Bunurong people of the South-Eastern Kulin Nation
Victoria
Ora House is a family home shaped by an immersive relationship with its garden, rethinking how private domestic architecture can engage with the suburban street. The house is designed to be gradually reclaimed by planting over time, privileging openness, depth and connection to the Australian bush. In contrast to the defensive edges typical of its neighbourhood, a low brick boundary and generous street-facing garden create a welcoming civic threshold, allowing the life of the home to engage quietly with the public realm.
Internally, the plan supports multi-generational living, organised around a double-height kitchen and an internal fern garden that dissolves the boundary between inside and out. Daily movement through the house becomes a continuous encounter with greenery and light. Designed to PassiveHouse principles and prefabricated timber systems, Ora House is a union of architecture and landscape — designed to settle as the garden grows around it.
Archier's design created the space for the landscape to be a dominant focus, resulting in a home that has a strong connection to nature. There is the unique option of moving through the home externally or internally, experiencing either the indoor or outdoor gardens. Visitors to the house do a short “bush walk” over the raised steel walkway to the uniquely placed front door. This has resulted in a home that is an enriching experience to live in and to share with family and friends, a calming oasis from busy city life.