What is the meeting location?

The listed meeting point is 290 Walsh Street South Yarra, Victoria AU 3141; arrive a few minutes early to check bags and settle in.

Is the event wheelchair accessible?

Walsh Street is a heritage building and cannot be modified for universal access; contact information@robinboyd.org.au for tailored mobility support.

Are children allowed?

Attendees must be 16 years or older; the program is targeted at adults and design professionals.

Can I bring food or drink?

No external food or drink is permitted inside the venue; please plan accordingly.

Does the ticket include the exhibition?

Yes—tickets include access to the Loose Leaf exhibition curated with Tract and supported by Brickworks Building Products.

Can I photograph inside the house and exhibition?

Photography is generally allowed for personal use, but follow any specific instructions from Robin Boyd Foundation staff during the visit.

robin-boyd-to-the-paddock-walsh-street-talk-on-sustainable-cluster-housing | Guided Tour | Photography Tour

Saturday afternoons in South Yarra unfold differently at 290 Walsh Street South Yarra, Victoria AU 3141, where history and future housing intersect. The Robin Boyd Foundation hosts a talk led by Emergent Studios director Matthew Hamilton that pairs an intimate look at Robin Boyd’s Walsh Street house with a deep-dive on The Paddock, a cluster housing project developed with Crosby Architects and an environmentally responsive landscape. The Paddock is a compact eco estate of twenty-seven residential lots located just under a kilometre from central Castlemaine. Its landscape strategy responds to topography, overland water flow, solar access and existing vegetation. Designers prioritized thirty percent productive landscape to meet ambitious Environmentally Sustainable Design targets informed by Living Building Challenge principles. The masterplan integrates watershed mapping, grading strategies and habitat-enhancing plantings to optimize both functional use and ecological value. Inside the Walsh Street home, attendees see how mid-century modern ideas about light, material and proportion still influence Australian residential design. Outside, the talk unpacks Emergent Studios’ integrated process: community workshops, ecological analysis, computational tools developed by DOCOlab and iterative collaboration with clients and consultants. Practical examples include routing stormwater through vegetated swales, orienting lots for passive solar performance and specifying native species that deliver amenity and food production. Tickets include access to the Loose Leaf exhibition, a collaboration between Tract and the Robin Boyd Foundation with supporting partners Brickworks Building Products. The event lasts approximately two hours and is geared toward designers, planners, housing advocates and anyone curious about sustainable alternatives to conventional subdivision. Note practical restrictions: attendees must be sixteen years or older; no external food or drink; large bags and backpacks must be checked at entry; and stiletto or pointed heels are not permitted due to cork flooring. What makes this session stand out is the scale of ambition paired with on-the-ground craft. Emergent Studios balances ecological rigour with social design, showing how a small estate can deliver measurable ecosystem services and social amenity. The presentation reframes suburban infill as an opportunity for productive landscapes that store water, support biodiversity and grow food. If you plan to attend, bring comfortable shoes for a short street stroll, a camera for the Loose Leaf exhibition and an open mind. This talk is a practical primer on how landscape-driven design can reshape housing outcomes—rooted in the particularities of place yet relevant to urban and regional contexts across Australia. After the talk, participants are encouraged to discuss specific design details with Matthew Hamilton and with Robin Boyd Foundation staff; the program often includes questions about maintenance regimes, community governance and the economics of productive landscaping, making this an unusually practical and directly applicable session for anyone planning sustainable housing projects or engaged in government planning.