The evolution of the Aussie home

From dark boxes to light-filled living, Aussie homes have come to embrace the great outdoors. Now, there’s another shift underway. 

For a country flooded with sunlight, it’s odd that so many traditional homes were quite dark, small and internally focused. However, it makes more sense when you consider the origins of Australian house design – the settler experience.

“You brought a northern hemisphere home and you just transported it to an environment that had nothing to do with where it actually came from,” explains Ramin Jahromi, director at Cox Architecture.

“That was seen as a masonry box with windows, sitting around a very symmetrical layout with a roof on it. It was a very introverted, almost clinical experience.”

The classic terrace home design was imported from the UK. Picture: Getty

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Things have certainly changed, with light, space and the outdoors now embraced and celebrated in home design. But it has been quite an evolution – and there is more change on the horizon.

Early influences

The early homes built after British settlement not only had an internal focus, but were very formal, explains Jahromi. Each room had a specific purpose, such as for cooking, dining or sleeping. The garden was considered something to look at, not get amongst. 

“At that time, you were really sitting within your home and you had small windows that were framed around you, living internally within your home, not really engaging at all with your garden or your streetscape, or your public domain,” he says.

Things shifted when influences from Asia filtered into design. Reflecting the warmer climates of our regional neighbours, homes started to feature verandas out the front.

Soon, bungalows appeared with a veranda all around, reaching its pinnacle in the famous ‘Queenslander’ style.

Homes began to adapt to the local conditions. Picture: Getty

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It meant that people started to treat the outdoor space as an extension of their living space, paving the way for this to go even further.

Indoor-outdoor evolution

The trend for indoor-outdoor living stepped up a notch post-WW2 when more European migrants from places such as Italy or Greece hit Australian shores. 

“They brought with them that level of connection to the outside and the inside, their way of life, cooking the Sugo in the backyard… and the whole layering of the neighbourhood into their house, into the backyard,” says Jahromi.

Home designs now emphasise integrating outdoor spaces into the home. Picture: Frasers Property Australia

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George Massoud, design director at Frasers Property Australia, says in the modern era, designers captured this essence and started to open up the home with free-flowing spaces perfect for indoor-outdoor entertaining.

“That modernist era caught on quite well — especially in Australia,” Massoud says.

“We had the climate; we had the appetite to entertain; we had the wealth. So, all these things combined, started to influence our architectural style as well.”

Breaking even more barriers

With indoor-outdoor living now firmly fixed into design, there is one more barrier to break through, explains Jahromi.

“Homes can't be these isolated spaces that you live within — you start needing to live outside them, not only in your garden, but within the whole neighbourhood, within the whole street,” Jahromi explains.  

This is starting quite simply with embracing use of the front yard and extending out to shared amenities.

“We're starting to see residents and the community use the front yard…with park benches and things that really start to activate that space,” he says.

It's no longer about what's within your fence, but what's within your community. Picture: Frasers Property Australia

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Massoud says people are already thinking about their home spaces existing beyond the front fence.

For community designers, this has led to a focus on creating communal spaces where people have the opportunities for incidental chats with neighbours, to have a coffee together, or for children to play. 

“We're finding our customers and our community; they're seeking that amenity,” he says. “They're seeking the cafes; they're seeking proximity to the local park. (It’s) starting to become that extension of your home and essentially ownership over that space as well.”

Jahromi says this is not just part of the practicality of higher density being required to house Australia’s growing population — it also has significant wellbeing benefits.

“People not only are having their great home, but at the same time you have this level of community and connectivity,” he says.

“It's been a huge shift from where we started with a box with four windows to where we are sitting now.”