With this in mind, Bowerbird Life – a project in Ormond by Longboat Property and k20 Architecture – takes cues from the bower bird and the postcode’s streetscapes to create a multi-residential development model that emphasises customisation.
“The bower bird is a uniquely Australian experience, as it creates a habitat. That’s what we’re interested in,” says Theodore Kerlidis, director at Longboat Property and k20 Architecture. “It also creates a very unique, one-off experience that ultimately informed our design intent.”
Located on a quiet street in Ormond, Bowerbird Life consists of 24 spacious one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments that – like its namesake – invite purchasers to customise the fundamental nature of their living spaces. The result is a collection of carefully designed residences “allowing immense scope to follow those instincts into a home that is as much an expression of your life’s collected moments as it is a highly refined machine for living”.
Residents engage the k20 Architecture team to alter floor plans and design joinery that makes each home the buyers’ own. Orientate vertically or horizontally within the building, or move a bathroom to suit your unique tastes and requirements.
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“The idea is for people to be involved in creating their own spaces, rather than walking into a generic space that’s identically repeated on each level,” Kerlidis adds.
Each home is filled with its own set of narratives – detail which make them unique. Bowerbird Life’s integrated model betters the ability to tell these stories, and the result is a building made up of layers rather than a set of generic floor plans.
With the bower bird the inspiration, Kerlidis is also deeply interested in marrying his projects to the streetscapes they inhabit. The area’s development over the twentieth century is evident in numerous examples of period architecture, with Bowerbird Life’s design intent embedded in the Californian bungalow’s architectural language of combining the internal and the external.
“If you think of a bungalow in its truest sense, it is a series of sticks, and the idea of combining indoor with outdoor,” Kerlidis explains. “Very poetic, but somewhere along the way there was an obstruction of the original intent; it no longer performed as a bungalow.”
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While Kerlidis looks to the past where streetscape is concerned, his approach to design speaks to a modern purchaser, with both sustainable and intelligent design solutions forming part of the DNA of the building.
“One of the conundrums in multi-residential living is that we want floor to ceiling glass and wall to wall glass, but because this means our neighbours can see in, we always have the blinds closed,” Kerlidis says.
“Our solution was to design a retractable timber screen on the outside of the building, which references how the bungalow behaves in its truest sense.”
A far cry from the claustrophobia often experienced by condensed living, the retractable timber screen furthers Kerlidis’ gesture of bringing the outdoors in. Reminiscent of the bower bird’s nest, the natural timber facade merges with bark, foliage and flower.
Bike storage in the basement promotes opting for the treadlie instead of the car, and built-in rainwater tanks and recycled water use reduces dependency on mains water. Off-setting energy consumption with solar electricity reduces direct greenhouse gas emissions. It’s clean and quiet, incredibly low-maintenance, and best of all, reduces spend on power bills.
To discover more about Bowerbird Life, see the Domain listing or go to bowerbirdlife.com.au