PHOTO: The extraordinarily original Domik near Noosa. Photo: Scott Burrows
One jaw-dropping new house fronting the Pacific near Noosa, that shows what veteran architect Noel Robinson achieved when challenged to build a multi-domed holiday home into sand dunes — using an uncapped budget — stands out as singular in the residential ranks of this year’s Queensland chapter architecture awards announced on Thursday night.
Domik is a wow-worthy winner of a state award in the annual Australian Architects Institute prizes and is, as the jury noted, a unique response to “a once in a lifetime brief”.
The rest of the winning and commended house projects that include the handful that topped Domik’s attainment by winning the “name” or primary awards in their category, show a very relatable trend towards tricking up, or making from the ground up, houses that are new-age versions of the dear old Aussie suburban typology.
That is, houses of functional family scale that accommodate a genuine enjoyment of the at-home lifestyle and that give a lot of ground to outdoor living.
Outdoor lifestyling, literally with walls that can fold away to dissolve hard house boundaries between inside and out, is a speciality of Australia’s sub-tropical architecture – and the Queensland mob do it so well.
