Naples Street House by Edition Office: A Multi-Generational Sustainable Home in Australia

The Naples Street House in Australia, designed by Edition Office, exemplifies thoughtful architecture for multi-generational living. Completed in 2023, this innovative residence harmonizes sustainable materials, natural light, and spatial fluidity while embracing the subtleties of its urban context. Photographed by Tasha Tylee, the house showcases a seamless blend of robust brick exteriors, warm interiors, and an intimate connection to nature.

A Compact Footprint with Expansive Design

Despite its modest footprint, the Naples Street House creates a sense of openness through inward-facing architecture. The house wraps around a central garden courtyard, forming a private outdoor room that invites northern sunlight deep into the home. The undulating folded roofline choreographs views, ensuring that interiors encounter only the sky and neighboring trees, fostering privacy while connecting occupants to seasonal changes.

The exterior presents a unified brick facade, wrapping over the pitched and folded roof forms down into the courtyard. This material choice reflects the traditional interwar houses of the neighborhood while offering a modern, solid presence. Importantly, all bricks are Carbon Neutral, contributing to the home’s low environmental footprint and long-term sustainability.

Multi-Generational Living in Mind

Designed for three generations of one family, the home accommodates clients, their children, and elderly parents. Twin principal bedroom suites for the elders occupy opposing corners of the house, mirrored by the alternating roof forms. This creates a rhythmic spatial experience as occupants circulate around the central courtyard, reflecting cycles of rising and falling forms.

Bedrooms and bathing areas are positioned in the eastern wing, separated from social spaces by an axial hallway. This hallway connects the front entry to the rear garden, providing filtered light and fluid circulation throughout the home.

Rich and Sustainable Interior Materials

Inside, the Naples Street House offers a tactile contrast to its sharp brick exterior. Social spaces are lined with locally sourced spotted gum plywood, finished with a wax treatment for texture and warmth. Floors are burnished concrete, doubling as the structural slab and finished surface, reducing material use and additional costs.

The living, dining, and kitchen areas feature soft grey undulating ceilings, accentuating light and shadow across folded planes. Bedrooms maintain a muted grey palette, allowing natural light from the garden to create a gentle, ever-changing interior ambiance.

Passive Design and Environmental Responsiveness

The central garden room acts as a thermal regulator, allowing winter sun to passively warm the concrete floors while providing natural shade in summer. Numerous windows and doors enable cross-flow ventilation, creating a naturally comfortable indoor climate year-round.

Externally, the house is set back from eastern and northern boundaries to maximize sunlight access and preserve views of a majestic gum tree. Over time, thick gardens along these edges create a buffer for privacy and ecological integration.

Harmonizing Tradition and Innovation

The Naples Street House represents a thoughtful synthesis of traditional forms and contemporary design. Its brick exterior nods to the interwar architecture of the neighborhood, while its folded rooflines, central courtyard, and sustainable material palette demonstrate a modern approach to residential architecture.

By prioritizing multi-generational functionality, environmental sustainability, and spatial intimacy, the home embodies a model for future-focused urban living in Australia.