When a Cheese Tree succumbed to storm damage mid-design, Sydney practice Anderson Architecture didn’t reach for a replacement planting strategy — they found a name. Sapling, a cross-laminated timber home for a growing family in Lilyfield, is one of the most complete expressions of timber-led residential design to emerge from any state in recent years, earning a shortlist in the Residential Class 1 – New Buildings category at the 2024 Australian Timber Design Awards.
Eighty-five per cent timber by structure, the home is a CLT building wrapped in woodfibre insulation and clad in Abodo Wood and Weathertex — all left to silver off naturally over time. It’s a material palette that doesn’t so much feature timber as commit to it, from the structural frame down to the window reveals.
The project originally took shape around two mature trees. When one — a Cheese Tree — was unexpectedly lost to storm damage during the design phase, a new sapling was planted in its place, and a project name was born. It’s a small detail that captures something essential about this building: that renewal, not just sustainability, is at the heart of what Anderson Architecture has delivered here.
A Timber Building to Its Core
Spruce CLT panels form the floors, walls, and ceilings throughout, with select internal faces left exposed and whitewashed to preserve the warmth and grain of the timber without overwhelming the interior palette. The standout spatial move is a “floating” CLT disc positioned above the family room, which creates a dramatic reading nook commanding panoramic views across the Sydney skyline — the kind of architectural gesture that only works when the structural material is also the finish material. Complementing the CLT structure, cork flooring from Amorim brings texture and thermal comfort underfoot, while spotted gum decking and battens extend the timber narrative outdoors. In a detail that speaks to the project’s resourcefulness, the windows reveal are lined in recycled spruce repurposed from the very delivery skates used to transport the CLT panels to the site — waste diverted, character earned.
Sapling is certified Passivhaus — the latest in a growing portfolio of high-performance homes from a practice whose Pocket Passiv project took home the Residential Class 1: New Building prize at the 2023 Australian Timber Design Awards. Powered by a 20.88 kW solar array, Sapling produces nearly four times the energy it consumes. The numbers are striking: a global warming potential of -0.7 kg CO₂/m²/year over 50 years makes it carbon negative in both construction and operation. That’s not a rounding adjustment on a standard sustainability assessment — it’s a fundamentally different relationship between a building and its environment. The project was built by Mindful Building and photographed by Tom Ferguson.
What sets Sapling apart from other timber-forward homes is the consistency of its material commitment. The Abodo Wood and Weathertex cladding, left unfinished to weather naturally, aligns the exterior with the low-intervention philosophy running through the interior. The woodfibre insulation means even the building’s thermal envelope is bio-based. There are no concessions to conventional construction lurking beneath the surface. Timber here is not a feature — it is structural, thermal, aesthetic, and ecological all at once, making Sapling a benchmark for what is possible when a practice, a builder, and a client are aligned around a single material philosophy from the very first sketch.
Entries for the 27th Awards Now Open
Sapling was among the shortlisted entries in last year’s Australian Timber Design Awards — and with entries now open for the 27th edition, it stands as exactly the kind of project the competition was established to surface and celebrate. Visit timberdesignawards.com.au/how-to-enter/ to submit your project.
