Designed by K2Ld Architects, Yarrbat Avenue in Balwyn is like many streets in Melbourne?s inner eastern suburbs. It is a quiet residential street that reflects no particular historical period but has fine examples of the various housing styles built throughout the last 100 years. Also, like many streets in Melbourne?s inner eastern suburbs, it is lined with European deciduous trees that map the changes of seasons. The brief from the client sought to exploit the opportunities found on this site from its location. The site is on the side of a hill which has excellent views to the Dandenong Ranges, and it was important to allow the building to capture these distant views, as well as to strategically engage with the established trees lining the streets. Photography: Jeremy Wright
The brief for this home also had the requirement that it be a multi-generational home with the ability for it to provide independent and shared accommodation for the family and their grandparents together. As such it was important that each person have a sense of space, both shared and private. Equality of access is provided throughout the home, and there is a spatial allowance for a lift should that be needed in the future.

The house with its confident formal expression is intensely private. Its windows to the street are narrow or screened ? just sufficient to engage with the immediate surrounding greenery. The facade openings to the street form part of an animated timber façade where the upper floo...