Ivanhoe House

Ivanhoe House is a four-bedroom home set into a steeply treed hillside that falls away to a creek at its base, in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe. Auhaus Architecture organised the plan as two wings that pinch together at the entry and then splay apart, capturing wedges of outdoor space between them and dividing the 1,260 m2 site into a manicured front garden and a wilder rear.

Approached from the street, the house sits low in the hill. Pedestrian access steps down into a private forecourt framed by the kitchen and dining area, and the front door opens onto a view straight into the treetops. The arching living zone reaches out to both the front courtyard and the rear deck, tying the interior to the landscape on either side. Living spaces are turned to the north for light and screened from the neighbouring houses, keeping the focus on the canopy.

The main living and master bedroom wing cantilevers into the established trees, giving the upper level the feel of a treehouse with a leafy outlook and filtered afternoon light. The completed house covers 353 m2 across two levels and was finished in 2016.

Architecture by Auhaus Architecture (Ben Stibbard and Kate Fitzpatrick). Photography by Derek Swalwell.