Houses, December 2022
HousesThe best contemporary residential architecture, with inspirational ideas from leading architects and designers.
Revisited
Revisited: Marie Short House (1974) by Glenn Murcutt
This farmhouse in Kempsey in northern New South Wales is a seminal work, much admired both in Australia and abroad. Modest, flexible and adaptable to climate, it endures as a model for responsive, responsible design.
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House for BEES by Downie North
Compact in size yet richly rewarding to the lives of its occupants, this new living pavilion in Sydney’s Mosman employs porous edges to allow family life to unfurl into the garden.
Elsternwick Penthouse by Office Alex Nicholls
A remarkable brief to reconfigure two top-floor apartments into an adaptable, multigenerational home is met with precision and artistic flair, combatting flat, rectilinear design with colour, composition and light.
Bedford by Milieu by DKO with Design Office
A new approach to this apartment in Melbourne’s inner north supports homeowner agency – and family wellbeing – with customizable plans that suit multiple ways of life.
Studio: Elliat Rich
Deliberately broad in scope and often mythical in focus, the work of this Alice Springs-based designer seeks to spark connection between all things.
First House: Chinaman’s Beach House by Fox Johnston (2011)
A precipitous site, blessed with outlook but burdened by poor access, defined this challenging but rewarding first house. Conrad Johnston looks back at his first residential commission, completed in partnership with Emili Fox.
AB House by Office Mi–Ji
This new house on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula is designed for many or few, accommodating the ebb and flow of visitors and withstanding the weathering of its coastal locale.
Grove House by Clayton Orszaczky
A sculptural addition to a grand, Victorian-era house in Woollahra offers its owners a decidedly contemporary, cocoon-like home that connects with its own garden and an adjoining, semi-private grove.
The houses of Steendijk
For more than two decades, this Queensland-based architecture studio has been designing inventive homes characterized by precision, meticulous detail and a passion for making.
Bass Coast Farmhouse by John Wardle Architects
Composed and confident, this new residence by John Wardle Architects in regional Victoria distils the fundamentals of the rural farmhouse into a richly detailed home.
Hopscotch House by John Ellway Architect
This Brisbane house by John Ellway Architect is inspired by the simple joy of a children’s game.
Meet the owners of House for BEES
Sydney homeowners Sarah and Evan approached architects Cat Downie and Dan North from Downie North with a brief for a sustainable home to suit their busy family life. Sarah talks to Alexa Kempton about the process of working with an architect.
One to watch: Foomann
Led by Jamie Sormann and Jo Foong, this studio untangles constraints to yield quiet, thoughtfully detailed and environmentally responsive homes that are finely tuned to the lives of their occupants.
Caringal Flat by Ellul Architecture
Melbourne-based Ellul Architecture’s fastidious reworking of a studio apartment creates opportunities for space and sociability in small-footprint living.
House in the Dry by MRTN Architects
Melbourne-based MRTN Architects has created a thoughtfully resolved home in Tamworth in regional NSW that draws on the legacy of agricultural sheds.