyn Cairns" photoUserId=""/>

The limited lot size was to the group’s benefit in the sense that a smaller plan meant the homes required fewer materials to build and less energy to operate. The team started with a slab and combined traditional framing methods with the use of structurally insulated panels, uncommon in Australia, which made the homes airtight. A solar and battery power system designed by Peter makes the homes’ electricity use net neutral. Heat pumps provide hot water and can cool and warm the slab, while an energy-recovery ventilator circulates fresh air throughout the interiors. “It’s really cost-effective to live here,” says Chris. “We spend less than three [Australian] dollars a day per household.”

Even with its advanced tech, Chris wanted the development to feel at home in its neighborhood. “We were interested in creating something that didn’t look like a contemporary piece of architecture,” he says. “We pulled in some details and forms of early Brunswick brick buildings in hopes the design would be a nod to the local vernacular.”

Davison Collaborative, as the project is known, is located in a residential neighborhood but borders a heavily industrial area of Brunswick, so the design toes the line between these two architectural languages. “The sawtooth roof profile picks up on the industrial area, and around the front of the homes, facing the street, we used a more traditional residential gable,” explains Chris. An exterior material palette of recycled bricks, concrete lintels, and natural timber knits the complex into its context. Inside, silvertop ash ceilings conjure a sense of history for Chris. “I grew up with timber ceilings in our family home, and as a kid, I remember looking up and seeing all the details. We thought our home should also have those kinds of memories within it,” he says.

For all its wins as a sustainable development, the project wasn’t as affordable as they’d hoped, Chris points out. Where many larger developers cut corners on materials and labor to maximize profit, his group customized with more expensive options at every turn to meet their needs. “The economies of scale just don’t kick in when you’re doing something bespoke,” says Chris. Add to that the time spent by the three families securing a mortgage as a collaborative, a major gray area for banks, which are used to dealing with a single developer or potential homeowner.

“We’ve had to sacrifice some things—our garden is tiny. We’ve just become more diligent about the things we’re allowed to own.”
—Miranda Louey, Resident

Still, for Chris, Miranda, and their children, it’s exactly the home they envisioned for themselves and their friends. “I definitely had a yearning for that feeling of community,” says Miranda. “Because our unit faces the front yard, which the kids next door can also access, we often get little faces in our windows if the shades aren’t drawn. I love it—that’s the whole point.”

Project Credits:

Architecture and Design: Archier, Hip V. Hype, and Marcon Tedesco O'Neil

Landscape Design: Gardens of the Sun

Cabinetry Design: AJ Cabinets

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A Trio of Design Professionals Create a Development of High-Performing Townhouses in Melbourne