Architecture
Winners of the 2022 National Architecture Awards
They're the best of the best – feast your eyes on the winning homes in the Institute of Architecture's national awards
From homes that are designed to adapt, endure and sit lightly on the earth and space-savvy additions to new builds that allow for a flexible live/work lifestyle, here are the winning dwellings in the Australian Institute of Architecture’s 2022 National Architecture Awards. If a new build or reno is on the horizon for you, prepare to be seriously inspired!
Once you’ve had a peek inside these incredible homes, read what the architects and judges had to say about them, with quotes lightly edited for brevity.
Once you’ve had a peek inside these incredible homes, read what the architects and judges had to say about them, with quotes lightly edited for brevity.
Jury comments: With humans already occupying more than their fair share of the earth’s biosystems, it is time for us to use our projects to help remediate and improve damaged land in locations already well-serviced by transport, shops and communal facilities. The Hütt 01 Passivhaus does this, using its clever design and high-performing building envelope to enable great amenity.
Considerable care and enthusiasm have been applied to every aspect of this project. The house, built from lime-washed, exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT), with triple-glazed windows and doors, incorporates beautiful courtyards and roof gardens along with fun and joyful nooks for all family members.
The garden, enclosed from the laneway with recycled bricks (sources all logged) encompasses water tanks, a natural pool with fish, aquaponic and standard food gardens, fruit trees, and places to sit and enjoy the northerly aspect.
Aiming to create a lighthouse for the future, the architect/client hopes that the cost of similar projects will decrease as this approach is normalised.
Find a local architect on Houzz to help you create your dream home
Considerable care and enthusiasm have been applied to every aspect of this project. The house, built from lime-washed, exposed cross-laminated timber (CLT), with triple-glazed windows and doors, incorporates beautiful courtyards and roof gardens along with fun and joyful nooks for all family members.
The garden, enclosed from the laneway with recycled bricks (sources all logged) encompasses water tanks, a natural pool with fish, aquaponic and standard food gardens, fruit trees, and places to sit and enjoy the northerly aspect.
Aiming to create a lighthouse for the future, the architect/client hopes that the cost of similar projects will decrease as this approach is normalised.
Find a local architect on Houzz to help you create your dream home
Images by Christopher Frederick Jones.
Sustainable Architecture
Winner of the David Oppenheim Award: Live Work Share House by Bligh Graham Architects
Location: Samford Village, Queensland
Project description: The Live Work Share House comprises a house, office and self-contained apartment. We designed it as a test case for the way in which flexible, adaptable living and working could be achieved on a suburban block.
The need for such housing types is pressing given the issues of housing affordability, the need for more smaller homes given the reducing prevalence of the nuclear family, the increasing numbers of people working from home, and the need to densify to sustainably house a growing population.
The principle aim of the design was to ensure that the live/work/share components happily co-exist while achieving for each component an obvious entry, engagement with the street, visual and acoustic privacy, passive ventilation, good solar access, and connection to greenery and outdoor spaces.
Sustainable Architecture
Winner of the David Oppenheim Award: Live Work Share House by Bligh Graham Architects
Location: Samford Village, Queensland
Project description: The Live Work Share House comprises a house, office and self-contained apartment. We designed it as a test case for the way in which flexible, adaptable living and working could be achieved on a suburban block.
The need for such housing types is pressing given the issues of housing affordability, the need for more smaller homes given the reducing prevalence of the nuclear family, the increasing numbers of people working from home, and the need to densify to sustainably house a growing population.
The principle aim of the design was to ensure that the live/work/share components happily co-exist while achieving for each component an obvious entry, engagement with the street, visual and acoustic privacy, passive ventilation, good solar access, and connection to greenery and outdoor spaces.
Jury comments: Sustainable buildings must address more than just the carbon required to operate them. They, and the places they are located within, also play a significant role in enabling lives to be less impactful in other arenas, such as mobility, food and embodied carbon, as well as addressing the broader and more complex idea of connecting with and caring for Country. They can, and should, contribute to the regeneration of nature and people.
Inspired and informed by these concerns, Live Work Share House showcases replicable ideas that explore better ways for families to thrive in this part of the world.
The planning, arrangement and construction of this home enables great flexibility in how it can be inhabited now and in the future. It currently provides a range of spaces for the family of five, along with a work studio and delightful tiny-house accommodation for a single mother and her child.
Two street fronts provide garden space for recreation, growing food and connecting with the neighbours, while internal courtyards and verandah spaces offer a variety of outdoor experiences through all seasons. Bicycle storage and proximity to local facilities make cycling and walking easy. Energy efficiency, solar panels and water tanks ensure that the building’s operations are almost zero-carbon.
The house’s spatial arrangements and connections can be easily altered in the future as life evolves. With its architecture joyfully responding to this agenda, this project ably shows that outer-suburban blocks can be developed in ways that help to regenerate our communities and nature.
Inspired and informed by these concerns, Live Work Share House showcases replicable ideas that explore better ways for families to thrive in this part of the world.
The planning, arrangement and construction of this home enables great flexibility in how it can be inhabited now and in the future. It currently provides a range of spaces for the family of five, along with a work studio and delightful tiny-house accommodation for a single mother and her child.
Two street fronts provide garden space for recreation, growing food and connecting with the neighbours, while internal courtyards and verandah spaces offer a variety of outdoor experiences through all seasons. Bicycle storage and proximity to local facilities make cycling and walking easy. Energy efficiency, solar panels and water tanks ensure that the building’s operations are almost zero-carbon.
The house’s spatial arrangements and connections can be easily altered in the future as life evolves. With its architecture joyfully responding to this agenda, this project ably shows that outer-suburban blocks can be developed in ways that help to regenerate our communities and nature.
Images by Tom Ross XYZ.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Winner of the Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award: Arcadia by Architecture Architecture
Location: Brunswick, Victoria
Project description: Notions of home are as much a projection of our dreams and memories as they are the bricks and linen cupboards that anchor them. Tangled in the sheets of inner-urban Melbourne, Arcadia is a fever dream of pastoral histories. Shafts of light lend weight to rustic walls; burnt-out chimneys dot the landscape; distant views draw the eye; and inside and out, the house is ablush with the perpetual hue of an early rise and an early rest.
Garden spaces draw the eye through the house and into the landscape. A generous central spine connects a loose arrangement of indoor and outdoor spaces to retreat, gather, study, eat and relax. Courtyard windows and skylights animate the house with ever-shifting light, lending it a sense of the outdoors.
Materials were chosen for their modesty and tactility, changing with time: oiled timber, raw concrete, galvanised steel, and bagged brick with a subtle pink pigment.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Winner of the Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award: Arcadia by Architecture Architecture
Location: Brunswick, Victoria
Project description: Notions of home are as much a projection of our dreams and memories as they are the bricks and linen cupboards that anchor them. Tangled in the sheets of inner-urban Melbourne, Arcadia is a fever dream of pastoral histories. Shafts of light lend weight to rustic walls; burnt-out chimneys dot the landscape; distant views draw the eye; and inside and out, the house is ablush with the perpetual hue of an early rise and an early rest.
Garden spaces draw the eye through the house and into the landscape. A generous central spine connects a loose arrangement of indoor and outdoor spaces to retreat, gather, study, eat and relax. Courtyard windows and skylights animate the house with ever-shifting light, lending it a sense of the outdoors.
Materials were chosen for their modesty and tactility, changing with time: oiled timber, raw concrete, galvanised steel, and bagged brick with a subtle pink pigment.
Jury comments: On a typically exasperating grey Melbourne winter day, we arrived at an unassuming weatherboard cottage in Brunswick to be greeted by design director Nick James. Opening up the bevy of doors and windows, James exposed us to the near arctic blast – but also to the intent of the design. James humbly described an “adequate” home that met the client’s desire for a house that led you down an internal garden path.
While the original double-fronted weatherboard remains in the streetscape, the additions carve out the plan, revealing courtyards and small-scale rooms of green-filled wonder. Stone paving blurs the lines between inside and out, clinging closely to the pink pigment of the softly rendered bricks.
Modest but perfectly proportioned guest accommodation above the rear garage overlooks the garden space as well as the laneway of a suburb that can only be enriched by the spirit of this home – which the jury found to be far more than “adequate”.
Arcadia leads us joyfully into an apparent golden age of “additions and alterations” – a term that seemingly undersells architecture of this quality.
While the original double-fronted weatherboard remains in the streetscape, the additions carve out the plan, revealing courtyards and small-scale rooms of green-filled wonder. Stone paving blurs the lines between inside and out, clinging closely to the pink pigment of the softly rendered bricks.
Modest but perfectly proportioned guest accommodation above the rear garage overlooks the garden space as well as the laneway of a suburb that can only be enriched by the spirit of this home – which the jury found to be far more than “adequate”.
Arcadia leads us joyfully into an apparent golden age of “additions and alterations” – a term that seemingly undersells architecture of this quality.
Images by Rory Gardiner.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Autumn House by Studio Bright
Location: Carlton North, Victoria
Project description: Autumn House attempts to negotiate the need for refuge, retreat, and privacy with generosity and engagement with the urban context.
An extension to a Victorian terrace with an 1980s renovation by architect Mick Jörgensen and a mature elm tree in the backyard, in effect it adds a careful new layer stitched into and around these constraints.
The project attempts to sympathetically balance the architecture of the Victorian and the Jörgensen addition with a new contribution by our studio. Autumn House deflects its plan form around the elm tree, surrounding and embracing the canopy and bringing the seasonal beauty of the tree into daily life.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Autumn House by Studio Bright
Location: Carlton North, Victoria
Project description: Autumn House attempts to negotiate the need for refuge, retreat, and privacy with generosity and engagement with the urban context.
An extension to a Victorian terrace with an 1980s renovation by architect Mick Jörgensen and a mature elm tree in the backyard, in effect it adds a careful new layer stitched into and around these constraints.
The project attempts to sympathetically balance the architecture of the Victorian and the Jörgensen addition with a new contribution by our studio. Autumn House deflects its plan form around the elm tree, surrounding and embracing the canopy and bringing the seasonal beauty of the tree into daily life.
Jury comments: The latest incarnation of this Victorian-era terrace with an 1980s renovation by architect by Mick Jörgensen has delivered a family home full of thoughtfulness, consideration and style. Studio Bright’s work includes a new addition at the rear consisting of a kitchen, living room and master bedroom. A rooftop deck basks in the winter sun while a mesh framework prevents overlooking and waits patiently for the jasmine to take over.
A sliding door off the kitchen reveals the best of Jörgensen’s work: the original lounge room with a central bagged-brick fireplace that is presented almost as an architectural tribute. A wonderful example of the care that went into this work is the shower curtain, hand sown by lead architect Maia Close after a suitable one couldn’t be found.
This is a project that successfully marries the old and the not-so-old, presenting an exciting vision for the continuing reinvention of the humble terrace. In a classic Melbourne sporting analogy, Studio Bright is a football team on song.
A sliding door off the kitchen reveals the best of Jörgensen’s work: the original lounge room with a central bagged-brick fireplace that is presented almost as an architectural tribute. A wonderful example of the care that went into this work is the shower curtain, hand sown by lead architect Maia Close after a suitable one couldn’t be found.
This is a project that successfully marries the old and the not-so-old, presenting an exciting vision for the continuing reinvention of the humble terrace. In a classic Melbourne sporting analogy, Studio Bright is a football team on song.
Images by Adam Gibson.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Fusilier Cottage by Bence Mulcahy
Location: Battery Point, Tasmania
Project description: Fusilier Cottage occupies the corner of the site with a garden and a large sycamore tree in the other half – a feature in the Hampden Road streetscape. Planning was driven by the mixed-use brief and accommodates much of the new program at the cottage’s rear, with the living pavilion peeking into the north/street-facing garden.
Form, scale and materiality of the new work engages with the context, is subservient to the main cottage and neighbours. While occupying its own space in the garden, it observes a healthy setback from the sycamore tree.
The timber sliding doors and screens moderate privacy, sun, light and views and the internal planning utilises the ‘shadow’ of the existing cottage to create privacy within other domestic spaces.
The changing facade provides enjoyable engagement with streetscape and community.
The new work appears small and simple and upon inspection reveals itself as expansive and complex.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Fusilier Cottage by Bence Mulcahy
Location: Battery Point, Tasmania
Project description: Fusilier Cottage occupies the corner of the site with a garden and a large sycamore tree in the other half – a feature in the Hampden Road streetscape. Planning was driven by the mixed-use brief and accommodates much of the new program at the cottage’s rear, with the living pavilion peeking into the north/street-facing garden.
Form, scale and materiality of the new work engages with the context, is subservient to the main cottage and neighbours. While occupying its own space in the garden, it observes a healthy setback from the sycamore tree.
The timber sliding doors and screens moderate privacy, sun, light and views and the internal planning utilises the ‘shadow’ of the existing cottage to create privacy within other domestic spaces.
The changing facade provides enjoyable engagement with streetscape and community.
The new work appears small and simple and upon inspection reveals itself as expansive and complex.
Jury comments: Hobart’s Battery Point is full of charm and the 1830s Georgian bluestone cottage opposite a rather good bakery on Hampden Road has had an enduring connection to the community. The garden of Fusilier Cottage has long acted as a de facto public park, with many happily spending time under the shade of its gracefully ageing sycamore tree.
The new addition by Bence Mulcahy is a glorious exercise in restraint and understanding of this heritage building in relation to the streetscape. The new timber pavilion sits exquisitely in the garden, with large sliding doors that enable the occupants to either embrace the crisp Hobart air or retreat to the warmth and privacy behind the timber screening.
Internally, the bluestone flooring connects with the original building and the timber cabinetry adds to the comfort and sense of modern permanence of this home.
With a light touch that is indicative of the inspired current trajectory of Tasmanian architecture, Fusilier Cottage presents as a thoughtful and delightful gift to those seduced by the romance of Battery Point. Come for a sausage roll and stay for the architecture.
Browse more images on Houzz of contemporary Australian dining rooms with timber elements
The new addition by Bence Mulcahy is a glorious exercise in restraint and understanding of this heritage building in relation to the streetscape. The new timber pavilion sits exquisitely in the garden, with large sliding doors that enable the occupants to either embrace the crisp Hobart air or retreat to the warmth and privacy behind the timber screening.
Internally, the bluestone flooring connects with the original building and the timber cabinetry adds to the comfort and sense of modern permanence of this home.
With a light touch that is indicative of the inspired current trajectory of Tasmanian architecture, Fusilier Cottage presents as a thoughtful and delightful gift to those seduced by the romance of Battery Point. Come for a sausage roll and stay for the architecture.
Browse more images on Houzz of contemporary Australian dining rooms with timber elements
Images by Nikolas Strugar.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
National Commendation: Currumbin Waters House by Nielsen Jenkins
Location: Currumbin Waters, Queensland
Project description: Currumbin Waters House is the renovation of a single-storey 1989 display home, which sits on a shared title with the other three house models along a common driveway.
A set of small deletions have been used to open the house up along its north-south and east-west axes to introduce breeze and light to the interior.
Simple structures are then used on the boundaries to give a much more generous sense of space and bring the outside in.
Brick elements are retained to provide a memory of the original plan and to stretch the interior into the landscape. Simple paling ‘fence’ structures manage privacy and create an extended pedestrian threshold along the shared boundary.
We’re hoping this project can set an example for a budget-conscious repurposing of this building typology on the Gold Coast that will allow a much more sustainable, connected and conscious way of living.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
National Commendation: Currumbin Waters House by Nielsen Jenkins
Location: Currumbin Waters, Queensland
Project description: Currumbin Waters House is the renovation of a single-storey 1989 display home, which sits on a shared title with the other three house models along a common driveway.
A set of small deletions have been used to open the house up along its north-south and east-west axes to introduce breeze and light to the interior.
Simple structures are then used on the boundaries to give a much more generous sense of space and bring the outside in.
Brick elements are retained to provide a memory of the original plan and to stretch the interior into the landscape. Simple paling ‘fence’ structures manage privacy and create an extended pedestrian threshold along the shared boundary.
We’re hoping this project can set an example for a budget-conscious repurposing of this building typology on the Gold Coast that will allow a much more sustainable, connected and conscious way of living.
Jury comments: If there’s a simple project that deserves to be applauded, it’s this renovation and reconfiguration by Nielsen Jenkins of an unremarkable project home in the back blocks of the Gold Coast. Among the ageing Commodores and struggling palm trees, this budget intervention creates elevated spaces within the existing footprint and opens the house toward a new covered courtyard, which finally gives this home the connection to climate it deserves.
This is everyday, accessible architecture that paves the way for our ageing suburban housing stock to evolve sustainably.
This is everyday, accessible architecture that paves the way for our ageing suburban housing stock to evolve sustainably.
Images by Toby Scott.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Cascade House by John Ellway
Location: Paddington, Queensland
Project description: A 1900s timber cottage sits on a wide but shallow site with a small addition on the side. The addition visually recedes, separated by courtyard and landscape, leaving the original cottage sitting proudly on the street.
The addition becomes the more public parts of the house. It is broken up into a series of split levels to mediate a large topography change across the site. A place to gather for meals and games opens onto grass and across a pool. A lounge and breezeway connect the extension to the cottage, which now contains the private bedroom and bathrooms.
The pitch of the verandah roof is extended over the cascading split levels below, protecting them from the afternoon western sun.
Moving across the linking breezeway, the new extension sits below eye level, editing out the foreground, and allowing an uninterrupted outlook to the sunset, valley and hills.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Cascade House by John Ellway
Location: Paddington, Queensland
Project description: A 1900s timber cottage sits on a wide but shallow site with a small addition on the side. The addition visually recedes, separated by courtyard and landscape, leaving the original cottage sitting proudly on the street.
The addition becomes the more public parts of the house. It is broken up into a series of split levels to mediate a large topography change across the site. A place to gather for meals and games opens onto grass and across a pool. A lounge and breezeway connect the extension to the cottage, which now contains the private bedroom and bathrooms.
The pitch of the verandah roof is extended over the cascading split levels below, protecting them from the afternoon western sun.
Moving across the linking breezeway, the new extension sits below eye level, editing out the foreground, and allowing an uninterrupted outlook to the sunset, valley and hills.
Jury comments: Brisbane architect John Ellway’s solo career to date has been defined by a series of inventive and thoughtful homes for clients on modest budgets. Cascade House is a fine continuation of this tradition.
On a hilly Paddington street, a weatherboard cottage has been modified solidly inside. But the magic of this project lies in the way the architect has backed the addition down the hill. A series of perfectly scaled, cascading spaces enable the new kitchen, dining room and in-built lounge to bask in the sun and interact with the lush and enchanting garden.
During their visit, jury members found themselves living into the space, rather than judging – perhaps the definition of a successful design.
Ellway has delivered a humble project that is playful and full of life. It sits perfectly in the evolution of a Brisbane typology that is full of regional romanticism, fit for both purpose and climate.
On a hilly Paddington street, a weatherboard cottage has been modified solidly inside. But the magic of this project lies in the way the architect has backed the addition down the hill. A series of perfectly scaled, cascading spaces enable the new kitchen, dining room and in-built lounge to bask in the sun and interact with the lush and enchanting garden.
During their visit, jury members found themselves living into the space, rather than judging – perhaps the definition of a successful design.
Ellway has delivered a humble project that is playful and full of life. It sits perfectly in the evolution of a Brisbane typology that is full of regional romanticism, fit for both purpose and climate.
Images by Sharyn Cairns.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Stable & Cart House by Clare Cousins Architects
Location: North Melbourne, Victoria
Project description: Originally a stable and cart store designed by esteemed architect Harry A Norris, Stable & Cart House is a sensitive adaptation, engaging thoughtfully with the imperfections and idiosyncrasies of the 1920s brick warehouse.
The design challenge presented itself as a paradox – to introduce the obligatory domestic program while preserving the warehouse scale of the interior and memories of its past.
The original facade remains untouched. The interior strategy was an exercise in restrained removal and repair only when structural integrity required intervention.
Domestic zoning occurs around an introduced courtyard, with the insertion of rich blackbutt-clad rooms, primarily containing spaces for utility or privacy. The rust-hued steel stair goes beyond its utility, playfully engaging with existing structural members, providing opportunities for elevated vantage points, and dividing the expansive living space into more intimate spaces.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Joint National Award Winner: Stable & Cart House by Clare Cousins Architects
Location: North Melbourne, Victoria
Project description: Originally a stable and cart store designed by esteemed architect Harry A Norris, Stable & Cart House is a sensitive adaptation, engaging thoughtfully with the imperfections and idiosyncrasies of the 1920s brick warehouse.
The design challenge presented itself as a paradox – to introduce the obligatory domestic program while preserving the warehouse scale of the interior and memories of its past.
The original facade remains untouched. The interior strategy was an exercise in restrained removal and repair only when structural integrity required intervention.
Domestic zoning occurs around an introduced courtyard, with the insertion of rich blackbutt-clad rooms, primarily containing spaces for utility or privacy. The rust-hued steel stair goes beyond its utility, playfully engaging with existing structural members, providing opportunities for elevated vantage points, and dividing the expansive living space into more intimate spaces.
Jury comments: With a sensitive adaptation of a 1920s warehouse in North Melbourne, Clare Cousins Architects has realised the dream of its Sydney-based clients: to return to Melbourne and reside in a building they have owned since the early 1990s.
Originally a stable and cart store in a classic inner-city laneway, the historical shell has been reinvigorated with a sympathetic yet inventive touch.
A bright and inviting internal courtyard has been cleverly carved into the structure, breathing light and life into the large, open living space. A colourful steel staircase and walkway links this living area to the upstairs bedroom and swoon-worthy Japanese bath.
This is a carefully balanced heritage project that perfectly elevates the contemporary while retaining the best of the fabric and charm of the original building. Surprisingly warm and inviting, the spaces exude a confidence that will see Stable & Cart House age gracefully.
Originally a stable and cart store in a classic inner-city laneway, the historical shell has been reinvigorated with a sympathetic yet inventive touch.
A bright and inviting internal courtyard has been cleverly carved into the structure, breathing light and life into the large, open living space. A colourful steel staircase and walkway links this living area to the upstairs bedroom and swoon-worthy Japanese bath.
This is a carefully balanced heritage project that perfectly elevates the contemporary while retaining the best of the fabric and charm of the original building. Surprisingly warm and inviting, the spaces exude a confidence that will see Stable & Cart House age gracefully.
Images by Jack Lovel.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
Joint National Award Winner: Jimmy’s House by MJA Studio with Studio Roam and IOTA
Location: North Perth, WA
Project description: This home seeks to challenge the business-as-usual approach to battle-axe subdivisions. Our brief was to fit more area for gardens and courtyards than the site itself, to flip the typical diagram and make the laneway our front door and open up to the adjacent park. It had to be compliant with the R-codes (residential design codes) and generous to its neighbours.
This home riffs on the work of Marshall Clifton and Julius Elischer and their search for an appropriate vernacular architecture for Perth – in this case a courtyard house arranged around and within a series of seasonal garden rooms.
This project has exceeded the brief requirements. Approved via delegated authority, it achieves 277 square metres of gardens and open space on the 256-square-metre lot and is appreciated by its neighbours and the local community for the way it interacts with existing structures, the laneway and the park.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
Joint National Award Winner: Jimmy’s House by MJA Studio with Studio Roam and IOTA
Location: North Perth, WA
Project description: This home seeks to challenge the business-as-usual approach to battle-axe subdivisions. Our brief was to fit more area for gardens and courtyards than the site itself, to flip the typical diagram and make the laneway our front door and open up to the adjacent park. It had to be compliant with the R-codes (residential design codes) and generous to its neighbours.
This home riffs on the work of Marshall Clifton and Julius Elischer and their search for an appropriate vernacular architecture for Perth – in this case a courtyard house arranged around and within a series of seasonal garden rooms.
This project has exceeded the brief requirements. Approved via delegated authority, it achieves 277 square metres of gardens and open space on the 256-square-metre lot and is appreciated by its neighbours and the local community for the way it interacts with existing structures, the laneway and the park.
Jury comments: A delightful exploration into compact suburban infill housing, Jimmy’s House resolves multiple competing site conditions through the considered delivery of a climate-mitigating courtyard plan.
Situated adjacent to an open parkland, the house has two public frontages: one to a side laneway and the other toward a playground on the site’s immediate boundary. Subtle manipulation of the compact plan carefully negotiates the proximity of these public edges, using the shared realm to borrow amenity.
Through a series of carefully observed moments, the interior life of the house is subtly expanded out into its neighbourhood. This effort is captured poetically in a series of unconventional and delightful adjacencies.
While the scale of the plan is compact, the house finds release in generous areas of garden across three terraces. Biodiverse and verdant, this landscape not only counterbalances the interior atmosphere of the house, but also subtly reinforces its generous disposition toward the street. Other civic qualities and local traditions are evoked through the form, materiality and fenestration of the project.
This is a small house that harbours a wonderful world of ideas and experiences.
Situated adjacent to an open parkland, the house has two public frontages: one to a side laneway and the other toward a playground on the site’s immediate boundary. Subtle manipulation of the compact plan carefully negotiates the proximity of these public edges, using the shared realm to borrow amenity.
Through a series of carefully observed moments, the interior life of the house is subtly expanded out into its neighbourhood. This effort is captured poetically in a series of unconventional and delightful adjacencies.
While the scale of the plan is compact, the house finds release in generous areas of garden across three terraces. Biodiverse and verdant, this landscape not only counterbalances the interior atmosphere of the house, but also subtly reinforces its generous disposition toward the street. Other civic qualities and local traditions are evoked through the form, materiality and fenestration of the project.
This is a small house that harbours a wonderful world of ideas and experiences.
Images by Rory Gardiner.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
National Commendation: Corner House by Archier
Location: Flinders, Victoria
Project description: At under 200 square metres, Corner House is a relatively modest home that manages to generate a variety of experiences and relationships within a small number of spaces, while maintaining the integrity of a singular, ‘elemental’ architectural gesture.
The floor plan of Corner House achieves a rich and dynamic range of experiences. Each corner volume is connected via slender circulation spaces that act as galleries for the client’s much-loved art collection and facilitate a gradual ascent from the tall, airy entry and studio space to a more intimately scaled kitchen, dining and living spaces.
The strong connection to the central landscape courtyard provides further unique moments. As the occupant travels up each stepped hallway, the view to the landscape gradually shifts from undergrowth to canopy.
The Structural Insulated Panel System (SIPS) construction methodology is also very unique; this panellised construction provides a high thermal performance, airtight envelope and textured internal finish.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
National Commendation: Corner House by Archier
Location: Flinders, Victoria
Project description: At under 200 square metres, Corner House is a relatively modest home that manages to generate a variety of experiences and relationships within a small number of spaces, while maintaining the integrity of a singular, ‘elemental’ architectural gesture.
The floor plan of Corner House achieves a rich and dynamic range of experiences. Each corner volume is connected via slender circulation spaces that act as galleries for the client’s much-loved art collection and facilitate a gradual ascent from the tall, airy entry and studio space to a more intimately scaled kitchen, dining and living spaces.
The strong connection to the central landscape courtyard provides further unique moments. As the occupant travels up each stepped hallway, the view to the landscape gradually shifts from undergrowth to canopy.
The Structural Insulated Panel System (SIPS) construction methodology is also very unique; this panellised construction provides a high thermal performance, airtight envelope and textured internal finish.
Jury comments: The revelation of Corner House, which is a fascinating study in an ordered and considered plan, is its clarity of spatial sequencing, and the intensified and harbouring nature of the garden court. Shielding the residence from an active arterial road, the exterior intensifies a gentle, protected landscape strategy, which has been iteratively honed through Archier’s considerable research into the idea of the garden room.
The plan arrangement is ambitious, nuanced and carefully composed, creating a new internal topography that is warm and delightful. The garden court section is subtly terraced and modulated as a series of stepping rooms, which work with the transparencies of the cruciform courtyard plan.
Climate-ameliorating and tectonically rich, the house establishes a clear strategy of a protective exterior alongside welcoming interiors.
The plan arrangement is ambitious, nuanced and carefully composed, creating a new internal topography that is warm and delightful. The garden court section is subtly terraced and modulated as a series of stepping rooms, which work with the transparencies of the cruciform courtyard plan.
Climate-ameliorating and tectonically rich, the house establishes a clear strategy of a protective exterior alongside welcoming interiors.
Images by Clinton Weaver.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
Joint National Award Winner: Curl Curl House by TRIAS
Location: Curl Curl, NSW
Project description: Curl Curl House was designed for an introverted family, who sought a home that would feel protective, reclusive and quiet. The project was inspired by time spent in Mexico. There, we were drawn to an urban condition where houses were hidden behind walls, creating private oases within.
Curl Curl House is a walled garden house that feels calm, confident and quiet. Its twin sentinels peer above their fence line, partly visible between greenery. The house is composed of two brick towers, linked by a pavilion. Thickened brick walls evoke solidity and heft.
Our sustainability approach focused on longevity and achieving carbon-neutral operations. The home is all electric; its hydronics, heating, cooling and hot water are all solar-powered.
Curl Curl House elegantly reconciles two common contexts found in Sydney: the brick suburbs and the coast. The result is a relaxed yet ambitious work of architecture that aspires to timelessness.
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
Joint National Award Winner: Curl Curl House by TRIAS
Location: Curl Curl, NSW
Project description: Curl Curl House was designed for an introverted family, who sought a home that would feel protective, reclusive and quiet. The project was inspired by time spent in Mexico. There, we were drawn to an urban condition where houses were hidden behind walls, creating private oases within.
Curl Curl House is a walled garden house that feels calm, confident and quiet. Its twin sentinels peer above their fence line, partly visible between greenery. The house is composed of two brick towers, linked by a pavilion. Thickened brick walls evoke solidity and heft.
Our sustainability approach focused on longevity and achieving carbon-neutral operations. The home is all electric; its hydronics, heating, cooling and hot water are all solar-powered.
Curl Curl House elegantly reconciles two common contexts found in Sydney: the brick suburbs and the coast. The result is a relaxed yet ambitious work of architecture that aspires to timelessness.
Jury comments: Part of a growing lineage of projects produced by TRIAS that carefully explores questions of domesticity and materiality, Curl Curl House is a further study in rigorous civic strategy and craft.
Generated by the nature of its corner site, the structure of the plan is bracketed by two brick ‘towers’ that hold the communal realm of the house in relation to the garden and its wider context. This strategy is fundamentally a diagram of togetherness, where the life of a family, and its personal and public needs, are scaffolded by a carefully ordered plan. Curl Curl House prioritises longevity and durability.
Deep reveals and screened thresholds are located to provide depth for shading, joinery and occupation. Hardwood is used to elongate thresholds and brass channels are carefully delineated to control the patina of weathering.
The jury was impressed by the strong environmental goals of the project, which enrich the poetic aspirations of the architectural outcome. The calm internal atmosphere of the house is understated and marvellously calibrated. The interior offers both a domestic realm grounded by communal life and spaces of deep solace.
Generated by the nature of its corner site, the structure of the plan is bracketed by two brick ‘towers’ that hold the communal realm of the house in relation to the garden and its wider context. This strategy is fundamentally a diagram of togetherness, where the life of a family, and its personal and public needs, are scaffolded by a carefully ordered plan. Curl Curl House prioritises longevity and durability.
Deep reveals and screened thresholds are located to provide depth for shading, joinery and occupation. Hardwood is used to elongate thresholds and brass channels are carefully delineated to control the patina of weathering.
The jury was impressed by the strong environmental goals of the project, which enrich the poetic aspirations of the architectural outcome. The calm internal atmosphere of the house is understated and marvellously calibrated. The interior offers both a domestic realm grounded by communal life and spaces of deep solace.
Images by Christopher Frederick Jones.
Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing
National Award Winner: Anne Street Garden Villas by Anna O’Gorman Architect
Location: Southport, Queensland
Project description: In collaboration with the Queensland Government, this project was a unique opportunity to challenge the conventions of social housing, and create a more liveable, forward-thinking model. Our aim was to employ small design moves that could have a big impact, and offer a more efficient alternative to single-dwelling living, without sacrificing the amenity offered by freestanding homes.
Design workshops with current tenants informed our design approach, and the resulting development strives to make a positive contribution to the neighbourhood. The design prioritises pedestrian scale movement and provides opportunities to engage with the broader neighbourhood. The bulk and scale of the built form is restrained and the aesthetic responds to local contextual studies.
Small, efficient dwelling footprints kept costs down and created space for a shared outdoor garden, which is key to both the social sustainability of the project and passive design moves across the site.
Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing
National Award Winner: Anne Street Garden Villas by Anna O’Gorman Architect
Location: Southport, Queensland
Project description: In collaboration with the Queensland Government, this project was a unique opportunity to challenge the conventions of social housing, and create a more liveable, forward-thinking model. Our aim was to employ small design moves that could have a big impact, and offer a more efficient alternative to single-dwelling living, without sacrificing the amenity offered by freestanding homes.
Design workshops with current tenants informed our design approach, and the resulting development strives to make a positive contribution to the neighbourhood. The design prioritises pedestrian scale movement and provides opportunities to engage with the broader neighbourhood. The bulk and scale of the built form is restrained and the aesthetic responds to local contextual studies.
Small, efficient dwelling footprints kept costs down and created space for a shared outdoor garden, which is key to both the social sustainability of the project and passive design moves across the site.
Jury comments: An exemplary scheme in its spatial nuance and neighbourliness, Anne Street Garden Villas is an exquisite offering to the typology of community housing. Through a material and architectural language steeped in ancient ideas of domesticity and society, the enclave of villas possesses a sense of autonomy that can be seen in the traditional freestanding home, but with the added dignity of communal life and shared gardens.
The planning is fine-grained, with thresholds, gardens, plinths and terraces ordering the social terrain of the site. The built volume steps up from the street to preserve scale at the frontage and rises to two storeys at the rear. Sensibly, cars are kept to the side and a court is established at the centre of the site, offering a communal biophilic garden at the heart of the community.
The detail and spatial tone of Anne Street Garden Villas is executed with considerable finesse, with private rooms carefully grouped to subtly demarcate communal gardens. Economical materials are used in myriad ways – as furniture, screens and edges that set the scene for the public and personal lives of the residents.
The architectural empathy of this project contributes to its importance as an exceptional and timely exemplar within this typology.
The planning is fine-grained, with thresholds, gardens, plinths and terraces ordering the social terrain of the site. The built volume steps up from the street to preserve scale at the frontage and rises to two storeys at the rear. Sensibly, cars are kept to the side and a court is established at the centre of the site, offering a communal biophilic garden at the heart of the community.
The detail and spatial tone of Anne Street Garden Villas is executed with considerable finesse, with private rooms carefully grouped to subtly demarcate communal gardens. Economical materials are used in myriad ways – as furniture, screens and edges that set the scene for the public and personal lives of the residents.
The architectural empathy of this project contributes to its importance as an exceptional and timely exemplar within this typology.
Images by Rory Gardiner.
Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing
Winner of the Frederick Romberg Award: Quay Quarter Lanes by Studio Bright
Location: Circular Quay, NSW
Project description: Quay Quarter Lanes is the rejuvenation of a city block in the heart of Sydney. The project comprises a collection of new and restored buildings and laneways.
Three new buildings designed by SJB, Silvester Fuller and Studio Bright complement the site’s heritage wool store Hinchcliff House, restored by Carter Williamson, and the Gallipoli Memorial Club, restored by Lippmann Partnership.
Our building at 8 Loftus Street squeezes itself between Customs House and the Gallipoli Memorial Club, maintaining continuity of the building line and massing of this historical thoroughfare. Two levels of retail form a base for 31 apartments.
An arcade link marries the busy street to the inner laneway refuge. The new building shifts and folds, fluidly responding to spatial influences and contextual constraints, ensuring an activated and people-focused public realm.
Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing
Winner of the Frederick Romberg Award: Quay Quarter Lanes by Studio Bright
Location: Circular Quay, NSW
Project description: Quay Quarter Lanes is the rejuvenation of a city block in the heart of Sydney. The project comprises a collection of new and restored buildings and laneways.
Three new buildings designed by SJB, Silvester Fuller and Studio Bright complement the site’s heritage wool store Hinchcliff House, restored by Carter Williamson, and the Gallipoli Memorial Club, restored by Lippmann Partnership.
Our building at 8 Loftus Street squeezes itself between Customs House and the Gallipoli Memorial Club, maintaining continuity of the building line and massing of this historical thoroughfare. Two levels of retail form a base for 31 apartments.
An arcade link marries the busy street to the inner laneway refuge. The new building shifts and folds, fluidly responding to spatial influences and contextual constraints, ensuring an activated and people-focused public realm.
Jury comments: 8 Loftus Street is a masterful urban housing proposition. The project ameliorates a complex site through a series of restrained and carefully observed spatial moves. Its urban sophistication is coupled with a remarkable attention to detail.
At street level, the bipartite plan affords an arcade, providing permeability, civic intrigue and a linkage to Loftus Lane, while calibrating the floorplate into two ‘neighbourhoods’. This permeability is carried through the public and retail functions on the first two floors; above this, 31 apartments are layered. The apartment interiors are subtle and restrained; each is afforded a garden terrace, with daylight in all living areas and bedrooms.
The mass of the upper floors responds sensitively to the adjacent context and the urban envelope, preserving formal relations and ensuring that sunlight to the nearby Macquarie Place Park is not compromised. The roof gardens simultaneously shroud services, while offering amenity and recreation to residents in the form of undulating gardens.
Soft grey brick, perforated sheetmetal screens and steel datums articulate the facade, creating fine contours in dialogue with the stone friezes of the adjacent fabric. Veiling elements are deployed with characteristic finesse, both articulating the life of the facade and modulating the interior environment. The composition is subtle, beautiful and highly attenuated to its setting.
Works of this clarity are rare and cannot be executed without unusual dedication, patience and tenacity. Commensurate quality is often only achieved in the domestic realm; Studio Bright has stepped out of this private sphere and into the civic scale without diluting its care and attention to the craft of making buildings. Everything about 8 Loftus Street is responsive, considered and resolved, making it deserving of this highest recognition.
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Ready to see some award-winning interiors? Don’t miss this story: See the Winners of the 2021 Australian Interior Design Awards
At street level, the bipartite plan affords an arcade, providing permeability, civic intrigue and a linkage to Loftus Lane, while calibrating the floorplate into two ‘neighbourhoods’. This permeability is carried through the public and retail functions on the first two floors; above this, 31 apartments are layered. The apartment interiors are subtle and restrained; each is afforded a garden terrace, with daylight in all living areas and bedrooms.
The mass of the upper floors responds sensitively to the adjacent context and the urban envelope, preserving formal relations and ensuring that sunlight to the nearby Macquarie Place Park is not compromised. The roof gardens simultaneously shroud services, while offering amenity and recreation to residents in the form of undulating gardens.
Soft grey brick, perforated sheetmetal screens and steel datums articulate the facade, creating fine contours in dialogue with the stone friezes of the adjacent fabric. Veiling elements are deployed with characteristic finesse, both articulating the life of the facade and modulating the interior environment. The composition is subtle, beautiful and highly attenuated to its setting.
Works of this clarity are rare and cannot be executed without unusual dedication, patience and tenacity. Commensurate quality is often only achieved in the domestic realm; Studio Bright has stepped out of this private sphere and into the civic scale without diluting its care and attention to the craft of making buildings. Everything about 8 Loftus Street is responsive, considered and resolved, making it deserving of this highest recognition.
Your turn
Which of these homes impresses you most? Tell us in the Comments, like this story, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Ready to see some award-winning interiors? Don’t miss this story: See the Winners of the 2021 Australian Interior Design Awards
Sustainable Architecture
National Award Winner: The Hütt 01 Passivhaus by Melbourne Design Studios (MDS)
Location: Coburg, Victoria
Project description: The Hütt 01 Passivhaus regenerates a forgotten piece of land in the middle of Melbourne’s urban jungle, creating a ‘wedge of calm’. It is a building that not only provides a healthy home for the people living in it, but also a building that is good for the planet and creates more energy than it uses. The architects call it TMRW by Hütt: A Beacon of Hope for the Future. Or simply put: an inspirational response to the challenges facing the built environment in a changing world.
The journey of our Hütt 01 Passivhaus coming to life was followed by ‘Grand Designs Australia’ (Series 9, Episode 8, available on ABC and iView), which can be watched online.