Feast Your Eyes on the 2018 Houses Awards Finalists
Our picks from the latest Houses Awards finalists are sure to inspire you to think outside the home-design square
Joanna Tovia
17 May 2018
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well. Follow her photodocumentary about pets and the people who love them on Instagram @unfoldingtails
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well.... More
Almost 500 projects were submitted for judging in this year’s Houses Awards, celebrating the best in Australian residential architecture and design. These are some of our favourites from the finalists in the New Houses, Alterations and Additions and Apartment categories – we can’t imagine having to choose a winner from these incredible homes! For a full gallery of the finalists, visit Houses Awards and stay tuned for the July 27 announcement of the winner of each category.
NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 SQUARE METRES
Project: House A
Design pro: Whispering Smith
Photos: Ben Hosking
House A is a single-bedroom concrete house for Whispering Smith director Kate FitzGerald and partner Matthew Johnston on a micro-lot in Scarborough, WA. House A is the first of three minimalist, carbon-neutral residences that respond to the vernacular of life in a beachside suburb in Perth.
Project: House A
Design pro: Whispering Smith
Photos: Ben Hosking
House A is a single-bedroom concrete house for Whispering Smith director Kate FitzGerald and partner Matthew Johnston on a micro-lot in Scarborough, WA. House A is the first of three minimalist, carbon-neutral residences that respond to the vernacular of life in a beachside suburb in Perth.
Project: Two Wall House
Design pro: Woods Bagot
Photos: Trevor Mein
The light-filled and spatially expansive Two Wall House provides a new model for urban infill housing. The four-metre-wide home occupies a 160-square-metre site with skylights allowing light to flood throughout. Joinery defines rooms and living zones that open to a courtyard.
Design pro: Woods Bagot
Photos: Trevor Mein
The light-filled and spatially expansive Two Wall House provides a new model for urban infill housing. The four-metre-wide home occupies a 160-square-metre site with skylights allowing light to flood throughout. Joinery defines rooms and living zones that open to a courtyard.
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 SQUARE METRES
Project: Iron Maiden House
Design pro: CplusC Architectural Workshop
Photos: Murray Fredericks
Iron Maiden House was designed for a family of five who wanted a home that celebrated the Sydney climate. The design delivers generous living and entertaining areas that flow to outdoor areas at ground level, while an elevated external corridor connects the children’s bedrooms.
Project: Iron Maiden House
Design pro: CplusC Architectural Workshop
Photos: Murray Fredericks
Iron Maiden House was designed for a family of five who wanted a home that celebrated the Sydney climate. The design delivers generous living and entertaining areas that flow to outdoor areas at ground level, while an elevated external corridor connects the children’s bedrooms.
Project: Roscommon House
Design pro: Neil Cownie Architect
Photos: Michael Nicholson
This home evokes Floreat’s modernist history and incorporates contemporary technologies in appropriate and sustainable ways. Presenting a welcoming gesture to the street, the holistic design spans from architecture to artwork – taking in landscape, interiors, furniture and custom rugs – to embed the house into the existing ‘Garden Suburb’ neigbourhood.
Design pro: Neil Cownie Architect
Photos: Michael Nicholson
This home evokes Floreat’s modernist history and incorporates contemporary technologies in appropriate and sustainable ways. Presenting a welcoming gesture to the street, the holistic design spans from architecture to artwork – taking in landscape, interiors, furniture and custom rugs – to embed the house into the existing ‘Garden Suburb’ neigbourhood.
Project: Mixed Use House
Design pros: Matt Gibson Architecture + Design with DDB Design Development and Building
Photos: Shannon McGrath
The narrow urban infill house, located in St Kilda, presented a unique opportunity to explore an alternative model of family living. An open-minded client approached us wanting to accommodate a large family, embrace inner-city living, and challenge traditional housing typologies.
Design pros: Matt Gibson Architecture + Design with DDB Design Development and Building
Photos: Shannon McGrath
The narrow urban infill house, located in St Kilda, presented a unique opportunity to explore an alternative model of family living. An open-minded client approached us wanting to accommodate a large family, embrace inner-city living, and challenge traditional housing typologies.
Project: Lune de Sang Pavilion
Design pro: CHROFI
Photos: Brett Boardman
Lune de Sang is a unique multi-generational venture that will see a former dairying property in northern NSW transformed into a sustainably harvested forest. The project’s latest component, the Pavilion, defies easy definition as a ‘house’, belonging as it does to a suite of structures that collectively shape the place experience.
Design pro: CHROFI
Photos: Brett Boardman
Lune de Sang is a unique multi-generational venture that will see a former dairying property in northern NSW transformed into a sustainably harvested forest. The project’s latest component, the Pavilion, defies easy definition as a ‘house’, belonging as it does to a suite of structures that collectively shape the place experience.
Project: Tinbeerwah House
Design pro: Teeland Architects Photos: Jared Fowler
A family house in the Noosa hinterland that connects to the ground and opens to the bush, ocean, stars and sky. The house is designed as an operable glass pavilion that is wrapped in sliding hardwood screens, so the owners can control the light, breezes, privacy and views.
Design pro: Teeland Architects Photos: Jared Fowler
A family house in the Noosa hinterland that connects to the ground and opens to the bush, ocean, stars and sky. The house is designed as an operable glass pavilion that is wrapped in sliding hardwood screens, so the owners can control the light, breezes, privacy and views.
HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 SQUARE METRES
Project: Tiger Prawn
Design pro: Wowowa Architecture and Interiors
Photos: Shannon McGrath
Glorified in architecture forever, the humble tiger prawn becomes a two-pronged deity for this Fitzroy North renovation. The Victorian Terrace’s zigzag (almost scalloping) brown-and-gold brick facade was translated and embellished to form the scalloped extension to the rear, whimsically drawing a fortified silhouette in the sky.
Project: Tiger Prawn
Design pro: Wowowa Architecture and Interiors
Photos: Shannon McGrath
Glorified in architecture forever, the humble tiger prawn becomes a two-pronged deity for this Fitzroy North renovation. The Victorian Terrace’s zigzag (almost scalloping) brown-and-gold brick facade was translated and embellished to form the scalloped extension to the rear, whimsically drawing a fortified silhouette in the sky.
Project: Darlinghurst Residence
Design pro: SJB
Photos: Felix Forest
This project was the refurbishment of an 1890s house in Darlinghurst for a family of four. The building is unique for being triangular in plan with a warehouse on the ground floor and a Federation-style house on the upper two levels.
Design pro: SJB
Photos: Felix Forest
This project was the refurbishment of an 1890s house in Darlinghurst for a family of four. The building is unique for being triangular in plan with a warehouse on the ground floor and a Federation-style house on the upper two levels.
Project: Laneway House
Design pro: Jon Jacka Architects
Photos: Jon Jacka
Through a reorientation of the house to the laneway, this project promotes a socially connected neighbourhood, fostering chance encounters with both neighbours and passersby. The ‘back’ becomes a new ‘front’ – the laneway redefined as a pedestrian thoroughfare. An alternative urban proposition is tabled, an alternative future for an inner-city suburb.
Design pro: Jon Jacka Architects
Photos: Jon Jacka
Through a reorientation of the house to the laneway, this project promotes a socially connected neighbourhood, fostering chance encounters with both neighbours and passersby. The ‘back’ becomes a new ‘front’ – the laneway redefined as a pedestrian thoroughfare. An alternative urban proposition is tabled, an alternative future for an inner-city suburb.
HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 SQUARE METRES
Project: King Bill
Design pro: Austin Maynard Architects
Photos: Derek Swalwell
King Bill is a love letter to Fitzroy. King Bill is a collage of the suburb’s built history, its textures, forms, order and chaos. In providing the family with their ‘forever house’, we set out to completely rethink the terrace home and the principles that created them.
Project: King Bill
Design pro: Austin Maynard Architects
Photos: Derek Swalwell
King Bill is a love letter to Fitzroy. King Bill is a collage of the suburb’s built history, its textures, forms, order and chaos. In providing the family with their ‘forever house’, we set out to completely rethink the terrace home and the principles that created them.
Project: East Malvern House
Design pros: Penny Kinsella Architects and Made By Cohen
Photos: Shannon McGrath
Behind the facade of this beautiful old 1930s two-storey brick home unfolds an unexpected contemporary interior, which is both elegant and timeless. The design team embraced the client’s brief through simplicity of layout, subtlety of light, use of honest materials, clean lines and well-executed details.
Design pros: Penny Kinsella Architects and Made By Cohen
Photos: Shannon McGrath
Behind the facade of this beautiful old 1930s two-storey brick home unfolds an unexpected contemporary interior, which is both elegant and timeless. The design team embraced the client’s brief through simplicity of layout, subtlety of light, use of honest materials, clean lines and well-executed details.
Project: Red Hill Residence
Design pro: Travis Walton Architecture
Photos: Elisa Watson
This residence is a modern rural retreat, a second home away from the client’s inner-city penthouse. This house was designed to be minimalistic in detail, and robust and functional, yet maintain a country charm and strong connection to the rural landscape.
Design pro: Travis Walton Architecture
Photos: Elisa Watson
This residence is a modern rural retreat, a second home away from the client’s inner-city penthouse. This house was designed to be minimalistic in detail, and robust and functional, yet maintain a country charm and strong connection to the rural landscape.
Project: St Vincents Place Residence
Design pro: B.E Architecture
Photos: Derek Swalwell
As a modern renaissance home, the St Vincents Place Residence is a new archetype developed through reinterpretation of classical references with a modern sensibility. The client, as a patron, put his belief in architecture, artists and artisans to create a nourishing environment that inscribes contemplative experiences into the physical form.
Design pro: B.E Architecture
Photos: Derek Swalwell
As a modern renaissance home, the St Vincents Place Residence is a new archetype developed through reinterpretation of classical references with a modern sensibility. The client, as a patron, put his belief in architecture, artists and artisans to create a nourishing environment that inscribes contemplative experiences into the physical form.
APARTMENT OR UNIT
Project: Lighthouse Apartment
Design pro: Arent & Pyke
Photos: Felix Forest
Erasing all trace of the original 1970s interior, the brief facilitates the emotional shift from a family home to a harbourside apartment. With a splendid view, the only fear was a lack of character. As such, decoration and design elements are intentionally flavoured with material elements that time will evolve.
Project: Lighthouse Apartment
Design pro: Arent & Pyke
Photos: Felix Forest
Erasing all trace of the original 1970s interior, the brief facilitates the emotional shift from a family home to a harbourside apartment. With a splendid view, the only fear was a lack of character. As such, decoration and design elements are intentionally flavoured with material elements that time will evolve.
Project: Crown Street Apartment
Design pro: Brooke Aitken Design
Photos: Katherine Lu
The clients wished to transform their dark, two-bedroom, ground-floor, inner-city apartment into a minimalist retreat for their retirement years. The apartment was to open to the light and provide a minimalist Japanese aesthetic with easy maintenance and a maximum of storage.
Design pro: Brooke Aitken Design
Photos: Katherine Lu
The clients wished to transform their dark, two-bedroom, ground-floor, inner-city apartment into a minimalist retreat for their retirement years. The apartment was to open to the light and provide a minimalist Japanese aesthetic with easy maintenance and a maximum of storage.
Project: Type St Apartment
Design pro: Tsai Design Studio
Photos: Tess Kelly Photography
A quietly dramatic intervention to a 1970s small 35-square-metre, one-bedroom apartment to create an interchangeable architect’s home/office.
Design pro: Tsai Design Studio
Photos: Tess Kelly Photography
A quietly dramatic intervention to a 1970s small 35-square-metre, one-bedroom apartment to create an interchangeable architect’s home/office.
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Impressive homes and loving the use of curved steel
Some really good and clever designing here. Well done to all involved. Loved to see small houses embraced too.
Lots of very interesting and exciting ideas for living spaces. I enjoyed these thanks.