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
