James Russell Architect’s Bisley Place House is the 2013 Houses Awards Australian House of the Year. The results were revealed to hundreds of architecture and design professionals at a presentation evening on 25 July, at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.
Presented by Houses magazine, the Houses Awards is an annual program that celebrates Australia’s best residential projects. Excellence is rewarded in eight categories, with the best house receiving the premier award of Australian House of the Year.
The jury described Bisley Place House as a nostalgic homage to early postwar Queensland. “Occasionally you come across a project that stops you in your tracks. This is such a house. Robust, yet firmly grounded in the pleasures of living, it challenges the orthodoxies of brick-on-slab construction, rejecting the conventional agenda of isolating each allotment from its neighbourhood.”
The winners are:
- Australian House of the Year: Bisley Place House by James Russell Architect
- New House under 200m2 (joint winner): Merricks Beach House by Kennedy Nolan Architects
- New House under 200m2 (joint winner): Keperra House by A-CH
- New House over 200m2: Bisley Place House by James Russell Architect
- House Alteration and Addition under 200m2: Tír na nÓg by Drew Heath Architects
- House Alteration and Addition over 200m2: Lilyfield Warehouse by Virginia Kerridge Architect
- Apartment, Unit or Townhouse: Pyrmont Apartment by Bokor Architecture + Interiors
- Heritage: East Melbourne House by Zoë Geyer Architect
- Outdoor: Lilyfield Warehouse by Virginia Kerridge Architect
- Sustainability: Mihaus Studio by Sue Harper Architects
This year’s jury consisted of Jon Clements (Jackson Clements Burrows), Alice Hampson (Alice Hampson Architect), Debbie Ryan (McBride Charles Ryan), Peter Stutchbury (Peter Stutchbury Architecture), Katelin Butler (Houses magazine) and Peter Williams, adviser, Heritage category (Williams Boag Architects).
The Houses Awards thanks its generous supporters: Cult, Artedomus, Stormtech, Fisher & Paykel, Haymes, Geberit, Heritage Council Victoria, Think Brick Australia, Viridian, SC Land and The Hatton.
For more on the winners and the full lists of commended and shortlisted projects see Houses magazine issue 93. Visit ArchitectureAU.com and housesawards.com.au.