Architects have noticed the change, now awards programs are showcasing it – high-quality, architect-designed apartments are in high-demand.

For the first time in Houses Awards history, an apartment project took out the program’s top honour, a timber-heavy luxurious Sydney apartment by Chenchow Little earning the title of House of the Year ahead of a strong field of 152 finalists.

The win for Chenchow Little and its Darling Point Apartment adds to recent suggestions that more Australians are transitioning to apartment style living and seeking design solutions akin to detached dwellings in the process.

“That an apartment has been named Australian House of the Year reflects a shift in the way many Australians live today,” says the jury about Darling Point Apartment by Chenchow Little.

“This project also demonstrates that an apartment can be designed with the same warmth and sophistication as a detached house.”

“This apartment fit-out is designed for empty-nesters who wanted all the features of their original family home within a significantly smaller footprint,” says the architects.
“The client's extensive artwork collection is innovatively displayed within flexible joinery, allowing the client a curatorial role with its display.”

The win follows a string of recent apartment sale price records in Sydney and Melbourne, all of which were high-end and architect-designed penthouses. Most recently was a 281sqm three-bedroom apartment at Bower Street, Manly by Koichi Takada with interiors by Mim Design which sold for $9.5 million, the highest price paid for the suburb at $33,807 per sqm.

“We’re seeing a change driven by owners of penthouse apartments and developers of multi-residential projects wanting the highest possible level of detail and the same attention you would give an individual house,” the project’s interior designer Miriam Fanning told The Australian.

The project’s developer, Michael Fox, director of Costa Fox also noted that “with prices reaching $30,000 a square metre… a high-end customised finish is the new norm.”

“[These buyers] want something stylish and customised with authentic finishes, top-quality stone, appliances, great location and a minimum of two car spaces. You see so many cookie-cutter apartments no one is really focused on the high end.”

STRONG COMPETITION

Chenchow Little pipped a formidable field of detached dwellings on its way to winning the House of the Year accolade. It beat BVN’s uber-sustainable Project Zero alterations and additions project in Queensland, a Tobias Partners’ Bondi mansion and Kennedy Nolan’s Fairfield House which was designed in collaboration with Sam Cox Landscape.

A breezeblock-skinned Queensland home designed by James Russell Architect won the New House under 200sqm category while Baffle House, a Clare Cousins Architects project took home the House Alteration and Addition under 200sqm prize.

The full list of winners:

AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR

Darling Point Apartment by Chenchow Little

Photography by Peter Bennetts

NEW HOUSE UNDER 200SQM

Naranga Avenue House by James Russell Architect

Photography by Toby Scott

NEW HOUSE OVER 200SQM

Deepwater by Tobias Partners

Photography by Justin Alexander

HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200SQM

Baffle House by Clare Cousins Architects

Photography by Lisbeth Grosmann

HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200SQM

Project Zero by BVN

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

APARTMENT OR UNIT

Darling Point Apartment by Chenchow Little

Photography by Peter Bennetts

HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT

Bayside Fire Station by Owen Architecture

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

OUTDOOR

Fairfield House by Kennedy Nolan in collaboration with Sam Cox Landscape

Photography by Derek Swalwell

SUSTAINABILITY

Fairfield House by Kennedy Nolan in collaboration with Sam Cox Landscape

EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE

Rob Kennon Architects

Image: Clarence Houses by Rob Kennon Architects. Photography by Derek Swalwell

Nathan Johnson

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