Take a look back at some of our favourite homes for 2022!

Balmy Palmy house – CplusC Architectural Workshop

Situated on a vacant site on the Palm Beach peninsula some 40 kilometres north of the centre of Sydney, Balmy Palmy is for a semi-retired couple, their three teenage children and friends.

Having worked with CplusC on a previous project titled Iron Maiden house, the clients trusted the design team to achieve a house that “celebrates the pleasures of modesty and the simple life,” says CplusC.

Read more Balmy Palmy house here.

Gridded house – Carr

Located in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Hawthorn and designed by Carr, Gridded house is all about heritage details combined with modern living.

Sitting in on one of Hawthorn’s charming and historically significant tree-lined crescents, the existing building has been carefully restored, while the street entrance was relocated to align with the house entrance.

This was done to achieve a more coherent entry experience and take advantage of the generous garden.

Read more about Gridded house.

Presto – WOWOWA

Nestled within Melbourne’s northern suburb of Preston, WOWOWA has created a family home reminiscent of a delicious lolly bag of fruity treats complete with baby blue ribbon.

Bringing to mind a thick berry smoothie enjoyed by a cool blue outdoor pool, Presto is a joyous celebration of colour as a powerful storyteller.

Read more about Presto here.

Mirror Image – Smac Studio

Shona McElroy, principal of Smac Studio, was tasked with the daunting brief to design a house that looked like it ‘came out of a magazine.’ Mirror Image achieves this in spades.

Located in Sydney’s Dover Heights, the semi-detached duplex home includes four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and a garage and pool.

All of this is adorned in a decadent palette of Venetian plaster, marble in sea blue and sage, eccentric lighting pendants, and classic old-European edge.

Read more about Mirror Image here.

Bridge house – Kister Architects

Located in the leafy south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, Bridge house by Kister Architects references the home’s Modernist beginnings while also looking ahead to future needs.

Bridge house sits on a generous suburban block and began as a single-site, double-storey dwelling. Melbourne-based practice Kister Architects has morphed the home into a family-friendly double-site, single-storey build that is intimate enough for a small family but expansive enough to house larger family events and working-from-home arrangements.

Read more about Bridge house here.

Tinderbox house – Studio Ilk

Responding to the many natural and man-made constraints of the site, this highly crafted Tasmanian home from Studio Ilk is an attempt to add to an ecosystem rather than impose upon it.

Dramatic in nature, the southern Tasmanian coastline is rugged, exposed to the elements, unforgiving even and soaring in its scale.

It demands a particular kind of architectural intervention to withstand and endure, yet embrace, the surrounding landscape. Tinderbox house by South Hobart-based Studio Ilk exceeds this challenge.

Read more about Tinderbox house here.

Toowong Lighthouse – Alcorn Middleton

With weighted roots in Greek culture evoking a seamless journey, this Brisbane alteration and addition from Alcorn Middleton is an ode to the outdoor lifestyle on both sides of the Hemisphere.

A lighthouse, in its simplest function, calls you home. Alcorn Middleton’s Toowong Lighthouse is therefore aptly named: it is centred on concepts and materials of the home.

Read more about Toowong Lighthouse here.

Zig Zag house – Stukel Architecture

Named in reference to its complex roof design, Zig Zag house by Stukel Architecture is a bold form that “borrows its structure from a shade-giving palm leaf”, according to the practice.

Located in Sydney’s eastern suburb of Kensington, Zig Zag house signals the clients’ return to their old family home.

The clients desired a unique setting that offered a singular architectural experience among the neighbouring Federation bungalows and Zig Zag house achieves this in spades.

Read more Zig Zag house here.

Picket house – Austin Maynard Architects

Located at the top of a hill in Northcote, Melbourne, Picket house by Austin Maynard Architects is a love letter to ‘dream suburban life in the 1940s and 50s’.

Originally a neglected sharehouse, Picket house is a two-storey addition to a freestanding Edwardian timber home.

Possessing hints of personality concealed under the mask of an old, unkept weatherboard, Picket house now stands tall with a delineated silhouette, addressing the desire to build ‘lighter’.

Read more about Picket house here.

Myrnong Crescent house – Riofrio Carroll Architects

Melbourne-based architecture practice Riofrio Carroll Architects was tasked with the brief to contextualise the existing building to suit a modern lifestyle.

Situated in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Toorak, Myrnong Crescent house is a Heritage Art Deco dwelling that required restoration and renovation with close attention to detail.

“The clients wanted to bring this century-old home to the 21st century in a restrained but, at the same time, glamorous way,” RCA tells ADR regarding Myrnong Crescent’s design brief.

Read more about Myrnong Crescent house here.