AUSTRALIAN DREAM 2025
Concept Home and Commentary prepared for The Age 2010
What will be the typical Australian dream home in 2025? This was a question recently posed to BENT and two other Architects by The Sunday Age.
The Australian dream has historically involved the ownership of a detached house on a sizeable allotment with a private yard and a connection to a wider neighbourhood.
Many Australians can no longer afford this way of living and, in many new estates in the outer suburbs, reduced lot sizes and poor design generally amount to an inefficient use of space and an awkward relationship between the house, its landscape, and its neighbours. Moreover, Australians are becoming increasingly aware of their environmental footprint and our role in a wider global neighbourhood.
We believe that there needs to be a shift in the physical manifestation of the family home, its scale, construction, orientation and relationship to its surrounds, in order to retain the Australian dream in an affordable and environmentally sustainable way.
The Australian dream home of 2025 will have the following key characteristics:
- It will be environmentally responsive and sustainable.
Fundamental passive solar principles, environmentally responsive building materials and technologies, better use of rain, grey and black water, prefabrication and green roofs will be a staple of homes in the future.
- It will utilise indoor and outdoor space more efficiently.
The 2025 house will accommodate the spatial needs of its occupants in a more compact and efficient way. Rooms that currently have singular, transient functions will be consolidated into a multi-purpose space that accommodates various diverse uses and changes over time. Circulation space will no longer be wasted. Children may have their own bedrooms, but not their own bathrooms. Wireless networks will render the Study obsolete. Yards will be smaller, but better orientation will ensure that they are light filled and usable.
- It will have a more productive and reciprocal relationship with its surrounds, both within and beyond its ‘site’.
The 2025 Australian dream home is no longer a detached dwelling – its design and amenity is heavily linked to the siting and scale of its neighbours. Shared exterior walls act to better insulate the dwelling and make more efficient use of external space. Buildings are sited and shaped to define sun-filled outdoor spaces, enhancing amenity despite an increase in density.
To view the article published in August 2010, please refer to the Publications section of this website.
BENT Team:
Paul Porjazoski, Merran Porjazoski, Fiona Lew
Media:
2010 The Age 'Domain' _ "Towards 2025: how we will live"
