Houses

For the architect, designer, home owner, home builder or anyone simply interested in the best residential design, every issue of Houses tells the story of inspirational homes, their surrounds and the products that complete them. Through generous pictorial coverage from leading photographers, floor plans and lists of selected products, you share the delight of each home presented. You’ll also meet some of the creative people who designed them and keep up with the latest design trends and issues. Be inspired!

Musings

Contributors

Houses

Fresh finds • From tactile cast metal handles to design classics in contemporary colourways, these new products will add a distinctive finishing touch to your home.

BASS COAST FARMHOUSE BY JOHN WARDLE ARCHITECTS • Composed and confident, this new residence in regional Victoria distils the fundamentals of the rural farmhouse into a richly detailed home that encourages its occupants to relish slowness and self-containment.

HOPSCOTCH HOUSE BY JOHN ELLWAY ARCHITECT • Inspired by the simple joy of a children’s game, this home’s stepped composition of rooms and garden courtyards creates an intuitive, flexible home that is readily connected to the outdoors.

HOUSE FOR BEES BY DOWNIE NORTH • Compact in size yet richly rewarding to the lives of its occupants, this new living pavilion in Sydney’s Mosman employs porous edges to allow family life to unfurl into the garden.

HOUSE FOR BEES MEET THE OWNERS • Sydney homeowners Sarah and Evan approached architects Cat Downie and Dan North from Downie North with a brief for a sustainable home to suit their busy family life. Sarah talks to Alexa Kempton about the process of working with an architect.

Foomann • Led by Jamie Sormann and Jo Foong, this studio untangles constraints to yield quiet, thoughtfully detailed and environmentally responsive homes that are finely tuned to the lives of their occupants.

Green scene • From carbon offsets for bricks to chairs that repurpose plastic waste, this range of products supports a responsible way of life.

High-tech ventilation with the Fanco Habitat Expert • Prioritizing energy efficiency and healthy indoor air quality, this ventilation system provides a constant source of fresh, filtered air while also using a heat transfer to reduce a home’s energy consumption.

Bookshelf

ELSTERNWICK PENTHOUSE BY OFFICE ALEX NICHOLLS • A remarkable brief to reconfigure two top-floor apartments into an adaptable, multigenerational home is met with precision and artistic flair, combatting flat, rectilinear design with colour, composition and light.

CARINGAL FLAT BY ELLUL ARCHITECTURE • This fastidious reworking of a studio apartment builds on the legacy of its 1950s heritage, finding opportunities for space and sociability in small-footprint living.

BEDFORD BY MILIEU BY DKO WITH DESIGN OFFICE • A new approach to this apartment in Melbourne’s inner north supports homeowner agency – and family wellbeing – with customizable plans that suit multiple ways of life.

Elliat Rich • Deliberately broad in scope and often mythical in focus, the work of this Alice Springs-based designer seeks to spark connection between all things.

Chinaman’s Beach House by Fox Johnston (now Studio Johnston) • A precipitous site, blessed with outlook but burdened by poor access, defined this challenging but rewarding first house. Conrad Johnston looks back at his first residential commission, completed in partnership with Emili Fox.

HOUSE IN THE DRY BY MRTN ARCHITECTS • Drawing on the legacy of agricultural sheds and the protective form of the courtyard plan, this thoughtfully resolved home in Tamworth is braced for the oscillating extremes of the Australian climate.

AB HOUSE BY OFFICE MI–JI • This new house on Victoria’s...