The 2024 NGV Architecture Commission offers a compelling vision for alternative homebuilding in Australia. Home Truth, designed by architecture and design studio Breathe, is an installation that prompts reflection on how small-scale architecture can foster more sustainable, higher-quality and community-oriented living environments.
From the architect:
Taking the form of a labyrinthine house-within-a-house, Home Truth invites audiences to envision an alternative way of building homes in Australia.
Highlighting how small-scale architecture can create homes that are more sustainable, higher-quality and community-orientated. Home Truth presents a commentary on our nation’s ranking as the country with the largest average house size on earth.
As visitors pass through the yawning garage door of the larger house, and move through a voluminous maze of rooms and corridors, they enter a space that questions the ethical and ecological impact of very large homes commonly being built in Australia.
Inside the silhouette of the larger home, is a quiet, reflective timber volume that represents the footprint of a smaller-scale home. The meditative wooden retreat presents a physical and intellectual point of reflection for visitors; a glimpse into an alternative housing future.
By drawing attention to and contrasting the scale of these two structures, Home Truth highlights how small footprint housing could help curtail suburban sprawl, lessen the environmental impact of housing construction and create a better quality of life for communities.
The work is intended as a provocation to audiences, inviting them to consider new and sustainable ways of building homes and the positive lifestyle changes they may enable.
The entire project is constructed of just two primary materials, chosen to reflect current housing construction methodologies and has been designed for disassembly.
Home Truth speculates that overconsumption of space and materials translates into ecological and social consequences–for both us and the planet. We wanted to highlight both the absurdity of the problem, while providing one possible solution that sees the value of living in spaces that are of smaller scale–a vision that prioritises people and planet.
Build less, build better. Imagine a future where housing is half the size, with half the carbon, half the bills and twice as good.
