Queensland landscape architect wins at Houses Awards

A project by Kieron Gait Architects and Dan Young Landscape Architect has taken out the Garden or Landscape category at the 2019 Houses Awards. Whynot St Pool and Carport responds to a brief for a suburban carport and pool for a house in Brisbane’s West End by aiming to reveal and celebrate the underlying nature of the steep site and the natural features and geological forms of an earlier time.

“Part building and part archaeological dig, this project is both unexpected and deeply innovative in its approach. There is a lot of construction here: a carport and store, a terrace and pool. The skill of the designers is particularly evident in the fact that the site appears to have been deconstructed to reveal a pre-suburban landscape,” states the jury citation.

“The garden is wild and river rocks replace the typical timber deck, turf lawn or hard paving. The street benefits from this cleverly crafted insertion of the ruin/ carport hybrid. The rear private swimming pool holds the sloping site and deals with Australian pool fence regulations in a firm and creative way. The decorative concrete block pool wall evokes memories of Walter Burley Griffin and the natural world and also reads as an effective datum to contemplate the long views to the surrounding hills. This is a poetic solution to the Aussie suburban “must haves.”

The Houses Awards is an annual program celebrating high-quality Australian residential architecture.

Previous winners of the Garden or Landscape category include:

2018: Coastal Garden House by Neeson Murcutt Architects with 360 Degrees Landscape Architects

2017: Waterloo House by Anthony Gill Architects with Budwise Garden Design

2016: Outdoor Fairfield House by Kennedy Nolan in collaboration with Sam Cox Landscape

For the full list of 2019 Houses Awards winners, go here.