Innehållsförteckning för Issue 153 August 2023 från Houses

Welcome to our Houses special awards issue, which is dedicated to the exceptional houses, apartments and gardens that have been recognized in the 2023 Houses Awards. This year’s winners demonstrate the resourceful ways that architects and designers can untangle the constraints of site, climate and context to reveal joyful and responsive homes that enrich domestic life. The highest accolade, Australian House of the Year, is awarded to Michael Lumby with Nielsen Jenkins for Merricks Farmhouse. Ambitious and accomplished, this courtyard house demonstrates a masterful handling of scale and consummate affinity between house and landscape. From private bathing spaces to sheltered terraces and lofty living zones, this is a home with plentiful opportunities for connection to place and to others. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, and a big thank…

Much of our older housing stock provides a built record of a city’s changing social fabric. Helvetia, a two-storey terrace built in the early nineteenth century on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, is a building that is rich with layers of adaptation that reflect the ways that household demographics have changed as waves of gentrification rolled through Fitzroy, a formerly working-class suburb of Melbourne. The challenge for owners and architects often lies in unpicking these layers and determining what to retain and what to remove. In its more recent past, this grand Victorian corner terrace was divided into rooms and self-contained apartments, isolating spaces across the home’s interior while simultaneously establishing a series of laneway connections. A 1960s conversion into a boarding house had removed the internal…

Award for Australian House of the Year is supported by This courtyard house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula harnesses the many opportunities of a large coastal site to support a restorative experience of place. Blessed with the luxury of space, the design’s adept handling of scale achieves a domestic ease that is hard to perfect on large sites. A decisive form and robust materiality are elevated by precise detailing and meticulous execution, achieving a building that is at once an ambitious and accomplished architectural project, and a warm and welcoming home. The jury was captivated by the consummate interlacing of house and landscape, which instils calm and equilibrium in the home. Living, sleeping and bathing spaces capture views of outdoor rooms and private courtyards, framed by the home’s elemental walls. Vistas…

Award for New House over 200 square metres is supported by It is complicated to build a house on a headland ridge in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, even more so on a battleaxe block surrounded by existing houses. Sites are subject to strict planning constraints and a harsh natural environment and bound by fiercely defended harbour views. Chenchow Little has embraced these constraints to deliver an extraordinary new home for a young family. The unconventional floor plan, chamfered to avoid conflict, results in a unique form and, without a typical street presence, the house is viewed in the round as a beautiful but foreign object. Its materiality anchors it to place: shiplap timber cladding references the fishermen’s cottages that were once typical on this headland, contrasting the house with the now-predominant…

Award for Sustainability is supported by The words “refresh,” “renew” and “refurbish” don’t wholly elucidate the new state of this wonderfully crafted home. This careful rehabilitation of a 1970s home honours and elevates the original design, the lived experience of the home and the environment that it sits in. Honest and hand-built, homes of this era can feel ephemeral, and many exist on borrowed time. But those who have lived in similar dwellings will feel a warm appreciation for this considerate renovation, which will steward the house into a new era. This is a project that authenticates the sustainable message of repair over rebuild. Resisting the urge to extend down, up or out, the architect-owners have attentively and deliberatively ensured that this home delivers a new standard for comfort, bettering…

HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M² NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M² APARTMENT OR UNIT GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT SUSTAINABILITY EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE REGISTRATIONS FOR THE 2024 HOUSES AWARDS WILL OPEN IN JANUARY 2024. HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU…

Aaron Peters Writer Aaron Peters co-founded Vokes and Peters with Stuart Vokes in 2015. The practice produces buildings that respond to prevailing settings, cultural narratives, human occupation and the presence of nature. Aaron has written and spoken widely about suburban Brisbane housing, small-scale urbanism, and the contribution of private houses to the civic life of the city. Genevieve Lilley Writer Genevieve Lilley is an architect practising in Tasmania. After working for 8 years for Sir David Chipperfield, she opened her own practice in London in 1999, in Sydney in 2005, and in Hobart in 2013. She currently sits on the Tasmanian Heritage Council, continues to practise in adaptive re-use, and consults to a number of government bodies and clients on complex strategic projects. Pier Carthew Photographer Pier Carthew is an…

Award for House Alteration and Addition over 200 square metres is supported by In the current economic climate, the construction industry has been beset with uncertainty caused by escalating material and labour costs, rising interest rates and increasing pressure on the housing market. Compounded by the urgency of the climate crisis, these challenges demand solutions that are respectful, resourceful and responsible. This composed alteration and addition is attentive to these fundamental responsibilities by working with the existing fabric and intentionally doing less. Strategic and surgical, the interventions retain most of the grand, Victorian-era house as well as its 1990s addition, skilfully repositioning rooms and openings to fine-tune the plan for contemporary use. A delicate new stair unlocks circulation, greatly improving connection between floors and drawing light deep into the floor…

Award for Garden or Landscape is supported by This understated courtyard space is a timeless and carefully considered landscape intervention. Engaged with an initial brief to build more space for a growing family, the design team’s counterproposal was to practise the art of undoing rather than accumulation: removing a two-car garage to permit the reinstatement of the home’s primary outdoor space. In the new courtyard, a modest selection of materials is enhanced by highly considered details and the delightful play of light and shadow. This is a place for pause, for sitting in the afternoon sun to watch dappled light move across the courtyard. A covered verandah, open-air garden, outdoor shower and dining area offer ample flexibility and encourage the occupants to use this outdoor room as part of their…

Award for Emerging Architecture Practice is supported by Saha is an emerging Sydney-based practice comprising Harry Catterns and Sascha Solar-March. In a short period of time, Saha has produced a remarkable and refined portfolio of work that shows the confidence and restraint of a practice with a clear sense of purpose. Quiet, poetic and understated, their buildings seem embedded in place and time. In particular, the jury found their treatment of interstitial space exemplary, as they anticipate and allow room for different uses on the thresholds of their architecture. It is no surprise to learn that both Harry and Sascha have had hands-on experience in the building industry. Their work expresses the craft of construction and possesses a materiality that shows a respect for and understanding of the maker. Details…

Award for House Alteration and Addition under 200 square metres is supported by Exceptional houses are always idiosyncratic in some manner or form. They are about making space in place, with context critical to the recipe: it drives the architect and helps shape or define the nature of the lived experience. This adaptation of a narrow cottage in Melbourne’s Fitzroy fully embraces its gritty urban context. The design maximizes its site, hugging all perimeter boundaries in the process. It is a courtyard house made to work exceedingly hard to accommodate the stuff of life. The courtyard is a literal extension or, more pointedly, an extrusion of the form, with living arrangements stretched visually and programmatically into the outdoors. It is both playful and finely wrought, a very personal examination of…

Award for New House under 200 square metres is supported by In the face of massive cost escalation and uncertainty in the construction industry, Blok Stafford Heights provides a compelling example of how clever and restrained design can produce a low-cost family home that sits at ease in its suburban setting. Modular home builder Blok Modular and architect Vokes and Peters have collaborated to deploy a modest series of site-built blockwork elements, which anchor a prefabricated house – installed in one day – to a sloping site in the Brisbane suburbs. They have created a home with two distinct settings for family life to unfold: a generous courtyard garden and an elevated platform overlooking a panoramic city. Every element in this project has a purpose. Adornment and fanciful detailing are…

Award for House in a Heritage Context is supported by Perched on an escarpment in the state-listed Millers Point Heritage Conservation Area, this pair of neglected 1840s row houses has been transformed into a sophisticated single dwelling by Design 5 Architects. The meticulous analysis, exceptional conservation work and attention to detail that has been invested in this project has resulted in a reinvigorated and exemplary outcome. The architects’ delight in careful physical and documentary investigations signals their commitment to the scheme. Collaboration with archaeologists, stonemasons and tradespeople has led to the diligent reconstruction and revelation of original features that had been impacted by 1940s renovations. This painstaking work restores the interior spatial arrangement and access to natural light, ventilation and passive climate control. An important and rare historic record of…

HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU/GALLERY NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M² NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M² APARTMENT OR UNIT SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU/GALLERY GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT SUSTAINABILITY SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU/GALLERY EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSESAWARDSCOM.AU/GALLERY…