ArchiTeam: Gantry House

This tour is part of the ArchiTeam Awards House Tours, showcasing the work of award-winning small practice architects working in a variety of living and working environments.

Gantry House is an extension of a sweet but cramped weatherboard cottage, designed to accommodate a multi-generational family of seven (and two dogs) and their 21st-century lives.

Robust and easygoing, there’s room for both parents to work from home, and room to live, with space to be together, to be apart and to share with family and friends. 

This is a house/warehouse/workshop for a family that loves ‘doing’ (cooking, gardening, building) and collecting (pot plants, art, food, op-shop treasures, toys and dogs). Spaces and nooks throughout the house provide opportunities to use and see the family’s favourite things and cater for lives that flow constantly from the house to the garden and back again.

Sustainability was integral to design considerations and ranged from overall scale and form to layout and materials. Pleasant living temperatures, natural light and ventilation all year round were a must, as was a generous capacity for solar PV panels and hot water, both stage 2 works-in-progress.

This house is a gift by a builder to his family so the construction of the house itself is a source of enjoyment and demonstrates the skills of the people who built it, including the family themselves.

What's On

Join the architect and builder—who is also one of the homeowners—for a talk and tour to hear about the ideas and challenges of making this house.