Architect Lachlan Shepherd has added a second storey to his sustainable family home at 22 Murnong Circuit, Torquay.
Architect Lachlan Shepherd has pivoted to meet the market, doubling the size of his family’s own Torquay home to boost its buyer appeal
The 8-star Torterra House is back up for sale with a new second storey addition aimed at cornering the family market.
Shepherd designed the original concrete and copper clad house at 22 Murnong Circuit, Torquay, as a compact two-bedder with space-saving custom furniture.
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The downstairs lounge has a wood fireplace and custom-built concrete couches topped with leather upholstery.
The kitchen and dining area overlook a lap pool with a naked freshwater filtration system.
The arrival of a second child prompted his family to list the property last year with a view to building their forever home on another block.
But the plan hit a snag when the campaign failed to net a buyer, prompting the architect to instead to add a second storey extension to create an apartment-like space for their older teenage daughter.
“We had purchased another block and we were going to build a bigger, final home on that but we have had to respond to the market because right at the time of listing the land tax was coming in and the potential buyers that we were looking at it was a very small market segment,” Shepherd said.
“You have got your retiree couples or weekenders and the people from Melbourne that would have potentially purchased it as a weekender, or to Airbnb it, out dropped out.”
The home’s rooftop garden softens the concrete edges.
The new first floor living space has engineered timber floors and curved corners.
You can definitely hunker down in the main bedroom.
The second storey, designed to be a lightweight contrast to the heavy concrete construction downstairs, adds two further bedrooms, a study (or fifth bedroom) and a large living area and sitting zone with Juliet balconies.
The eco-friendly house retains a portion of its signature rooftop garden, with a separate staircase entrance installed at the rear of the carport.
“It still retains the same quality, it’s almost like an apartment on top,” he said.
Links Property, Torquay, listing agent Lynne Hayden has set a $1,595,000 to $1.755m for the new campaign.
The original single storey design was inspired by traditional car park structures.
Two new bathrooms upstairs brings the total number to three.
Shepherd said the house was always engineered to accommodate another level, which was installed atop clear span steel to retain the design’s roof and insulation properties.
But, even with plans available, buyers seeking more space struggled to visualise it.
“The strange thing is that even if it’s an older couple that are living by themselves, the idea that they have got all these extra rooms for potential future resale always resonates with people,” he said.
“I guess we were looking at the market as an architect and going ‘let’s show them you can do something different’ but the proof is in the pudding.”
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