Brisbane home office clocks on to win architecture prize

It’s a sign of the work-from-home era that a home-office renovation has won a national award for residential design.

Red Hill House and Studio, by architects Nicholas Skepper and Zuzana Kovar, took out the prize for House Alteration and Addition under 200 square metres in the 2024 Houses Awards.

The studio at the rear of the Red Hill workers’ cottage has separate street access that opens onto the garden.Credit: Clinton Weaver 

The architect couple, of the studio Zuzana&Nicholas, renovated the rear of their Red Hill workers’ cottage in 2022, adding a studio with separate street access that opens onto their garden.

“We have enough separation that the studio feels public and sort of professional, but we can run upstairs at five o’clock and cook dinner for the kids,” Skepper said.

Australian homes are not usually set up to facilitate the back and forth between work and home life, he said.

Speaking from Japan, Skepper explained that the design was similar to the traditional Japanese idea of the shop house, where families run a business from the front of a building and live above it.

Zuzana and Nicholas chose not to build out to the edges of their corner block.Credit: Clinton Weaver

In Japanese cities, commercial businesses are usually intermingled with homes – an idea that Australian planning laws generally discourage but one that Skepper finds beautiful.

“We actually find it really lovely when those two things can intermingle,” he said.

The couple chose not to build out to the edges of their corner block, which is less than 500sq m.

A restoration and adaptation of a landmark Perth home designed by late architect Iwan Iwanoff won the heritage prize. Tomich House by Mark Jeavons Architect with Ohlo Studio extended the original 1971 design while retaining its retro feel.

In South Australia, Carrickalinga Shed by Architects Ink took out the sustainability category for a design that uses the idea of the shed as shelter from the elements.

AAP