Hosted by comedian and design enthusiast, Tim Ross, the hour-long documentary Designing A Legacy explores the lasting architectural impact of Australian homes on both the individuals who live there and society.

One such home is the Eugowra farmhouse designed by Harvard-educated John Andrews for his family in the 1980s.

The prolific architect, who has called Orange home for the past decade, designed the home while he was designing the Cameron Offices in Canberra.

"The really interesting thing about John is that he's right in our backyard and he went off to the US in his 20s and had incredible success in America and in Canada. The CN Tower in Toronto is a landmark building... It's a building [everyone knows] and we don't really know who he is," Mr Ross said of the local architect.

"In Australia his buildings have either been demolished or partially demolished... I always thought it was a such a shame his works weren't respected the way here that they are elsewhere.

"He's a pretty straight-shooting guy. He doesn't come across as your classic up-yourself-architect.. I call him the 'practical outsider' because he has that classic Australian pragmatism. He's a problem-solver... and that's how he attacked his design work."

Like all of Mr Andrews' designs, the farmhouse was built with the environment in mind. In addition to solar panels and rainwater tanks, the home was modelled in such a way so as not to need air-conditioning in summer. While in winter, a single wood-fire heater in the centre of the building could heat the huge expanse of its open interior.

But true to form, Mr Andrews says it wasn't foresight which prompted him to include these features in his 1980s structure, it was common sense.

"It wasn't the first time I did that," he said of incorporating environmentally-friendly features like solar panels into his designs.

"You don't need foresight. You need f---ing brains," the architect added.

"I don't believe in style, I believe in common sense. And that's my style: common sense. It always has been."

'Designing A Legacy' airs Tuesday, 8.30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.