- This event has passed.
Open Day: Hedge and Arbour / Studio Bright
Sun July 6, 2025 @ 10:30 am - 3:30 pm AEST
Event Navigation
As part of the 2025 Victorian Architecture Awards Open Day, visitors will have the opportunity to explore Hedge and Arbour House by Studio Bright with landscape architecture by Emergent Studios, located on Wurundjeri Country. Recognised for its thoughtful integration of suburban and bushland elements, Hedge and Arbour House employ robust and replicable design strategies that prioritise the landscape experience.
“Addressing a Melbourne leafy suburban street with a thick domestic hedge, yet connecting to a swath of native bushland rising from the creek below, the site offered the intersection of wilderness within the strict geometry & character of a typical suburban block. Split by these neighbouring conditions, the site became the mediator.
We borrowed from the success of this hedge ‘wall’ to insert layers arraying in plan, delineating space & mediating privacy through two built mechanisms – garden wall & arbour. Material selections for both were made to focus on robustness, economy & to minimise lifecycle maintenance.
The first built layer, composed of solid face blockwork contrasts with a delicate screen forming an arbour that encircles the building. As vines climb through the structure, this final layer shields the house from harsh winds & serves as an embedded sun shading strategy, providing a varied softness to the blockwork. In effect, the building becomes a landscape condition.”
Our Open Days underpin our mission to further the legacy of Robin Boyd by offering access for the public to explore and understand architectural projects of outstanding merit. Since 1929, the Victorian Architecture Awards have enabled peer recognition of best practice in the field and inspired others to continue striving to positively shape communities through architecture.
Hedge and Arbour House, has been shortlisted in the Residential Architecture – Houses (New) category for this year’s Victorian Architecture Award and also received the 2025 AILA VIC Award of Excellence for Gardens.
Open Day Hedge and Arbour / Studio Bright is presented by the Robin Boyd Foundation and proudly supported by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.
Ticket includes:
– Access to Hedge and Arbour House by Studio Bright.
Please note registration will take place at Hedge and Arbour House by Studio Bright so please arrive 5 minutes early to check in for your session. Hedge and Arbour is located in Melbourne’s inner north east, and is a short walk from a train station.
Tickets:
General Admission: $45
RBF Friends / Boyd Circle Members: $35
Students: $25
Sunday 6 July 2025
10.30 AM SOLD OUT
11.00 AM SOLD OUT
11.30 AM SOLD OUT
12.00 PM SOLD OUT
12.30 PM SOLD OUT
1.00 PM SOLD OUT
1.30 PM SOLD OUT
2.00 PM SOLD OUT
2.30 PM SOLD OUT
3.00 PM SOLD OUT |
Please note:
– Residence addresses will be circulated 72 hours prior to the event.
– Registration will take place at Hedge and Arbour House and open 5 minutes prior to each session.
– Access to Hedge and Arbour House is self-guided.
– Attendees must be 16 years of age or over.
– Limited street parking is available.
– We encourage ticket holders to travel to the event using public transport – Hedge and Arbour is a short walk from an inner north east train station.
– Please contact information@robinboyd.org.au for tailored access support.
– By purchasing a ticket you accept our Ticketing Terms & Conditions.
Studio Bright (previously known as MAKE Architecture) is a Melbourne based practice creating enduring and responsive architecture for people and places. For us, every project is an opportunity to contribute in a positive and generous way to the social and built fabric of our cities. They approach challenges with optimism and consider how design can meet fundamental human needs. And while the scale of their projects might shift, from residential, to civic, educational and multi-residential, each is bound by a sense of craft and considered detail. Often it’s here, where the bigger stories lie. At the most primary level, Studio Bright makes spaces. But they’re about much more than that—they’re about connecting individuals and communities, enriching daily life, and balancing rigour with joy, every step of the way.
Emergent Studios is a multi-disciplinary Landscape Architecture studio. Our collective expertise shapes the development of adaptive and engaging spaces, working towards the realisation of a landscape’s social, experiential, and ecological value. Bush Projects emerged from a commitment to the role of landscape in forming regenerative, shared places that promote connection to the natural world, to culture, and to others. They operate at a range of scales applying in-depth analysis, collaboration, and research-through-design to optimise the ecological performance of landscape and promote people’s engagement with it.
Photos by Rory Gardiner.