Welcome to the Jungle House

The house presents a future typology for inner-city living, advocating for innovation in design, architecture and sustainable living practices. The home was inspired by a vision of fulfilling a family’s lifestyle, ethical and emotional needs whilst being able to educate the public on how sustainable design and building practices can be adopted harmoniously. The home is flexible for a growing family of five devoted to sustainability in all aspects; environmental, social and economic, without having to sacrifice the creature comforts that good architecture typically enjoys.

The architecture has made a very deliberate attempt to connect the children directly with their energy production and food sources to counter the detachment that current city dwelling generations have developed as a result of unsustainable industrialised farming systems. The children’s bedrooms provide opportunities for the children to rest, read, draw and play alongside the bubbling aquaponics fishpond, watching the fish that provide nutrients to the fruit and vegetables on the roof. Over time, the children harvest the fruit, vegetables and fish, learning the importance of food production, energy harvesting and life cycles vital in educating future generations.

Almost 100 years ago Le Corbusier famously said that ‘A house is a machine for living in’. If we are to survive the next 100 years a house must be ‘a machine for regeneration’ and it must promote those values in its architectural expression. Architecture that is not only beautiful: architecture which generates and stores power; architecture which harvests and recycles water; architecture which produces fruit, vegetables, fish, honey, eggs; architecture which recycles and reuses waste. Architecture that nourishes the mind, body and soul. Architecture where landscape, food, nature, garden, environment, energy, waste, water and beauty exist symbiotically.

Compressing the lower two levels of the home allowed an open plan upper floor which pops its green hat above the existing masonry parapet for the public to see. Dappled sunlight pours through the nearby tree canopies throughout the day, with warm ever-changing shadow play on the recycled timber flooring and benchtops. The rustling of gum trees and cool winds glide above the prevailing roofline of the surrounding blocks, pulled in by the fully operable glass inner skin and expressing the nuance of Australian nature within an undeniably urban setting. An island bench both divides and unites the living space providing abundant meal preparation space and seating for enjoying meals with friends and family, leaving the formal dining table in the history pages where it belongs. The operable glass inner skin of the home is inset from the outer punctuated masonry façade, providing passive thermal regulation across the upper floors with planter beds floating in between the glass and masonry skins with outlook to greenery and cooling to internal spaces via transpiration.