Tower House Melbourne

Increasingly our houses are overly concerned with privacy. Fences are getting higher and we are turning our backs to our neighbours. It’s starting to look less like house and garden and more like compound and security.

The Tower House located Alphington Victoria, Australia by Andrew Maynard architects takes strides in the opposite direction. The clients and their 8-year-old twin sons asked for a home “for community, art and nature to come together”. Andrew Maynard architects designed them a village. The Tower House is a renovation and extension to a weatherboard home, the family have keen interests in the environment, outdoor recreation and the arts which is clearly imprinted into the DNA of this home.

The front yard is a communal vegetable patch, neighbours are invited to help themselves and, if they wish, do a little gardening from time to time. The rest of the garden has a high fence around it, however you can see through the fence and, importantly the fences can be left open wide. With streets on both sides of Tower House neighbours can use the garden as a short cut and grab a few veggies on the way through.

Photos Peter Bennetts