A modern house with a pitched roof and large windows, surrounded by lush greenery and a landscaped garden, architecture by Gresford Architects.

Interior living space with wooden walls and ceiling, a sofa, bookshelves, framed art, a glass sliding door, potted plant, and a small black cat, architecture by Gresford Architects.

A modern glass extension with wooden exterior, overlooking a lush garden with plants, a flamingo sculpture, a swing, and a grey sofa, architecture by Gresford Architects.

Interior view of a modern home with coloured wooden panel walls, framed artwork, and a glimpse into the dining area, architecture by Gresford Architects.

A cozy bedroom interior with a large window overlooking greenery, a wooden cabinet, and abstract artwork, with warm natural light. Architecture by Gresford Architects.

A window with grey trim on a wooden exterior wall with vertical planks, surrounded by flowering plants and a chain detail, architecture by Gresford Architects.

A modern living room with large glass windows showcasing a garden view, beige sofas, a glass coffee table, and greenery outside, architecture by Gresford Architects

Kitchen interior with a large window, potted plants on the counter, dark cabinetry, and artwork on the wall, architecture by Gresford Architects

A modern timber house with a pitched roof and large windows, set in a lush garden, architecture by Gresford Architects.

A wooden house with a sloped metal roof surrounded by green trees and grass, architecture by Gresford Architects.

The Old Orchard is a certified EnerPHIT retrofit of an existing 1960’s bungalow, which was in itself extended and remodelled in the 1980’s. EnerPHIT is the Passivhaus retrofit standard, but there is also a fundamental focus on the reuse of as much of the existing fabric as possible, so as to ensure that elements of the existing building with a high level of embodied carbon — such as screed, blockwork walls, concrete lintels etc — were all left undisturbed and thus drive down the carbon footprint as low as possible.

The house was extended at first floor level, using the existing walls and foundations, and then externally insulated (the house now performs so well there is no separate heating system) and clad in Western Red Cedar, which was harvested from trees that grew on the site and were felled and machined at the beginning of the project. Internally, we took more liberties with the existing stud walls, and rearranged the interior around a series of coloured wooden boxes, inspired by a Kimono pattern from the clients time living in Japan. The living spaces of the ground floor flow freely around the coloured boxes, which are separated by pocket sliding doors and as you move through the house the colours of the boxes rustle and shimmer in the light, like the languid rustle of the Kimono’s that inspired them. Conversely, the roof is of powder coated corrugated steel, and the veranda, timber and roof draw strongly on the clients Australian heritage.