The inaugural Houses Awards were presented in style on Friday, 15 July, to an enthusiastic crowd of more than 300 members of the design community at the spectacularly ornate Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne.

Described by the jury as a contemporary architectural interpretation of the Australian colonial idyll, Virginia Kerridge Architect’s House in Country NSW received the award Australian House of the Year.

House Alteration and Addition over 200 square metres was jointly awarded to Virginia Kerridge Architect’s House in Country NSW and the Trial Bay House, by HBV Architects and James Jones. Richard Peters Associates’ reworking of an 1890s farrier’s workshop, The Shed, received the award for House Alteration and Addition under 200 square metres.

House Shmukler, by Tribe Studio, received the award for New House under 200 square metres as well as the award for Sustainability, with New House over 200 square metres going to Z House by Donovan Hill.

Anthony Gill Architects’ tiny thirty-eight square metre Potts Point Apartment, contained within a Harry Seidler designed building, received the award for Apartment, Unit or Townhouse.

The Garden of Ghosts by Terragram and Allen Jack+Cottier Architects received the award in the Outdoor category.

The jury for the Houses Awards comprised highly respected members of the residential architecture community including AIA president Brian Zulaikha of Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, principal of Durbach Block Jaggers Camilla Block, director of Owen and Vokes Paul Owen , and renowned designer Kerry Phelan of Kerry Phelan Design Office. Scott Drake, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Melbourne, advised the jury in the Sustainability category.

Architecture Media’s editorial director, Cameron Bruhn, was a member of the jury and also hosted the presentation evening with the awards announced by the sponsor of each award category.

Look out for issue 81 of Houses for a full report and photographic coverage of the award winners, high commendations and finalists.