Holocene House, designed by CplusC Architects + Builders, is a pioneering example of regenerative residential architecture located in Manly, Sydney.
Completed in 2023, it became the first home in Australia to receive certification from the international Active House Alliance, reflecting its exceptional balance between occupant comfort and environmental performance.
Recipient of the prestigious Single Dwelling (New) award at the Sustainability Awards 2024, the jury described Holocene House as “an adventure to move through”.
The team sits down with Architecture & Design’s Digital Editor Clémence Carayol to discuss their victory for this exceptional project.
Architecture & Design: Why do you think you were honoured for your entry?
CplusC Architects + Builders: It is important to not only support all our peers and the work they do in this critically important part of our industry. Those pushing the boundaries of sustainable architecture and design are the true leaders of our industry, paving the way for others to follow.
While these leaders have a common goal, we all have unique businesses and individual client needs which create unique project outcomes, albeit, with a common foundation. In this regard, it is important that the sustainability certification we choose for our projects are aligned with the values and assessment criteria suitable to our projects and clients’ values.
In our case the Active House Alliance certification system was most suited to this project and clients’ requirements to deliver a project that worked with the Sydney climate with a highly sustainable, thermally comfortable and energy efficient home. We are fortunate to have clients that wanted to push the boundary of what’s possible in terms of regeneration and show that sustainability is not enough as we the face the challenges of climate change.
The Holocene House was awarded the first Active House Alliance certification in Australia. The home blends high performance technologies with passive design, generating 26kW of energy from a 66-panel solar array and through a hydronic heat pump system providing constant internal temperature through in-floor slabs and bedroom radiators.
A leafy canopy swaying over the natural pool and biofilter ponds shades and cools the home through evapotranspiration and fills the deepest parts of the home with reflected, dappled shimmering sunlight. Chickens produce eggs, productive gardens feed the family, a 15kL underground tank stores rainwater and feeds irrigation alongside a greywater diversion system, their photovoltaics capture 20% more than their needs and a personalised grid export system sells back to the grid for a tidy, ongoing income – a home that gives more than it takes.
We believe the award is recognition that there is not a one size fits all sustainability certification system.
What did your entry add to the body of knowledge of sustainable design?
The Holocene House brings us even closer to living as part of an ecosystem, truly experiencing the environment, and committing one’s lifestyle to the act of production and regeneration of nature. We want this project to show that luxury and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, and that high performing architecture does not need to be high maintenance.
Has your entry influenced the way you will design buildings in the future?
We are looking to improve on the lessons and achievements that were celebrated in the Holocene House and across our body of work, each time incrementally implementing innovation in regenerative systems.
The more we pursue projects of this nature the more new clients we attract with contemporary attitudes towards new technologies, aquaponics and permaculture, energy and resource efficiency, water capture, consumption, and waste consciousness. In architecture you essentially are what you eat. We are very fortunate to have established sustainability as a core component of our very early projects and that decision continues to bring us the right clients for our services. It is very difficult to change direction once a course is set and your values are laid bare in your early works as an architect.
The projects currently on our drawing boards are already looking at geothermal energy production, extensive aquaponics systems, construction systems eliminating wastage and utilising locally sourced and even lower embodied carbon materials.
This award category is sponsored by Billi.
Image: Holocene House/CPlusC
