The wild rooftop garden in Redfern that took home a prize

Sacha Coles calls the unusual rooftop garden – about the size of a swimming pool – on his Redfern terrace house a “green artwork”.

On Friday night, Coles’ wild meadow above his family’s kitchen and living room won Houses Awards’ 2024 annual award for garden or landscape. Part of a renovation to the terrace house, it was designed by Anthony Gill Architects with Coles, a landscape architect and the design director of Aspect Studios.

Sacha Coles on his rooftop garden in Redfern, which has just won the best garden in the 2024 Houses Awards.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The project is typical of the 2024 winners of the prestigious Houses magazine awards for residential housing that included gardens and courtyards, even if it meant sacrificing floor space.

This year’s House of the Year is Hill House and Studio in Brisbane designed by owners and architects Zuzana and Nicholas. They resisted the temptation to expand the existing worker’s cottage, and retained much of the garden, said the jury. The owners added an outdoor room that in the Queensland climate could double as a home office.

Houses magazine editor and jury chair Alexa Kempton said the winners showed the ingenuity that architects and designers could bring to any project on any budget.

Several projects were inspired by the Australian shed, often incorporating an internal courtyard. Recognising the pressure on budgets, many included multipurpose spaces.

Shed House in Sydney’s Earlwood by Breakspear Architects won the best new house over 200 square metres. The ground floor operates as storage and workspace for the family’s furniture business.

Carrickalinga Shed on the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia, by Architects Ink, also built around a large courtyard garden, won the award for sustainability.

And in Victoria, Courtyard House by Clare Cousins Architects won the award for new house under 200 square metres.

In NSW, Arcadia by Plus Minus Design in Sydney won best house alteration and addition over 200 square metres. A renovation of a 1920s home, architect Phillip Arnold said the approach balanced heritage and reality, with original features restored when possible. There was “no Pinterest driven gimmickry”.

“An unexpected gift was the discovery of sandstone bedrock which was flooded to create a calming pond,” he said.

Arcadia won the award jointly with Blue Mountains House by Anthony Gill Architects (NSW). It also used a minimalist courtyard to connect the existing building, a classic Pettit and Sevitt Lowline house, with a new wing for guests.

When Coles started in landscape architecture, he said nobody talked about the importance of habitat, pollination, landscape, or country-centred design. “Now it is common language. People are understanding the importance of landscape and thermal control,” he said.

One of his first moves when he bought the Redfern terrace 20 years ago, was to buy a concrete tub so neighbours in the street behind him could garden. Today, planter boxes and pots are everywhere.

Next, he put a bench in a sunny spot at the end of his own street that has morphed into a community garden, maintained by an active WhatsApp group. The City of Sydney has agreed to turn the area into a permanent pocket park in the future.

2024 Houses Awards winners

• House of the Year: Red Hill House and Studio by Zuzana and Nicholas (QLD)
• New House Over 200 Square Metres: Shed House by Breakspear Architects (NSW)
• New House Under 200 Square Metres; Courtyard House by Clare Cousins Architects (VIC)
• House Alteration and Addition Over 200 Square Metres (joint winner) - Arcadia by Plus Minus Design (NSW) 
• House Alteration and Addition Over 200 Square Metres (joint winner) - Blue Mountains House by Anthony Gill Architects (NSW) 
• House Alteration and Addition Under 200 Square Metres - Red Hill House and Studio by Zuzana and Nicholas (QLD) 
• Apartment or Unit - 57 Martin Street by Neometro (VIC) 
• Garden or Landscape - Redfern House by Anthony Gill Architects with Sacha Coles (NSW)
• House in a Heritage Context (joint winner) - Courtyard House by Clare Cousins Architects (VIC)
• House in a Heritage Context (joint winner) - Tomich House by Mark Jeavons Architect with Ohlo Studio (WA) 
• Sustainability - Carrickalinga Shed by Architects Ink (SA) 
• Emerging Architecture Practice (joint winner) - Architect George (NSW) 
• Emerging Architecture Practice (joint winner) - SSdH (VIC) 

The rooftop garden added to his home a few years ago is part of the ecosystem, Coles said. In a densely populated inner-city suburb like Redfern, it was a respite for his family and neighbours from the usual views of corrugated iron roofs and washing lines.

“A roof garden is not going to be the place where you throw a frisbee or walk your dog. It’s going to be a place where you meditate in the morning over a cup of tea or coffee, read the paper and have a chat … Everyone’s looking over your roof. It’s a green artwork and everyone benefits.

“We made the choice to give it over to pollination, the view and the habitat. It is purely flowering plants, some native, with Plectranthus, pineapple sage, and [the native climber] Hardenbergia.”

Because the garden is on top of the living areas it improves temperature control, he said. Before the renovation by Gill, the house was as tiny “as a doll’s house”. The family of four chose to go up, four stories. “It is a bit like a Dutch canal house, very tall and narrow.”

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