Sweetwater House by Christopher Botterill and Jackson Clements Burrows Architects | 2024 Vic Awards

Sweetwater House by Christopher Botterill and Jackson Clements Burrows Architects | 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards
Sustainable Architecture
Bunurong
Located in Frankston South on Bunurong Country and backing onto the regionally significant Narringalling (Sweetwater Creek), Sweetwater House provides flexibility and respite for a maturing family. Designed and built during Melbourne’s extended Covid lockdowns, the home reflects an inventive response to low-cost, multi-generational and sustainable living while also telling a story of personal and ecological renewal.
Our ambition was to create a materially honest and highly sustainable home for our family of four. We developed a plan arrangement that could adapt to the changing needs of two teenage children and allow for multi-generational living and visits from family interstate. Parent and children’s bedrooms are located at separate ends of the house, each with generous garden views, while a series of four, two and one metre spatial arrangements create ‘zones’ that encourage different modes of occupation.
The gravitational heart is an open plan living room and kitchen overlooking the creek to the north, over a generous deck, and a small orchard of fruit trees. The space doubles as an area to entertain guests, with large doors opening to an expansive outdoor lawn and entertainment area that in turn brings the bush surrounds into the home.
The house’s paired-back material scheme and clean lines respond to its local architectural context, with prominent examples of mid-century design in the area including the seminal ‘McClunes House’ by Robin Boyd. Honoring the landscape was central to the design. The home’s large windows and clear sight lines to the creek create a feeling of living among the bush, elevating the family’s everyday lives and encouraging enjoyment of the outdoors from within.
Drawing on knowledge and experience gleaned from previous mass-timber projects, the home was constructed using a prefabricated construction methodology that offered both a highly time/cost-effective solution, and vertical supply chain security.
The home is constructed from 66.8m3 of CLT sourced from PEFC-certified, sustainable softwood plantations in Southern New South Wales. During its growth, the CLT sequesters 49.42 tonnes of C02 and, even accounting for the energy used in manufacturing, has a total negative embodied carbon emission of 32.86 tonnes. The fully electric home employs a next generation AC PV system that to date provides more than the total daily energy demands.
The project involved close collaboration with a specialist mass timber engineer and the erection/construction team - a hands on process which involved ongoing engagement throughout design and delivery.
Combined with its surrounding tree ferns and encircling eucalypts, the home’s warm timber palette creates a strong sense of welcome and calm. The creek, which is currently undergoing rehabilitation, forms part of a unique ribbon of bushland and walking tracks that are central to the local community. The creek environment is visible from the road, and it was important for the design of the house to remain visually permeable, retaining this vista for passersby.
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The Australian Institute of Architects Presentation to Juries offered entrants in the 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards an opportunity to address judges with their nominated projects.
Featuring some of Australia’s most prominent architects, Presentation to Juries is a rare opportunity for the public to learn about the influences behind some of Victoria’s most innovative buildings and follow the architectural process from concept to construction.