Evelyn Reynolds

Private home tours are back at the popular Open House Melbourne program, in which the public is invited to explore the city’s iconic and contemporary architecture.
More than 180 buildings, tours, events and design talks are on offer during the last weekend of July, including 16 contemporary and historic houses across Melbourne.
We combed through the program, found five of the best houses to visit, and made an itinerary – so you don’t have to.
Hawthorn 1 by Agius Scorpo
The owners of this Hawthorn home approached Agius Scorpo to create a flexible studio for their adult son, a utility shed and a pool in their existing backyard. The solution was a serpentine fence that unified all the elements and avoided littering the garden with disparate structures.
Read the review by Houses editor Alexa Kempton.
Hütt 01 Passivhaus by Melbourne Design Studio
This compact home accommodates a family of five on a tiny site of 250 square metres and internal area of 78 square metres. It is also certified Passive House Premium – which means it produces more energy than it uses – and is rated the highest category in Life Cycle Assessment. The project shows how we can build better houses in Australia.
Hütt 01 Passivhaus was the winner of the Sustainability award in the 2022 Houses Awards.
Canning Street by Foomann with interiors by Bicker Design

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Canning Street by Foomann with interiors by Bicker Design. Image:

Willem-Dirk du Toit

This freestanding house is tucked behind a single-fronted worker’s cottage in North Melbourne. It accommodates three bedrooms in its 110-square-metres footprint. A sweeping curved ceiling defines the open-plan living, dining and kitchen zones.
Read the profile of Foomann by Peter Davies.
Lippincott House by Roy Lippincott, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin
This 1917 home is part of Glenard Estate in Eaglemont, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. The home was initially designed by Roy Lippinscott, who was the Griffin’s head draughtsman, and Walter’s sister Genevieve. It is located next door to Walter and Marion’s own home, Pholiota.
Blackburn North Passive House retrofit by Alwyn Projects, Studiofang and The Sunday Garden Landscape Design

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Blackburn North Passive House retrofit by Alwyn Projects, Studiofang and The Sunday Garden Landscape Design. Image: TK

Australia’s leaky homes directly contribute to high energy consumption. This house demonstrates how a typical 1950s suburban weatherboard home can be retrofitted with passive house principles to prioritize energy efficiency, comfort and affordability. It also demonstrates how materials that are already on site can be reused.
The 2023 Open House Melbourne will take place on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 July. The first ticket release will take place at 12 noon on 6 July, and the second will be at 10 am on 8 July. More

The ACT government has approved the UNSW Canberra City masterplan, designed by MGS Architects, Snøhetta and Turf Design.
The major new campus, to be built on government-owned land on Constitution Avenue within the Parliamentary Triangle, will accommodate 6,000 students and become a hub for defence and security innovation.
“The campus is an ideal location for industry, government and universities to collaborate and work more closely together,” said Emma Sparks, who has been appointed dean and rector of UNSW Canberra.
“The campus will also be the new home for UNSW Canberra’s highly successful Launch initiative, which is a purpose-built precinct designed to host industry and entrepreneurs in a vibrant, connected environment.”

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UNSW Canberra City masterplan: view west to Reid Campus Core. Image:

Courtesy UNSW Canberra City

The masterplan includes 14 buildings across eight hectares and is framed as an integrated learning community with five connected precincts with distinct themes: City Edge, which will showcase the university to Canberra City; Reid Parkside, which will create a “sensitive interface” with the heritage easement and suburb of Reid; Reid Campus Core, which will form the heart of the campus; Civic Interface, which will be a “distinct and activated academic streetscape”; and Parkes View, which will “connect the campus to the city’s parliamentary and natural landscape views.”
“The last three years [have] seen UNSW consult and work with the local community to ensure the masterplan not only delivers educational and innovation outcomes, but also delivers a campus that revitalizes the eastern edge of the Canberra CBD,” said ACT chief minister Andrew Barr.
The appointment of architects will begin later this year. The campus will be built in stages, with the final stage scheduled to finish in 2036. More

The New South Wales government has finalized its Connecting with Country Framework, which provides guidance for designers, planners and governments on how to respond to Country and empower Aboriginal voices in the design process.
Developed by Government Architect NSW, the framework encourages all built environment projects to take a Country-centred approach, guided by Aboriginal people.
“What better time to introduce this important new planning and design guide than during NAIDOC Week – a time when we celebrate and recognize the rich history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” said planning minister Paul Scully.
“Introducing this framework will enable the NSW Government to better protect Country, community, and sacred sites in the planning and design of our places and buildings.
“Archaeological investigations and recording of Aboriginal heritage have been a well-established part of the planning process. This new framework builds on those practices by valuing, respecting and being guided by Aboriginal people, who know if we care for Country it will care for us.”
The framework aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Country through sustainable land and water use management in order to reduce the impacts of natural disasters; valuing and respecting Aboriginal cultural knowledge through co-designed development projects; and protecting Aboriginal sites and ongoing access for Aboriginal people to the ancestral lands.
“First Nations peoples around the world have long understood the importance of living in balance with the natural world, developing traditional practices and knowledge to support that way of life,” said NSW government architect Abbie Galvin.
“In a time of rapidly increasing development, the Connecting with Country Framework demonstrates how to work with Aboriginal communities to guide that development to be more sustainable, resilient and culturally responsive.”
A draft framework was first introduced in 2020 with a pilot program and was used on a number of government projects including Sydney Metro. Feedback from the pilot is also included in the final framework.
“The Connecting with Country Framework is critical in [the] re-imagining of how we engage with Country and cultural landscapes. It enables Aboriginal people’s values, knowledge systems and mechanisms for connecting to country to influence the design and planning processes for building and architecture,” said the NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty, David Harris.
“First Nations peoples’ connection to Country can provide our state with invaluable insight to our design, construction, and architecture.” More

O’Neill Architecture has designed a sustainable commercial office building on the fringes of Brisbane CBD in Newstead.
The four-storey building will be the headquarters of Asia Pacific Internet Development Trust, accommodating 80 staff.
“The design is an interrogation of visibility and duality. The building owner and occupants work in a virtual world, providing internet protocols,” said the architects in a design statement. “Everyone connected in the Asia Pacific region experiences their work in their everyday lives. The design for the building reflects this relationship: present but secluded, hiding in plain sight but present visually along Breakfast Creek Road once known.”

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56 Breakfast Creek Road designed by O’Neill Architecture and Lat Studios. Image:

O’Neill Architecture

The building will be partially recessed into the sloping landform of Montpelier Hill in Newstead.
“The design blends into the exposed phyllite rock face and sub-tropical vegetation endemic to the Montpelier Hill site. This represents the occupant’s connection to the world around them, which is concealed yet omnipresent,” the architects continued.
The offices will be constructed from cross-laminated timber, with a layered facade of glazing and perforated metal screens that “provide expression and depth from the outside world shielding vision, sound and light where required.”
“The indoor environment is framed by the materiality, textural tactility, and calming scent of timber,” said the architects.
The building will be L-shaped in plan, reaching out in parts to the surrounding bushland setting. At the centre of the site, an auditorium, a sheltered courtyard and staff recreation areas form a “social heart.”

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56 Breakfast Creek Road designed by O’Neill Architecture and Lat Studios. Image:

O’Neill Architecture

“For the owners and occupants, the design creates a new home within the city, and a thriving community within the site,” the architects said.
Renewable and recycled materials will be used throughout in a design that maximizes natural ventilation, energy creation and efficiency.
The project will be targeting 6-star Green Star, 5.5-star NABERS and WELL Gold certifications, as well as a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions through design and material selection.
The landscape, designed with Lat Studios, will “enhance functionality, enjoyment and identity through a contemporary scheme that includes lush and layered terrace planting and hardy, sun-loving courtyard gardens. Endemic species encourage a local ecology with a focus on re-use of existing geology and reinstatement of the existing bushland to the west of the site.” More

The New South Wales government has unveiled plans to increase the supply of affordable and social housing in the state by offering developers fast-tracked planning assessment and extra developable area. Residential developments of more than $75 million of capital investment value, with a minimum of 15 percent gross floor area allocated to affordable housing, will […] More

Baw Baw Shire Council in Victoria’s West Gippsland region has announced that Croxon Ramsay has completed detailed designs for the proposed Baw Baw Library and Learning Centre. The $30 million project is set to become the heart of the Baw Baw Culture and Connection Precinct. The civic and community building will occupy underutilized areas of […] More

Brisbane Open House returns in 2023 with a curated selection of iconic and contemporary buildings open to the public. Taking place on 15 and 16 July, the program spans 80 buildings and places across 11 Brisbane precincts, particularly this year’s Iconic Precinct: Herston Health and Heritage. The area’s buildings represent more than 120 years of […] More

Architecture, landscape architecture and interior design practices can now create their own profile pages on ArchitectureAU, with the launch today of ArchitectureAU Directory. This new feature provides an opportunity for practices of all sizes to tell their story in their own words and benefit from the credibility inferred by association with Australia’s most respected architecture […] More