Homes
The homes featured here are proof that sustainable living doesn’t mean compromise. From hempcrete houses in European forests to rammed earth retreats on the Australian coast, we document residential projects that are as beautiful as they are responsible – exploring the materials, the makers and the ideas behind a new generation of homes built for the future.
A CLT cabin perched in a pine forest
Designed by Migration Studios, The Overlook is a mountain cabin in Idaho’s ponderosa forest, built from prefabricated cross-laminated timber.
Hempcrete and salvaged materials define this beach house
A 260-square-metre hempcrete beach house that runs on rainwater, solar and a palette of salvaged materials.
Symbolplus fits out its Tokyo office in earth and paper
Symbolplus’ Tokyo office is fitted out almost entirely in red-earth plaster and handmade paper.
Salty air and sand: Barwon Dunes House by Eliza Blair Architecture
Designed by Eliza Blair Architecture, Barwon Dunes House is a two-storey coastal house where blackbutt, rammed earth and stone have been chosen to weather against salt air and wind.
Deans Marsh House is built for now, and years to come
Designed by Tecture, Deans Marsh House is a rammed earth and timber home in rural Victoria, arranged as two pavilions either side of an earthen spine.
CLT House is a retreat designed to weather in the open
Designed by nArchitects, CLT House is a lake house built almost entirely from exposed cross-laminated timber, scaled down from an unbuilt 2008 scheme.
A Toronto renovation that keeps a century of reuse visible
Candy Loft is a renovation in Toronto by SUSA that keeps a heritage factory’s timber columns and stonework as the feature inside a single, sculptural home.
Haus Hoinka: a straw bale monolith above an open garden
Most straw bale houses use the material just for the walls. Haus Hoinka by Atelier Kaiser Shen uses it for everything – floors, ceilings, roof – all wrapped in clay plaster and pressed into a spruce frame.
Built from the ground it stands on: Lot 8 in Arles, France
The renovation of a former nineteenth-century electrical depot draws its materials, almost entirely, from the few kilometres of southern France around it.
A pavilion grown from mycelium
Sebastian Cox and Studio Weave’s Intelligent Garden pavilion is grown from mycelium and ash felled to dieback – a low-carbon, compostable structure made almost entirely from waste.
A case study for building with healthy materials
Brown House demonstrates what’s possible when small urban parcels are treated with an air of experimentation
Explore materials
Durra Panel – Compressed straw wall & ceiling system
Durra Panel is an Australian-made interior wall and ceiling panel system engineered from compressed agricultural straw. It turns a widely available seasonal by-product into a high-performance lining material that combines acoustic comfort, thermal regulation and fire resistance with a naturally derived construction core.
Cerclos
Cerclos provides cutting-edge life cycle assessment tools and expertise that empower architects, engineers and sustainability professionals to quantify and reduce environmental impacts across the full lifecycle of buildings and infrastructure, supporting data-driven decarbonisation and sustainable design.
Textiles through Circular Sourcing
Circular Sourcing is an Australian marketplace connecting designers with high-quality deadstock and surplus textiles, helping reduce waste and support a more circular fashion and textile industry.
