13 minute read
Residential Architecture Houses (New)
Corner House • Archier • Photographer: Rory Gardiner
The Residential Architecture – Houses (New) category recognises achievement in the design of projects which are residential in nature, designed for single occupancy or up to two self-contained dwellings, and must be new builds. Generally, projects considered in this category fall within BCA Class 1a.
Jon Clements LFRAIA Jury chair Emily Watson RAIA Juror
Maya Borjesson RAIA Juror
Jury chair report
The calibre of architecture in this year’s residential new category was exceptional, and the jury extended the shortlist to review a broader cross section of projects demonstrating architecture as a whole – carefully balanced projects with equal attention to exterior and interior resolution and the conceptual relationship between both. The projects visited were located throughout Victoria in urban, rural and coastal locations and ranged from very small modest houses to larger dwellings with more complicated briefs and generous project budgets. All the projects visited provided the jury with a collective appreciation for the rigour and intelligence that was applied to the outcomes, and in many cases, there was a noticeable commitment to supporting the potential embedded within client aspirations. The jury were particularly impressed by projects where the conceptual foundations were clear, and the execution was refined without unnecessary complication. The jury were also attracted to projects where a high level of detail resolution was evident and achieved within the constraints of limited project budgets.
The jury’s interests were refined across three days of project visits and ultimately the conclusions were informed by careful consideration of the work against the defined criteria. In the case of the category winner, Corner House by Archier, the jury were unanimous in concluding that this project significantly exceeded expectations and successfully delivered across the full range of criteria considered. The category winner demonstrates the incredible potential of residential architecture and what can be achieved with limited means when clear conceptual ambition is combined with adventurous client aspirations.
Category sponsor
Partridge delivers consulting engineering services across a number of disciplines, namely Structural, Remedial, Event, Hydraulic, and Civil engineering services. Partridge has provided these engineering services since 1982 across offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Newcastle, with a reputation for delivering innovative solutions via a genuinely collaborative approach with architects and other stakeholders. Partridge approach each project with creativity, ingenuity, and passion. 13
Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) Corner House by Archier
Bunurong Country
This small square two-bedroom house is discreetly nestled into its corner site, camouflaged as a shadowy backdrop to surrounding coastal trees on the adjoining nature strip. Four essentially blank external walls provide suitable defence to a busy road interface. There is little relief in the quiet vertical rhythm of the facade other than small moments of considered activation that communicate occupancy or absence. Arriving through one of these small openings, the visitor is immediately greeted by crafted living spaces embracing a private sanctuary and verdant courtyard garden. Unconventional circulation is prompted by a continuous corridor on the outside of the plan, a series of progressive yet comfortable steps naturally drawing you further into the home cleverly deconstructing boundaries as you pass through private and public spaces. The external corridor is both tight and generous providing an important framework for a continuous gallery of artworks and objects collected by the owners over time. This humble project has emerged from a very strong conceptual framework which unashamedly challenges convention. There is also an inherent commitment to sustainability combined with a high level of crafted detail and resolution. The courtyard house typology has provided an important legacy in architecture – this small house further extends this legacy significantly exceeding its modest budget and demonstrating the ambition and potential of residential architecture at the smallest scale.
Consultant / Construction team: Openwork (Landscape Consultant), BINQ Windows (Windows) Builder: PMV Built
Photographer: Rory Gardiner
Corner House • Archier • Photographer: Rory Gardiner
Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) Always by Kennedy Nolan
Bunurong Country
Careful consideration is imbued in this home across many levels. The dwelling quietly occupies its seaside frontage, nestling in, rather than commanding over. From the street, little is given away, with generous views of the ocean prevailing over any structure. Sitting alone amongst the upperlevel garden, a discrete guesthouse is conceived as a refuge. Separation from the main dwelling is buffered by a heavy stonewalled entry. Solid and austere, the entry is transformative; a counterpoint to the softness provided by the landscape and the interiors. The project excels with its siting strategy, achieving a sense of spatial modesty with what is effectively a threelevel dwelling. Thoughtful circulation embodies ideas of promenade and sequencing. Stone retaining walls follow the contours of the site, carving away protected outdoor living areas and shelter from the ocean. All of this is achieved through a skillful intertwining of architecture, landscape and place. Often the architecture of vacation houses can succumb to views, sacrificing moments of discovery and solitude. Knowingly, Kennedy Nolan have created a warm and texturally rich home that is worthy of the term retreat. The enduring quality of the project is immediately clear, appearing as if it has quietly always been there.
Practice team: Patrick Kennedy (Design Architect), Rachel Nolan (Design Architect), Catherine Blamey (Project Architect), Adriana Hanna (Design Architect), Susannah Lempriere (Project Architect), Peter Cole (Graduate of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: Amanda Oliver (Landscape Consultant), Macleod Consulting (Structural Engineer), Webb consult (Structural Engineer), AS James (Geotechnical Engineer), Urbis (Town Planner), Metro Building Surveyors (Building Surveyor), Jake Nash (Artist) Builder: Gaffcon Photographer: Derek Swalwell
Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) Jan Juc Studio by Eldridge Anderson Architects
Wadawurrung Country
As many of us emerge or continue to battle with the ongoing challenges of working from home, Eldridge Anderson have courageously consolidated the two requirements in a new coastal home for both domestic and office life. A flagship project for the architects, Jan Juc Studio offers a thoughtful and well executed expression of their experience, inspiration and ideas. Nestled between four mature eucalypts, the architectural response demonstrates an innate understanding of and profound respect for the site. The refined structure touches the ground lightly, sitting delicately above the landscape as it falls gently back to the street. Above, generously spaced timber purlins, tapered half-round gutters and the expressed edge of corrugated sheet attenuate the roof to a fine line beneath the preserved tree canopy. Within, a functional central core of vertical circulation and wet areas is surrounded by a peripheral zone that can be flexibly divided into areas for sleeping, working and living to make the most of a modest 100m2 footprint. A layered active facade encases the interior spaces and demonstrates Eldridge Anderson’s understanding of both material and mechanism. Sliding and pivoting timber-framed glass doors enable an ongoing connection to the landscape and the elements, while operable timber screens filter daylight and can be choreographed to expand interior zones visually and physically. Jan Juc Studio will continue to age gracefully beneath the gum trees as an exemplar project that not only demonstrates the architects’ skill and attention to detail but also celebrates commitment and care in construction.
Practice team: Jeremy Anderson (Design Architect), Scott Eldridge (Design Architect) Consultant / Construction team: P.J. Yttrup and Assoc. (Structural Engineer), Simon Taylor Landscape Design (Landscape Consultant), Brett Essing Landscapes (Landscape Consultant), Ledger Consulting (Building Surveyor) Builder: Surfcoast Construction Photographer: Ben Hosking
Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) The Arndt Residence and Artbarn by CHROFI
Bunurong Country
CHROFI have successfully considered both a short- and long-term vision of the site. In the short term, accommodating dwellings for client and visitors to stay overnight as well as a place to collect, display and make art. In the long term, an artist teaching and making hub and sculpture park. Rather than demolish the existing dilapidated house, CHROFI stripped the building back to its two-storey core and rendered over to create the Artbarn. It’s the first destination onsite and presents as a sculptural anchor atop a small rise in topography. The new Arndt Residence sits on the low side of this rise, the form is a simple extrusion, a robust rural staple. Every room is carefully scaled to suit the client, with only the south wall being oversized to support the display of artwork. The detailing of the Arndt Residence is impeccable. The corrugation of the sheet metal roof as the leading edge is one highlight. The Artbarn and Arndt Residence appear as sculptural objects in the landscape, never competing, but in harmonious dialogue with one another. The challenge of displacement, of CHROFI being based in Sydney, the site in Victoria, the client in Berlin, and the project constructed during a pandemic, should not be overlooked. The jury was thoroughly impressed with the sophisticated level of thinking, inventive and resourceful sustainability approach, attention to detail and creation of a highly resolved project delivered remotely on a modest budget.
Practice team: Tai Ropiha (Design Architect), Fraser Mudge (Project Architect), Gemma Sedgwick (Graduate of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: OPS Engineers (Structural Engineer), OPS Engineers (Civil Consultant), Heath Landscape (Landscape Consultant) Builder: Basis Builders Photographer: Ben Hosking
Erskine River House by Kerstin Thompson Architects
Country: Eastern Maar
Rather than challenge the limitations of designing and building in a bushfire zone, this house appears to embrace the pragmatics offered by a defensive concrete container. Internally, however, these restraints are relieved, and the architect’s exploration of curved precast concrete provides a foundation for a sophisticated conceptual exploration focused on sensory experience. Window openings and sculpted skylights are highly choreographed – light dances through a sequence of small quiet spaces with an ethereal quality which the jury imagines will bring endless enjoyment to the owner, a professional photographer.
Builder: Spence Construction
Photographer: Sharyn Cairns Country: Wurundjeri
A large multi-generational family home has been deftly broken down in scale. Defined by dispersed planning, a thoughtful sequencing of built form and external spaces are arranged around large sweeping blade walls and interstitial landscape. Brickwork is the hero of the project. Expressive in appearance, while singular in application, the commitment to recycled masonry is carried beyond the dwelling and equally applied to garden walls and utility structures. A prominent folly-like structure acts as a buffer to the street and park opposite, demonstrating how ancillary spaces can be much more.
Builder: Overend Constructions
Photographer: Sharyn Cairns
Esplanade House by Clare Cousins Architects
music box by multiplicity
Country: Bunurong
Located on a triangular site along the Elster Creek in Elwood, multiplicity’s music box is walking distance from the beach, park, and local school. While generally enjoyed, the resulting foot traffic on two of the site’s three sides formed the primary architectural obstacle when designing the house, home, shelter, refuge, and place of production, practice, and work, for a worldly couple ready to settle. Multiplicity’s response is a series of successful spaces that respond to the couple’s brief yet caters to their individual and often opposing needs through thoughtful planning and clever use of scale, light, material, texture, and aspect.
Builder: Frank (Victoria) Pty Ltd
Photographer: Trevor Mein Country: Wurundjeri
MDS have taken a forgotten triangular site, adjacent to a train line, and created The Hütt, a Passivhaus certified, inner-city sanctuary for a young family. The compact footprint of the house, spread over two-and-a-half levels, mitigates the ten- to three-storey cascading multiresidential building to the east and the single- and double-storey homes to the south. The proportion of house to landscape is successful, and the considered connection between the two is a highlight. Access is from a bluestone laneway; the jury particularly enjoyed the recycled brick detailing revealing brick frogs from years past. The Hütt is a modest project that adds immense value to its site.
Builder: Home by Hütt in collaboration with G-LUX Builders and owner-builder
Photographer: Matt C (Maitreya Chandorkar)
The Hütt 01 Passivhaus by Melbourne Design Studios (MDS)
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