Building a smaller house was an upward move for this downsizing couple

Australians love a global success story . . . we laud our world beaters and champions who are victorious over all others.

But one record that we might not be too keen to harp on, is the fact we now have the largest average house size in the world. In fact, our average home footprint has more than doubled in size over the years, yet the number of people living in these hefty homes has shrunk.

Tonight, on Better Homes and Gardens, we meet Fitzroy North couple Brian and Marija knew they needed to downsize from the large home they’d chosen almost two decades ago, that was perfect for subdivision. Heading into their golden years, they were adamant they didn’t need a huge house but still had a long list of what they hoped to achieve within the newly divided 147 sqm parcel of land.

Being long term fans of Austin Maynard Architects, their brief was for a functional, sustainable, contemporary home with 2 bedrooms, plus a studio space for Marija’s artwork; a large kitchen and dining area (that would be open and flexible enough to accommodate 20 plus people for their regular friend group and family catch ups), a bathroom on both levels, a concealed laundry, pantry, herb garden, lots of recessed storage to `hide away as much as possible’, but still with enough space to showcase their books and artworks . . . and a spectacular feature spiral staircase — It was a lot to ask for!

The brief was met at every level, and then some. The end result is an extremely liveable, fully flexible, light filled, stunningly beautiful home jam packed full of clever ideas.

Firstly, the architects orientated the new home on the northern end of the block, opposite a park and playground where the original home’s garage used to sit. It’s now an open courtyard, peppered with pots full of herbs and flowers, with a table and chairs for sipping tea in the sun.

Brian And Marija love the sights, sounds and vibrancy of their neighbourhood, and engage regularly with anyone who walks by.

The facade of the house is divided into a series of full-length panels — a combination of fixed and operable timber ones, and glass panels — all identical in size and arranged in an alternating pattern. Behind the operable timber panels are windows that can be opened up or shut down, allowing them to control air flow and light into the home.

This theme is at the core of the overall design. Building on a narrow block meant the architects knew they’d need to `pinch’ light wherever possible.

An internal courtyard lines up flush with the next-door neighbours light well.. which means both courtyards freely share both light and greenery between them. This courtyard also acts in lieu of a backyard, the bonus being, it doesn’t matter where you are internally in the home you are connected visually through a gorgeous green space.

The strategically placed skylights and louvres throughout the entire place mean the owners control their environment, with lots of cross ventilation, and privacy.

At first glance you might question why a couple in their 80s would choose to install a spiral staircase but Brian had a bit of an advantage over most people. He founded staircase business 50 years ago and is an award-winning authority on stairs. He believes through his own observations and experience that spiral stairs are safer than any other stair for aging individuals, as you have a handrail in front of you either way, and that the ergonomics make it easier to climb or lower yourself as your turn your whole body with the stairwell rather than against it and by designing this particular stairwell in perforated steel — it also allows the natural light throughout the entrance void to filter through in all directions.

But the bold yellow colour choice — that was all Marija and they both couldn’t be happier with it! The result is a what is usually just a circulation area in the home, looks like a well-considered sculpture to admire. It’s magnificent.

There are many more incredibly clever touches — both the front door fly screen, and the ground floor bedroom door are recessed into the wall when not in use, maximising every valuable mm. A built-in bench seat that spans the entire length of the room, from the entry to the end of the dining table provides loads of seating, as well as storage.

In the kitchen the main island bench sits a good foot above the floor, held up by delicate steel legs. Not only does this make it easy to clean underneath it, but adds to the sense of space, and doesn’t cut off that valuable light in any way.

The benchtop itself is also raised, allowing extra storage for bowls, plates and crockery. The structural steel beams above the kitchen area have been used as inspiration for book storage.

And by situating the lounge room downstairs and the art studio upstairs means the parklands across the road provides an abundance of grass, trees and flowers to look at, without any maintenance at all.. hence the homes moniker Parklife.

As Marija summed up so perfectly, “When we went to Austin Maynard Architects, we gave them a huge challenge to fit everything we wanted in a home we were downsizing into, but as it turned out they did such a brilliant job we feel like we’ve right-sized. ”

See this story tonight from 7pm on Channel 7 and/or 7Two or you can always catch up on 7Plus

Follow Joh on social meida @johgriggs7