George Avram

The Nawi and Yuki watercrafts, have been an important part of indigenous Australian’s culture for over forty-thousand years. The skill of crafting canoes, ability to steer and navigate, understanding the rivers and the currents were all valuable skills and essential as a part of life. Our site is adjacent to the Yarra River within Melbourne’s suburb of South Yarra. The Yarra River for indigenous people is both spiritually and physically a source of life. Indigenous history is a living history, one which continues to the present. The contemporary typologies were derived from vernacular watercrafts connecting to the landscape of rivers and waterholes of South Yarra.

There’s a private centric notion of Melbourne’s dwellings, and an opportunity to dismantle the ‘walls’ of privacy to create new flexible arrangements which blur the boundaries of private dwelling. The house is split in two, with adaptable screens which can be opened and closed forming a public-private arrangement. With two artists and a business owner between the families, flexible studio workspaces are needed. In terms of sustainability for 94% of the year this house can rely only on water captured. Indigenous plantings create a closed loop system, where water is filtered and re-used on site.

360° Masterplan Tour