This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration is given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
This elegant home demonstrated how flexible and multiple living spaces can be developed, to provide residents with highly attractive individual as well as shared zones.
Briefed as a client’s forever home, the timeless and elegant response from r architecture in designing Humble House prioritises function and form to create a sensational structure that will undoubtedly see the clients well into the future.
The design has evidently been thoughtfully conceived in response to the cultural heritage and lifestyle needs of their client. The striking Spanish black slate shingles that wrap around from the external facade into the internal walkway set the tone for the harmonious relationship between indoors and out throughout the entire home. The considered materiality and structural design of the build allow it to work with the natural environment to enhance the passive profile of the project and celebrate its embedded sustainability.
Re-use is the ultimate starting point for a high-sustainability-rated building. The constraints of the existing Bira Bira Early Learning Centre site presented the design team with challenges but also an opportunity to value the embedded energy of the existing form and thoughtfully re-purpose an underutilised space.
The result is an empathetically designed and wonderfully resolved learning environment for the children and staff of Bira Bira. The space welcomes an abundance of natural light and presents a seamless exchange between the internal and external play spaces, which are both beautifully complemented by adaptive features built into the structural design.
Tree House is to be commended for its fundamental premise to respond to its existing site context, including established vegetation, significant oak tree and challenging topography. The design concept emerging from this contextual connection takes a light touch and the outcome is valuable for community, neighbourhood and environment. Passive House commitments highlight an important ambition shared by the client and design team.
Humble House (Award) showcases an alternative approach to a home on a typical suburban block.
The brief is intelligently scaled down to the essentials for living, with spaces arranged to capture the benefits of intentionally placed gardens. It presents quietly and proudly in its streetscape, while its inward-looking courtyard model creates a home with delightful indoor / outdoor relationships, flexibility and an inherent sense of privacy and protection.
There is clear commitment to reducing long-term running costs and reducing environmental impact using rainwater, natural ventilation and solar power. This flexible, versatile design economises on space (and cost), while adding considerable quality and value.
Built & Natural Environment Consulting Specialists