Houses, June 2022
HousesThe best contemporary residential architecture, with inspirational ideas from leading architects and designers.
Projects
Cocoon with a view: Palmette
Ornate Victorian-era scroll motifs give way to folded planes of Victorian ash in this Carlton home by Sum, where the decision to have fewer bedrooms has contributed to a spacious, calm environment for living.
Higham Road House by Philip Stejskal Architecture
In North Fremantle, a characterful extension reinvigorates a petite weatherboard cottage to suit spirited family life, providing varied spaces for both connectivity and calm.
Eastham Street by Muir
A modest alteration to a heritage home in Melbourne’s inner north deftly handles a tight corner site, carving out space for sublime inhabitation and presenting a mass of trellised greenery to the street.
First House
First House: Sugar Gum House by Rob Kennon
Tasked with replacing a tumbledown but treasured Otways beach shack where he had spent his own childhood summers, Rob Kennon aspired for an efficient and elemental home that framed the rugged landscape. Twelve years on, Rob reflects on how this formative first project shaped his practice.
Profile
‘A feeling of joyful exuberance’: Wowowa Architecture
With a fervent dislike for ‘boring spaces,’ Wowowa designs memorable homes driven by a keen appreciation for history, context and client relationships.
More articles
‘A place to picnic’: Cascade House
In Brisbane’s Paddington, a new addition grafted onto the side of an elevated Queenslander steps down the site, orchestrating new living spaces.
One to watch: Furminger
Builder-turned-architect Chris Furminger’s architectural sensibility is grounded in his knowledge of the making process and a fascination with material experimentation.
Revisited: Lobster Bay House
Designed by Ian McKay for photojournalist David Moore, Lobster Bay House (1972) sustains an elemental occupation of its remarkable, rocky site. Carefully preserved over the decades, the house endures as a cherished retreat for Moore’s family.
Living watercolour: Always
Perched above the beach on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, this refined new house is immersed in its wild coastal setting, offering its owners a calming refuge from city life.
Elegant and comfortable: Hood House
A terrace house that needed ‘serious attention’ has been transformed into a comfortable city home for a retired farming couple, who picked up the renovation where the previous owners left off.
Meet the owners of Hood House
Leaving behind a farming life in regional Victoria, empty nesters Glenda and Alistair purchased a Melbourne terrace that came with a planning permit for an extension designed by Mihaly Slocombe Architects. Brett Seakins spoke to them about picking up the project and refining it to suit their own requirements.
Simple pleasures: Noosa Heads House
In Noosa Heads, a tired suburban house is resourcefully remade into a robust but welcoming retreat that emphasizes the simple pleasures of a holiday home by the coast.
Lust for Lifestyle: Modern Adelaide Homes 1950–1965
This Adelaide exhibition offers a spectacular insight into the emergence and evolution of modernism in South Australia, charting the architects who designed the state’s legacy of modern houses, and the well-heeled clients who commissioned them.
Elevating everyday domesticity: O House
In Sydney’s Manly, a formerly “fat” brick box has been transformed into a light and bright home that effortlessly flows up a sloped site from front to back.
Spirit of the 70s: Bridge House
In Melbourne’s Caulfield, a confident and considered renovation responds to a home’s distinctive 1970s heritage, creating a harmonious family residence that pays tribute to the past while setting the stage for modern life.
2022 Houses Awards: Apartment or Unit
This radical reworking of a 1960s apartment allows for new engagement with the city, and dynamic social interaction.
A beguiling, graphic and cinematic sensibility: Ian Strange’s ‘Dalison’
An ambitious and immersive project by artist Ian Strange and musician Trevor Powers exposes the tension between the home as a place of memory, and the house as a commodity.