Great architecture and home design improves neighbourhoods, expands the public realm, and can change our experience of entire neighbourhoods and cities.
This category seeks to award one standout residential architecture Project, completed between January 1st 2020 and April 27th 2021. At least one individual per Entry must hold professional accreditation as a registered architect. Ground-up builds, renovations and additions are all eligible within this category.
One winner in the Residential Architecture category will be awarded a $5000 cash prize. Up to two commendations will also be awarded.
Applications have been shortlisted by The Design Files team in consultation with the judges. Shortlisted entries will be assessed by three expert judges, on the following criteria :
Fulfilment of the client brief / project objective
Originality – something we haven’t seen before, something invented from scratch.
Visual Appeal – beauty, boldness, aesthetic appeal.
Craftsmanship – how well does this project integrate craftsmanship and demonstrate mastery of a craft?
Function – how well does this space deliver the desired functional outcomes?
Sustainability – how well does this project contribute to positive environmental outcomes, with specific consideration of local environmental impact, management and reduction of waste, water and energy consumption?
Visionary thinking – does this project push boundaries, does it achieve something bigger than the intended commercial outcomes?
Bonus points will be awarded to projects with pro bono or community focussed outcomes, and/or projects limited by an unusually tiny budget.
Mt Coot-Tha House is a gentle, brutalist masterpiece completed for a family member of one of the architects next to their shared childhood home in Brisbane. The steep bushland site is located in an extreme bush fire zone.
Designed as a wedge that has lodged itself into the mountainside, the house wraps around a luscious green central courtyard, and provides both connection to and protection from the elements.
Presenting as a solid fibre cement-clad volume to the street, Corner House references the board and batten detail of typical fishing cottages in its Flinders, Victoria location. An experimental floor plan is revealed inside, with living areas positioned in each corner of the dwelling, connected by stepped walkways acting as gallery spaces.
The small 55 square metre footprint of this new, suburban four-bedroom home maximises landscaped areas on its Newcastle, NSW site. The design promotes and maintains the green and leafy suburb, while configuring family living to an intimate scale.
A refined palette of gracefully ageing, tactile materials defines Kyneton House in country Victoria. The greatest inspiration for the project came from the client’s ambition to capture the passing of time through curated views of the garden, and white ceiling volumes that pick up the fluctuating levels of natural daylight.
Aaron Peters is a director of Vokes and Peters, a Brisbane-based architectural practice. Their Subiaco House was awarded the inaugural Residential Architecture prize in the 2019 The Design Files Awards.
Kerstin Thompson established her Melbourne-based practice Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) in 1994 encompassing architecture, interiors, landscape and urban design. In recognition for the work of Kerstin’s practice, contribution to the profession and its education, Kerstin was elevated to Life Fellow by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2017.
Tristan Wong is a director of SJB Architects’ Melbourne studio. His projects have won architectural and urban design awards with particular reference to clarity and creativity in their design and planning. In 2019 he was selected as co-creative director of Australia’s pavilion at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale.
A new courtyard sanctuary promotes wellbeing, light and ventilation in the middle of this bustling and vibrant Newcastle family home. A new north-facing living wing connects the original forms on site to complete the courtyard enclosure, opening the communal spaces of the house onto a reclaimed north-facing yard.
This Elwood, Victoria project relies on the idea of subtracting space as much as adding it. Occupying the former land of a rear garden, the renovation embodies a desire to turn away from the neighbouring walls, in favour of an inward dial plan that axially and infinitely looks onto itself.
Presenting as a solid fibre cement-clad volume to the street, Corner House references the board and batten detail of typical fishing cottages in its Flinders, Victoria location. An experimental floor plan is revealed inside, with living areas positioned in each corner of the dwelling, connected by stepped walkways acting as gallery spaces.
A single row of mature poplar trees forms a soft foreground to what’s considered the main façade of this Flinders, Victoria house. Trees cast morning shadows onto the white concrete masonry blocks, animating its long articulated form.
Garden House comprises four distinct elements appearing as separate buildings, which are ‘invisibly’ connected via mirrored glass corridors, reflective of the well-established garden. The high-performing, high-tech, inner-city Melbourne oasis produces 100kwh per day and has a 26kwh Tesla battery.
8 Yard House meets its North Fitzroy street with an intricately fashioned facade of rough, recycled bricks. The clever pattern of the screening walls let light into the home without compromising privacy. Designed to maximise space for a large family, the property has eight separate outdoor areas.
Henley Clays involves alterations and additions to a freestanding brick cottage in Sydney’s Lower North Shore. Additions are framed upon a heavy brick plinth that extends the sandstone base of the existing cottage, forming a series of landscape inspired rooms that gently ascend through the home.
Bona Vista reinterprets the characterful features of its Federation frontage, forging a warm domestic setting for family life in inner-west Sydney. An example of the idyllic Australian ‘forever home’, the project effortlessly captures the true essence of place-making for wellbeing and family life.
Mt Coot-Tha House was completed for a family member of one of the architects on an empty bushland block next to their shared childhood home in Brisbane. The project explores ideas of connection and refuge within a site characterised by its slope and extreme bushfire exposure.
The addition to this heritage-listed cottage in Brunswick, Melbourne showcases how a house can be enriched through modest architectural intervention. The addition was deliberately limited to a footprint of 51 square metres, taking formal and programmatic cues from the dilapidated lean-to structure it replaces.
A refined palette of gracefully ageing, tactile materials defines Kyneton House in country Victoria. The greatest inspiration for the project came from the client’s ambition to capture the passing of time through curated views of the garden, and white ceiling volumes that pick up the fluctuating levels of natural daylight.
The brief of this Bellbrae, Victoria home called for sustainable design measures and a flexible floor plan suitable for regular guests. Two pavilions were created in response, comprising the primary house and a guest pavilion. Galvanised steel sheeting features on the exterior, while the warm interior references classic shearing sheds.
Nestled in the rural surrounds of Bruny Island, Tasmania, Coopworth is a contemporary interpretation of a country farmhouse. The site’s sheep, wide-ranging views to the water and mountain ranges beyond, and weathering red lead shacks dotted over the island provide an ever-changing landscape with which the house converses.
A 1970s heritage-listed house in Balmain, NSW, has been re-engineered for contemporary family life. Keeping within the building footprint, Fox Johnston have carved extra space and forged stronger connections to landscape and place, while maintaining the integrity of the original structure and material language.
A strategy was developed to use concrete as cheaply as possible in this Brisbane home, using what many would consider commercial or industrial construction techniques. Other materials such as masonry brickwork were deployed to further ground the structure, reinforcing the metaphor of a ruin wrapping the existing rooms on site.
East Fremantle House is a contextually responsive addition to a heritage cottage. Most important to the project is the space that’s not built – a large northern void – a space for light, sound, and breeze to inhabit. The house traces the void’s edge, providing constant connections to nature.
Pony is an agile alteration and modest addition to a 1960s apricot brick home in Brighton East, Victoria. As an accretion of small moments of delight, Pony allows a family of six the ability to find a quiet moment alone or, to gather.
The small 55 square metre footprint of this new, suburban four-bedroom home maximises landscaped areas on its Newcastle, NSW site. The design promotes and maintains the green and leafy suburb, while configuring family living to an intimate scale.