A renovation of a 1910 Brisbane worker’s cottage, which focuses on compact space, has won the Australian house of the year in the 2024 Houses awards.
Red Hill House and Studio is the home and office of architect Nicholas Skepper, designer Zuzana Kovar and their two young children. The renovation remains within the original footprint of the existing Queenslander, but it has adapted the space to balance the demands of working from home alongside creating a warm family home. The lower level workspace sits in a concrete and steel undercroft (the former laundry), while private living spaces occupy the north side of the upper floor, with timber interiors and from almost every room a glimpse of green.
Also winning the alteration and addition under 200 sq metres category, the house’s new features include sliding rear walls to open the dining space to views of the garden from above. Below, the entryway to Zuzana&Nicholas’s studio was moved to face the sidestreet, lined with steel mesh to provide a private passage for clients.
There were hundreds of entries to the Houses awards this year, of which 160 were shortlisted.
The juror and architect Lachlan Nielsen says this year the jury awarded projects doing something different in scale.
“Instead of awarding all these projects that are bigger and not necessarily better … we decided that we would award the ones that were trying the hardest with materials and construction budgets,” Nielsen says.
A few projects displayed what Nielsen called “loose-fit planning”. “The purpose of certain rooms don’t have to be a dining room or an office or a study or lounge room. They could be any of those things.”