A Timeless New Home In Ballarat With Lake Views + Mid-Century Vibes

The clients of this Ballarat, Victoria, house called on Kennedy Nolan to design a mid-century inspired home, with views across the adjacent lake.

By elevating the main living area at the front of the home slightly, and planting greenery in the forefront, the architects have ensured lake views are ever present, while removing passing cars and people from sight. Add some north-facing clerestory windows, and you have one seriously amazing home!

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An Elwood Bungalow That Draws From Within

California bungalows are known for their generous front porches and decorative features, but less so their connections to the outdoors.

Recognising these shortcomings in an Elwood, Victoria, property, Rob Kennon Architects devised an innovative addition bordering a circular garden carved from the previously overlooked backyard.

Inspired by the planning of Roy Grounds’ Hill Street House (circa 1954), the compact plan is a series of radially-connected spaces, where the outdoors permeates daily life.

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An Unconventional Country Home In The Southern Highlands

Directors of Other Architects, Grace Mortlock and David Neustein, describe the quintessential modern Australian country house as a ‘machine for living in’ that dramatises the idea of dwelling in the landscape, by exaggerating the harshness and remoteness of its setting.

Their recent project, Highlands House, offers a deliberately different experience. Rather than defined rooms, the Southern Highlands, NSW, project adopts an older and more universal mode of country living, where generations of people have lived in simple, open structures.

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A Refined Country Home That Celebrates The Seasons

The attention to detail of Edition Office is on full display in Kyneton House – a country Victoria home that demonstrates the possibilities of a simple floor plan and restrained material palette.

Working with a strict budget, the architects designed a relatively modest brick house for the downsizing owners. The clients hoped the home would capture passing time, and the qualities of changing seasons including light, colour, and texture.

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A Gentle Brutalist Masterpiece In Brisbane

Mt Coot-Tha House by Nielsen Jenkins is a gentle, brutalist masterpiece completed for a family member of one of the architects next to their childhood home in Brisbane.

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.

This project won the Residential Architecture award at the TDF + Laminex Design Awards!

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An Architect’s Reworking Of Sir Roy Grounds’ Former Balmain Home

This 1970s Balmain, NSW, house was originally designed by architect Stuart Whitelaw for one of Australia’s most renowned architects, Sir Roy Grounds.

Built at a 45 degree angle to the street, the home zig-zags along its southern boundary to accommodate existing side-step trees and sandstone outcrops.

Clever yet sympathetic updates were recently devised by the current owner, architect Conrad Johnston of Studio Johnston (previously Fox Johnston), to overcome the heritage house’s issues and improve liveability. The updated home offers stronger connections to landscape and place, while maintaining the integrity of the original structure.

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This Inner-City Melbourne Home Unfolds Like A Garden Path

Creating an inner-city Melbourne home akin to the mountain ranges of rural New Zealand, or the west coast beaches of South Australia, sounds like an impossible brief, but has been remarkably achieved in this house designed by Architecture Architecture.

Drawing on the qualities of these vast landscapes, the existing period house in Brunswick, Victoria, was overhauled and extended to offer subtle shifts in light, texture, and views.

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A Flood-Proof Transformation Of A 1960s Brisbane Home

Extensive flooding in the summer of 2010-2011 devastated much of Queensland, affecting approximately 25,000 properties, and tragically claiming the lives of 35 people. One of the properties impacted was this Paddington house, where flood waters rose 1.5 metres above ground.

Rather than demolish the existing 1960s home and starting over, the new owners engaged architects Lineburg Wang to extend and protect the existing structure from any future disasters. The result is truly inspired!

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This Graceful, Sculptural Home Is Like A Work Of Art

When we think of concrete as a building material, we tend to imagine austere, brutalist forms seen in commercial buildings, or large scale residential development. But, concrete can also be delicate, sweeping and sculptural – as seen in the beautiful Birch Tree House by Susi Leeton Architects + Interiors.

This unique Melbourne inner-suburban home is a feat of contrast between light and dark, curve and straight, lightness and weight. Each moment is balanced out by its opposite, with careful precision to create a home that is towering yet gentle in stature.

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A Tasmanian Glass House Designed To Inspire

If you could imagine the dream retreat – somewhere to fully escape from the everyday – it would likely look something like Glass House.

Designed by Room 11 Architects, the project is the client’s own private retreat, accompanying their main house located less than 200 metres away.

The vision for the building was simple: to place residents directly within the landscape. The design references great architectural glass houses throughout history (such as Philip Johnson’s 1949 Glass House), adopting what Room 11 director Thomas Bailey describes as a ‘Tasmanian vernacular interpretation of the typology.’

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