Featherston House, modernist house in Ivanhoe, Victoria, Australia

Featherston House is a 1969 residence in Ivanhoe, Victoria, designed by Robin Boyd of Romberg & Boyd. It sits on sloping ground at the edge of parkland, with a central chimney and four platforms placed around it, the highest serving as the owners' bedroom. Full-height glazing and a translucent polycarbonate roof light the interior, while the eastern wall encloses the kitchen, family room and guest bedrooms.

Robin Boyd designed this home in 1967 for designers Grant and Mary Featherston, with construction completed in 1969. The project introduced innovative residential concepts to Australian architecture during the post-war modernist period.

Boyd drew on Japanese design for the house's natural air conditioning, adapted to the Australian climate. Three flaps built into the platforms can be opened to draw air from a cool room and ventilate the interior. The owners, designers Grant and Mary Featherston, were open to such experiments, giving Boyd freedom to test an alternative way of living.

Visitors can observe how service areas occupy the western side while bedrooms and private spaces remain tucked behind the eastern wall. Walking through the house reveals how the glass surfaces flood the rooms with daylight and how the platform arrangement guides movement and sightlines throughout the interior.

The roof features translucent cellular polycarbonate that bathes the interior in soft, diffused light from morning to evening. This uncommon material choice in the 1960s demonstrates Boyd's willingness to experiment with contemporary materials for residential design.