Inside Manly’s incredible Holocene House by CplusC Architects and Builders

The architects wanted the home to feel like the outdoors every day – like camping but with the luxuries of a city house. They’ve come up with an architectural stunner on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Holocene House. Picture: Renata Dominik

“Holocene House is like being in nature,” says Clinton Cole, principal of CplusC Architects + Builders. “Canopied in plants, water flows through like a rainforest creek, and every room opens to the outdoors.” The property, designed for a young couple with two children in the beachside Sydney suburb of Manly, has the coastal heath of a national park to the rear, and views over Shelly Beach in front.

Their vision was for a climate-positive house that inspires others, with a goal to generate more energy by 2050 than was used in total to create and operate it. And they wanted the home to feel like the outdoors every day – like camping but with the luxuries of a city house.

“The clients’ desire for a natural pool became the heart of the concept, with the living spaces built around it,” says Cole.

Water cascades from the natural rock landforms at the rear of the home, more than 5m above the entry level, running between the living spaces and an expansive outdoor deck. Passing through a series of ponds and reed beds that filter the water without any need for chemicals, the watercourse enters the pool on the home’s main level.

   

Above is an eclectic structure of timber, steel and translucent lattices that supports a canopy of plants overhead, creating a semitransparent veil that shades the home naturally. Air, rain and dappled sunlight can permeate this space, keeping a constant connection with nature. With an unconventional patchwork of glass panels of different colours, the area is filled with the play of water, light and colour. Coloured reflections change throughout the day, and on grey or wintry days, the effect is uplifting.

Descending to the entry level, a waterfall cascades alongside the stairs, spilling into a pond that flanks the entry path. The water is recycled through the system, with grey water and a 15kL rainwater storage tank keeping the property self-sufficient. The pool helps to keep the place cool in summer, while a heat pump heats the water in winter.

   

   

An intimate roof garden, reached via a spiral staircase, allows the beach views to be enjoyed in private. In the back garden substantial planter boxes, built using chunks of stone from the site, are filled with fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. Chickens and a composting system recycle green waste.

Most of the other plants are local natives, planted as tubestock, in keeping with the adjacent national park. Special requirements include maintaining a bandicoot corridor and keeping outdoor lighting to a minimum so these nocturnal animals can forage undisturbed.

Natural pool specialist and landscaper Julien Roy of Land Forms was involved from the project’s start in early 2021 to completion two years later, collaborating on the pool design with landscape architect Duncan Gibbs, who also designed the planting scheme. Land Forms built the natural pool and its filtration systems, as well as doing all structural landscaping, stonework, planting and irrigation; its team still maintains the gardens.

Cole named the project Holocene House after “a geological period before the current Anthropocene era, where temperatures were unusually stable and warm, and humans coexisted in harmony with nature”.

“The garden is the element that drives everything,” he explains. “Without it, the internal spaces would not be what they are.”

Q&A

The new growth on my Eureka lemon, planted in February, is bright yellow and bronze. It’s had fertiliser, zinc, magnesium, a trace element mix, then iron chelates. Is it too cold now for the tree to respond?

Guy Butcher, Granite Belt, Queensland

This is symptomatic of sulfur deficiency, which can occur in soils that are low in organic matter, leached by high rainfall or waterlogged. Also check the pH is between 6 and 7, as pH can affect uptake. Use elemental sulfur or gypsum (calcium sulphate), but be aware sulfur decreases soil pH and gypsum won’t. Overdoing trace elements causes toxicities, so take care with these. In cold districts, nutrient uptake can be slow until the soil warms.

What medium-sized evergreen trees could help screen a secret garden? Nearby are silver birch and weeping white cherries, with white-flowering bulbs and shrubs.

Jean Pilbrow, Victoria

Varieties of evergreen Magnolia grandiflora offer large, fragrant white flowers in summer; look at ‘Little Gem’, ‘Teddy Bear’, ‘Alta’ and ‘Sweet’n’Neat’. Evergreen Magnolia hybrids such as ‘White Caviar’, ‘Inspiration’ and ‘Fairy Magnolia White’ have fragrant white flowers mid-spring and smaller leaves. Other ideas are Irish strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), vanilla tree (Azara microphylla), and lily of the valley tree (Clethra arborea).

Our lavender garden is still flowering and mostly lush, but parts are becoming woody. When should we prune and by how much?

Leesa Cavanagh, Brisbane

Lavenders can struggle in the subtropics, as they prefer dry summers and low humidity. As a rule of thumb, prune the Italian and Spanish varieties by a third to half after flowering. French lavender flowers most of the year, so prune it in autumn or when there is a lull in flowering. Always prune into whippy growth, not woody stems, as these mostly won’t re-shoot. When plants become woody, it’s time to replace them.

Felco 250-63 hedging shears.

Send your questions to: [e-mail]. The best question for July will win the top-of-line Felco 250-63 hedging shears worth $140