Holocene House

Holocene House is like being in nature. Canopied in plants, water flows through like a rainforest creek, and every room opens to the outdoors. Balancing residents’ health and comfort with environmental performance, the carbon-positive home is the first in Australia to be certified by the global Active House Alliance.

The site
Holocene House replaced an existing home with million-dollar views to Sydney’s Shelly Beach from the front and a national park at the rear giving a delightful outlook to coastal heath. This proximity to bushland brought unique challenges: the design needed to achieve a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating of 29 and provide a bandicoot corridor so endangered fauna can forage undisturbed at night.

Carbon-positive
Holocene House showcases what happens when we invest in sustaining life and leading change rather than building bigger and more. The home will soon generate more energy than was used to create and operate it. Regenerative thinking guided every aspect of design and construction, from the innovative use of low-embodied-energy spotted gum Shou Sugi Ban for exterior cladding to the natural swimming pool and extremely low-toxicity finishes throughout.

The design
The owners wanted their home to feel like a rainforest creek. So CplusC designed Holocene House around a living water source shaded by plants. Cleansed by a biofiltration system of polishing ponds, reeds, charcoal and pebbles, water flows from the rear to form a natural swimming pool that animates the dramatic living spaces and expansive outdoor deck. Tumbling to the entrance in a waterfall, the water is recycled back into the system.

A rainforest creek
To enter the home, you step from stone to stone, ascending beside the cascading waterfall to the living space. All around you is what feels like a quiet watercourse shaded by a veil of plants and open to the natural world. The air is filled with the play of water, a light and soundscape awash in colour from the expansive coloured glass windows in the double-height front living space. Paddle your feet, swim, float – or lounge in the cargo net suspended over the waterfall.

To create this playful and rejuvenating space for family life, the home turns inward, away from the iconic ocean panorama. People can still enjoy the views by climbing a spiral stairway to an intimate roof garden. They’re also perfectly framed through the unconventional patchwork of the stained-glass windows, inviting a different perspective on how a harbour city like Sydney fetishises every water glimpse. Light streams in, creating beautiful and unexpected effects that uplift and delight – a reminder that here, what’s sacred is the relationship with nature, and sustaining ourselves within it.

Regenerative
The home is climate resilient and produces more than it consumes. Its photovoltaic system generates twenty percent more energy than the family needs and a 15-kilolitre underground rainwater tank provides water self-sufficiency. Grey water sustains the carefully selected local plants year-round. The natural swimming pool is a reservoir, recycling and cleaning water to nurture coastal ecology – and our friends the bandicoots.