Home office clocks on to win architecture prize
It’s a sign of the work-from-home era that a home office renovation has won a national award for residential design.
Red Hill House and Studio, by architects Nicholas Skepper and Zuzana Kovar of the studio Zuzana and Nicholas, has won Australian House of the Year in the 2024 Houses Awards.
The architect couple renovated the rear of their inner-city Brisbane workers’ cottage in 2022, adding a studio with separate street access that opens onto their garden.
“We have enough separation that the studio feels public and sort of professional but we can run upstairs at five o’clock and cook dinner for the kids,” Skepper said.
Australian homes are not usually set up to facilitate the back and forth between work and home life, he said, which led to stress for many.
Speaking to AAP from Japan, Skepper explained that the winning design was similar to the traditional Japanese idea of the shop house, where families run a business from a building opening onto the street and live upstairs.
In Japanese cities, commercial businesses are usually intermingled with homes – an idea that Australian planning laws usually do not encourage, but one Skepper finds beautiful.
“We actually find it really lovely when those two things can intermingle,” he said.
“It supports community when you have a shop or a cafe that you can frequent on your street.”
The couple chose not to build out to the edges of their corner block, which is less than 500sq m.
The spectacular restoration and adaptation of a landmark home in Perth by architect Iwan Iwanoff won the heritage prize.
Tomich House by Mark Jeavons Architect with Ohlo Studio has extended the original 1971 design while retaining its retro feel.
In South Australia, Carrickalinga Shed by Architects Ink took out the sustainability category for a design that uses the idea of the shed as shelter from the elements.
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