Japanese

story
A Victorian holiday rental illustrates
the age-old idiom that good things
come in small packages
Words Verity Campbell
Photography Ben Glezer

SANCTUARY 31
house profile regional victoria house profile regional victoria

D
Slatted steel sliding doors on
the northern facade can be
drawn aside to open the
home and expose the day
bed, visible in the centre.
At night or in extreme sun
conditions the doors can be
closed, providing privacy and
retreat from the elements.

The size of Japanese rooms has traditionally been
measured by the number of tatami mats needed for the floor. A tea room
was always four and a half tatami. Rooms were designed with one of
many “auspicious” tatami layouts; an “inauspicious” layout had four
tatami mat corners touching – unthinkable! Perhaps understandably, it
wasn’t the rigorous custom associated with tatami, but the aesthetic and
environmental credentials of the material that won over the Seyd family.
Tatami imbue a grassy scent and a serene quality to an uncluttered room,
and traditionally they’re made with a woven soft rush grass cover over a
rice straw core – all renewable and biodegradable materials.
But when they started building their new home in Chewton, a
small hamlet near Castlemaine in rural Victoria, the Seyds knew they’d
be borrowing more than tatami from the Japanese. They also took
inspiration from other Japanese design sensibilities: house size and
design function, and, according to building designer Daniel Seyd, the
“Japanese sense of style”.
Japanese houses have an average floor plan of 94 square metres,
which is modest compared with Australia’s world record average of 215
square metres. Careful furniture, tone and material choice in traditional
Japanese homes can ensure they remain human scaled, comfortable and
welcoming. Daniel embraced these design philosophies in his Chewton
home beautifully.
Firstly, there’s the size of the home. It comes in under even the
Japanese average at 85 square metres, including two bedrooms (one with
a double, the other with bunk beds), a toilet, bathroom, and a roomy
shared living, dining and kitchen room. It sleeps five comfortably, but it
can stretch to eight.
Daniel’s home also features sliding screens, traditionally used in
Japanese homes. With sliding screens you can create functional smaller
rooms, and they conserve space usually needed for swinging doors. Daybeds and benches have
Sliding screens also foster a connection with the outside, which in Japan storage underneath, vertical
is usually a gracious manicured courtyard. In a climate appropriate
application, the sliding screens in this house are custom-made galvanised
cupboards make up almost the
steel. They line the northern facade and can be fully extended, keeping entire southern wall of the living
out summer sun from the home. On cooler days they can be drawn aside, space, and an external cupboard
letting in winter sun.
doubles as the laundry.
Like many Japanese homes, there are no underutilised spaces in the
Seyds’ house. Daybeds and benches have storage underneath, vertical
cupboards make up almost the entire southern wall of the living space,
and an external cupboard doubles as the laundry. Benches in the living
room store futons, so that the raised tatami can serve its customary
function as a foundation for bedding.
A small home creates intimate spaces, which is ideal when you want
a romantic getaway, but less ideal when the kids are playing up and you
need ten minutes to regroup. Daniel beefed up the acoustic insulation G
Daniel chose residential grade
throughout the internal walls to ensure this small home works harder cement sheeting for the
than the average at keeping sounds at bay. He also wanted the house exterior cladding for its low
maintenance care and simple
to be able to accommodate many guests, so he designed the bathroom aesthetic. He’s not sure how
and toilet to be accessible from the outside to cater easily for camping it will wear over the long term.
“In hindsight, we should have
friends. This appreciation of the need for privacy, as well as intimacy, bitten the bullet and spent
extra money on a commercial
is key for small space design.
grade cladding: it’s thicker,
The kitchen appears conventional, but upon closer inspection the more durable and has better
performing joint details, which
choice of appliances makes good Daniel’s desire for a smaller home. improves the product’s
There’s a half size fridge, and a half size dishwasher which Daniel says longevity.”

32 SANCTUARY SANCTUARY 33
house profile regional victoria house profile regional victoria

L
This modest iteration of the
galley kitchen fits everything
you could need – fridge,
dishwasher, stovetop, oven,
sink and storage – into an
impressive four linear metres.
The simple sliding cupboard
door face is red acrylic.

D
The living room showing the
raised tatami flooring and the
plywood internal wall
cladding. While Daniel had L
originally considered finishing The bunk room has a single
the plywood, he decided to bed at low level with a double
keep it raw once he saw it in bunk above that extends over
situ. Once it starts to wear it the day bed off the exterior
can be stained or limed, or passage. A cavity sliding door
replaced easily by the sheet. disappears into the wall
between the bunkroom and
the main bedroom shown.
When open it allows the
spaces to flow into one
another. All doors are solid
core to improve acoustics in
the compact spaces.

G
The west-facing balcony has
recycled ironbark floors, an
openable steel screen, a
vertical blind for sun shading
and a sliding double-glazed
door from the living room.

34 SANCTUARY SANCTUARY 35
house profile regional victoria house profile regional victoria

L
The slow combustion
wood-burning heater in the
living room heats the entire
home.

D
Similar to Japanese
bathhouses, the stool, ladle
and low taps can be used for
washing, as an alternative to a
shower or bath. Photo by
Verity Campbell

L
The whole bathroom is
Japanese style: the entire
room is a wet area, with a
deep soaker bath with taps
and shower beside for
washing prior to soaking. The
simple colour palette and
extensive use of Bisazza
20mm x 20mm glass mosaic
tiles gives the room a more
spacious feel. Rogerseller
tapware has been used
throughout the house; the
bath is a Mizu.

suits their needs “terrifically”. The stovetop
has two burners instead of the standard four
or even six these days. He chose simple acrylic
for the cupboard doors, ply shelving and a
stainless steel bench with integrated sinks and
splashback to keep costs and maintenance
down.
Although built as a holiday home for the
family, it’s also available for holiday rentals,
which brings its own challenges in a house cut
off from town-connected water and sewage.
“Since we built this house we’re far more in
touch with how much water we consume in our
Melbourne home,” says Daniel. “We’ve come
to know how much water is in the tank here,
so we know when we can have a bath and when
we can’t.” Guests aren’t equipped with this
intimate knowledge, he adds. “Sometimes we
just have to put a ‘no baths please’ sign up – but
guests don’t seem to mind.”
The exterior is almost monolithic in
the landscape, perhaps less than ideally
sympathetic to its surrounds. And yet the
colour choice, size and juxtaposition of its form
are forgiving. “We wanted to create a simple
singular look to the outside of the house –
strong and simple,” says Daniel. He admits the
family has found living in the dry climate of Floor Plan
1 Bedroom
the area challenging at times: “We’ve planted 2 Bedroom
200 trees on our block here, but the ones that 3 Tatami mat sitting area
4 Living, dining & kitchen
have survived are only knee high, and they were 5 Deck 6
6 Bathroom 1 2
planted years ago”. 3 4
7 Laundry
Cement sheeting on both sides of the home 8 Toilet
is softened by folded zincalume at each end. 5
“We wanted to design it as a retreat from the 8
outside in some ways, so that you can open it 7
up, but also snug it up.
And I love the contrast that when you’re inside
the house, some views are of the green bush
and others are of the rock, which is quite a
distinctive aesthetic of this area.”

36 SANCTUARY SANCTUARY 37
house profile regional victoria

Chewton Residence

Designer Sustainable Features Building materials

Insite Design Hot water – Steel main structural frame and floor joists for
— – Rinnai Beasley 250L solar hot water split system with strength, bushfire resistance and recyclability;
Website frost tolerant panels on roof timber wall frames and rafters; Colorbond roof
www.insitedesign.com.au – Rinnai Infinity 26 LP Gas Booster – Plantation ply internal wall cladding and
www.riversdaleretreat.com.au www.rinnai.com.au plasterboard with paint finish
— – Forbo Marmoleum for interior floors
Builder Water saving www.forbo-flooring.com.au
Insite, James Healey, – 15,500L Bluescope Steel water tank beneath the – Recycled Ironbark decking and steps from Australian
Peter Morris house collects all roof rainwater, which is then Recycled Timber
— double filtered for consumption www.australianrecycledtimber.com
Project type www.bluescopesteel.com.au – Japanese tatami matting from Japanese Shoji &
New building – Tank is under the house to hide it away on this small Tatami Company on Mornington Peninsula
— block and to keep it shaded – Local Castlemaine stone terrace and external steps
Project location
Chewton, Victoria Passive heating & cooling Paints & finishes
— – Steel-framed sliding screens on the north facade – Haymes exterior and interior paints
Cost provide shade from the summer sun. Screens www.haymespaint.com.au
$300,000 (including custom-built by Bent Ironwork, Harcourt, Victoria; – Sikkens Cetol HLS timber finish to all timberwork
professional fees) double sliding track from Centor
— www.centor.com.au Sustainable PRODUCTS
Size – Manually operated Robinsons vertical awning Black water system
house 82 sqm, land 2,500 sqm screens the west facade from afternoon sun and Septech Turbojet 2000 in ground treatment plant with
creates a semi-indoor “deck” room drip irrigation field processes all black and grey water
– Air-cell sisalation to the roof on-site. The system is monitored every three months
www.kingspaninsulation.com.au www.septech.com.au
– CSR Bradford Soundscreen Rockwool R2.5 batt
insulation to walls, R3 to floor and R5 to the roof Daniel’s main tip for this system was to install early.
www.bradfordinsulation.com.au He put the application to council in almost as soon as
they bought the property, so they ended up installing
Robinsons vertical retractable Active heating & cooling the septic system a year before building works began.
awnings shade the west-facing
deck – Jotul F250 slow combustion wood-burning heater It was green, lush, and ready to be operable the moment
from Wignell Trading comfortably heats the house in they moved in. “Normally people install their systems
winter www.jotul.com.au at the end of building,” he says, “so you finish your
– Hunter Industrie reverse cycle 3-blade ceiling fan house and you’ve got this big earthwork project on your
circulates cool air in summer and warm air in winter land. As soon as we bought the block we got the permit
www.hunterfan.com.au/products and put it in.”

Windows & glazing

The Septech black water
treatment irrigation field
Steel frame and stainless steel
screens are fitted to all openable
windows. Above photos by Verity
Campbell
– Skyrange Windows custom made steel-framed
double-glazed window units with thermal break
fixtures to wall frames www.skyrange.com.au
– Pilkington Insulight Energy Advantage glass with
low-e coating to inside face of outside pane
www.pilkington.com
– Steel frame and stainless steel mesh bushfire screens
fitted to all openable windows, custom built by Bent
Ironwork, Harcourt, Victoria

38 SANCTUARY