Secret Vines

Secret Vines reimagines the suburban backyard as a productive, social, and ecologically responsive micro-landscape, aligning directly with ARCH2100’s call to transform domestic sites into spaces of production and community engagement. By integrating urban farming, winemaking traditions, and horticultural systems into the fabric of a compact West End property, the project proposes a new model of residential living that blurs boundaries between home, garden, and neighbourhood.

Drawing from West End’s multicultural heritage, particularly the long-standing winemaking traditions brought by migrant communities, the design introduces a vineyard-inspired pavilion that structures the backyard experience. Vertical grape-growing systems, a central lemon tree, composting stations, water-collection details, and a sequence of open-to-sky spaces allow residents to participate in the full cycle of cultivation, production, and gathering. Horticulture becomes architecture: vines climb structural frames, boundary edges become productive thresholds, and polycarbonate + corten steel elements create a warm, climate-responsive environment.

The pavilion is organised according to the stages of the winemaking process, from grape crushing to fermentation, aging, and bottling, transforming everyday routines into communal rituals. Windows, platforms, potted grapes, and multi-level growing beds encourage participation and observation at different heights, turning the backyard into a didactic and social landscape. Rain-chain details, compost loops, and soil-deep planting beds support sustainable water and waste cycles, minimising resource consumption while celebrating natural systems.

As a whole, Urban Vines positions the backyard as a hybrid living–productive environment, offering a blueprint for future suburban typologies where residents cultivate food, engage with communal traditions, and build self-sufficiency through architecture. Its integration of material reuse, passive environmental strategies, waste minimisation, and social benefit embodies the values recognised by the Design Innovation Award and Sustainable Futures Award — demonstrating how small-scale interventions can meaningfully reshape the way we live, grow, and gather.