Stockton Link House | Sarah Truscott Architect

Stockton Link House is a considered interface of history and modern design. Stockton has a rich history, evolving from being a refuge for shipwrecked convicts into a vibrant working-class community. The design of Stockton Link House honours this heritage, preserving the original worker’s cottage and integrating it with a contemporary extension.

Key design features include an honesty in materials and construction approach aligned with the budget, with nods to the owner’s unique style. The central breezeway provides passive cooling, addressing the challenge of the site’s alignment and proximity to neighbouring residences. The renovation replaced decaying materials and addressed spatial deficiencies, creating a comfortable, single-level layout for ageing in place. There are vibrant orange accents throughout and new openings were strategically placed for breezes and light.

Stockton Link House exemplifies how architecture can blend past with present, meet tight budget constraints, and enrich the cultural fabric of a community.

Yukari House | Tanev Muir Architects

A balanced renovation kindles additional amenity with site connectivity – enabling a stronger weave between the sense of place and the comforts of belonging. In Yukari House, local natural materiality and craftmanship connect with rhythmic and site intentional detailing. The result is a home which focuses on enhancing social relationships and compliments the experience of the surrounding country, inspiring a good yarn

Project 465 | Robertson Collectif

The brief for this rural retreat was that it needed to work equally well when the retired couple who own the property were on their own, as when they were hosting all eighteen of their children and grandchildren for extended family gatherings.
The concrete slab, structural framework and parts of the roof of an existing homestead were retained and added to, creating a sprawling seven bedroom residence with resort-style amenity. At the heart of the home, the ‘great room’ incorporates an open gable roof form and generous kitchen, living and dining areas that spill onto a terrace overlooking the surrounding bush landscape and valley. Adjacent, two more modestly scaled rooms provide an intimate living zone for the couple to enjoy when staying at the property alone.
Sitting within the highest risk bushfire zone, the design required that all new construction, materials, fixtures and fittings comply with strict BAL flame-zone requirements.

House in Narrawallee | Architect George

House in Narrawallee is a post-and-beam platform home perched on stilts, which sits lightly on the sloping land beneath. The brief was to imaginatively reinvent the beachcomber style home to accommodate extended family trips down the coast from Sydney, but without losing the home or surrounding area’s charm.

Kassia St Clair’s The Secret Lives of Colour was a starting point for our investigation into a playful, yet contextual, use of colour. St Clair unpacks the historical and cultural differences between various tones of the same colour. During several visits to the site and its surrounding context, we gathered fallen branches and leaves in unexpected and various hues which formed the inspiration for a series of rooms soaked in colour.

Dingo House | Source Architects

For Dingo House we worked with our client to purchase and relocate a historic Queenslander onto their beautiful property outside Mullumbimby. Starting its new life cut in two with roofs removed, the structure was transported by truck and reassembled on its new site as the new managers residence for a new sustainable farming initiative.

The existing cottage was restored and a new level was created under the old Queenslander that allowed the original cottage to read as a single level structure from the entry. The new lower level is clad in salvaged galvanised iron and deliberately speaks to rural houses of the area that have been developed in stages over time.

The recycling of the of the existing cottage, when coupled with onsite PV Systems, water storage and the landscape regeneration work being undertaken by the owners, represents a wonderfully sustainable approach to building and caring for the land.

Villa Rotunda | WOWOWA Architecture

Sited within Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, Villa Rotunda takes its Italian namesake from Villa La Rotonda – a romantic architectural icon enmeshed with an Australianness thats both bastardised and humble – the WOWOWA way.
So, when the practice was asked to renovate a latticed Victorian era county cottage and former Romsey Schoolhouse, it seemed only fitting to lionise the treasured rotunda folly in Edinburgh Gardens of the same colonial lineage. This typology mash up invites and distorts the visual language of both rendering them decidedly Australian and not European. Our rotunda walls wouldn’t be painted stucco but rammed earth with ingredients from the local quarry and locally sourced internal timbers and materials. The creamy clay matches the original yellowy weatherboards with the trimmings of each structure establishing the internal colour pallet, that would embellish this tree change residence beautiful mints, greens &amp, rusts.

Wisteria | Carter Williamson Architects

Wisteria is a dramatic timber expression of minimalism, simplicity, and purity. A contemporary addition to a fully restored Federation bungalow in Sydney’s inner west, its bright new volume soaks up the sunshine and fosters a deep connection with the outdoors.

A light, airy pavilion is rhythmically expressed in Victorian ash. Within, a double-height void opens up the living space to sunlight and air, deepening the links between each level. A fireplace divides the open-plan living, kitchen, and dining spaces, which flow serenely onto the east-facing deck covered by a wisteria-clad pergola that frames the garden view. This carefully organised plan maintains a bright, lofty spatial quality that offers endless potential for informal interaction within defined spaces.

Rhythmic brickwork, polished concrete, timber framing, and eye-catching moments expressed in steel and marble represent a palette of material and visual simplicity; a clean, sophisticated interior that feels warm, bright, and calm.

View Street Renovations and Extensions | Jim Gall Architects Pty Ltd and Five Mile Radius

This project consists of renovation of an existing Queenslander of hertitage value as a building and for its context and urban character -especially its relationship to the street.
The foundation of the brief was to provide a comfortable, healthy and joyful home for a young family. There was a conscious decision to buy and renovate and extend and existing house because ” the most sustainable house is one that already exists”, especially in an area close to retail and community facilities and publiuc transport.
The design process involved developing the brief with the focus on accommodating and enhancing the uses/functions of the house (physically, socially, psychologically) with high quality and well made spaces/fabric. Value-for-money, was a key, ongoing part of the design and constrcution process.
The “wings” are added to the existing house in a simple and legible way. This follows the rationale and approach of the original Queenslander in realtion to construction and simplicity of plan and form, making the house inherently reponsive to its biophyiscal and social context.
Passive thermal performance was key. This had to be integrated with the provision of good natural light and access to veiws to the north and the east.
Additons to the north of the house, made in the 1980s and 1990s, had made the house dark. They were demolished and the materials measured, assessed and reused.
A double level internal space and double height timber framed “curtain wall” bring light well into the house and make the spaces feel generous.
A small timber tower provides a separate and private home office and access to “great city views” that had been blocked by redevelopment of the neighbouring property.
The additions are designed to be durable (low metabolic rate) and flexible in use. Their finishes, construction details and colours were selected to contrast with and jightlight the original Queenslander.

39S House | Andrew Noonan Architect

The desire for innercity living inspired the owners to buy a severely dilapidated Victorian era timber workers cottage on a 240sqm block the western the edge of Brisbane’s CBD as their family home. The poor condition of the cottage prompted the question: How a 19th Century workers cottage be adapted for contemporary family living while being resilient to the challenges we face in the 21st century? The aim was to be an example of a strongly context driven, net zero adaptive reuse home. Proving that resource efficiency needn’t cost more, nor compromise living quality, while creating lasting value and a home that is significantly cheaper to run.

Auchenflower Cottage + Tower | Bligh Graham Architects

The Auchenflower Cottage + Tower House defies the constraints of the small lot to create an inner city oasis with a tropical courtyard at its heart. The ambition of the project extends from making a flexible fun home to demonstrating an alternative strategy for the way in which the area may be densified whilst maintaining the character and green feel.
The journey through the house is a procession through a series of dramatic gardens spaces and outdoor rooms. Importantly the humble original cottage did not become the poor cousin, but rather was adjusted and grafted onto in a way that brought out its latent but previously lost potential.
The bulk of the extension is in the form of a north facing three storey tower with ground level entertaining and pool terrace. Compressing the extension into a tower form maximised the garden area whilst taking advantage of the long views.