Some exciting houses have recently received accolades at the 2012 Victorian Architecture Awards. The residential buildings (which are my chief concern) celebrated by the ceremony highlight the fact that contemporary houses must do more than look pretty in order to gain recognition; they must be designed to complement modern lifestyle standards, with the the aim of synthesising the property with the urban landscape while still retaining a striking aesthetic quality.

The most prestigious residential award, the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award, went to the above Queensberry Street House by Robert Simeoni Architects. The Australian Institute of Architects described the home as “a comprehensively unique and exciting project that is ‘about privacy and shared spaces; seclusion and connectedness with the city and exploring how light and ventilation can be brought into an inner city courtyard house’.” The house’s facade is imposing, with the dark, patterned brick work capturing a historic edge. The reflective glass allows privacy, but is also used to mirror the streetscape, creating cohesiveness.

The Awards acknowledged both the sustainability and impressive design features of Heller Street Park and Residences, pictured above, by architecture outfit Six Degrees. The medium-density development was built on the contaminated site of a former tip, making it’s environmental choos especially impressive, and is striking as it sits distinctly from the flat surrounding landscape. Angles and texture are used to create visual interest (as you can see!). The terraces and their communal areas were constructed to blur the private/public boundary, creating a sense of shared space. The project won Best Overend Award for Multiple Residential Architecture and the 2012 Sustainable Architecture Award.

Garage + Deck + Landscape project

The last award I’m going to mention is a particularly interesting one, as I’ve formed a bit of a love for outdoor spaces recently. The Small Project Architecture Award was given to Baracco + Wright Architecture for its Garage + Deck + Landscape project. The finished product is breathtaking – while ostensibly simple, it creates a perfect synthesis between the eye-catching landscaping and slanted garage, which is the first attractive garage I believe I’ve ever seen.

Each of the residential projects praised at the awards show imagination as well as fundamental design ethos, which is what renders them so significant. Homes like these will retain their appeal in the future due to both the lifestyle they offer the resident and their immense visual impact.

I wasn’t intending to take these snaps, but having spent the day in Balmain yesterday, I couldn’t resist documenting some of the pretty houses I saw with my iPhone. Since I spent so long in the suburb checking out the (pretty impressive, by the way) dining scene and reading the news, I found myself wishing I had brought my camera along in order to doorknock on some doors and get a nice, long post out of the day. I was too tired yesterday morning to have that foresight, but I’m glad I semi-salvaged the situation.

I have explored a house in Balmain before on the blog, but Rozelle/Balmain (to be honest, I don’t know where the one starts and the other begins – I go by the signs on shopfronts) definitely deserve to be highlighted, if only because there is such diversity in the housing styles. ‘What diversity?’ You might say. ‘They’re all just cramped old places.’ A lot are Victorian terraces, but some are brick, some are weatherboard, and some aren’t from that era at all – there are freestanding Federations and nondescript brown brick workers’ houses that look like they were built in the ’50s lining the cramped, snakey streets.

An incredibly cute pair.

Darling St, Balmain is worth visiting. It houses some of Sydney’s brightest spots – awarded delis (the deli on Darling Street is well worth a visit – it has some very trendy, hard-to-find brands of ice cream, great varieties of vanilla paste, orange blossom water and rosewater, and glass bottles of milk, my favourite item), celebrated bakeries (including Adriano Zumbo’s shopfront), quirky wine bars, and it leads down to one of Sydney’s most spectacular views at Thornton Park. The price of buying property in Balmain is, accordingly, hefty, but definitely worth it for those who want good local joints and a quick trip into the CBD (although Victoria Street’s traffic regularly exceeds nightmarish proportions).

There were sad parts to the suburb, too. I walked past some unmistakable housing commission apartment blocks. I actually walked up to one of them to explore, but didn’t get very far when a person emerged and looked at me with a wary expression. I was also surprised to find beggars at Balmain. It was easy to make assumptions about who I thought was part of Balmain’s new, gentrified crowd, and who I thought was part of the old, government-assisted population. Whether I was right or not, on the suburb’s periphery it can present a melancholy contrast.

Yet to be handed back its old glory.

I can’t go a week without capturing some architectural gems, so I took my camera to work yesterday and snapped some pictures. I wasn’t overrun with time, so these photos are a tiny snapshot of a block in the quite large suburb. This is definitely not my only post on Surry Hills – it’s just a teaser. I’m still searching for the right house to feature there.

This is, by the way, my first post published through my iPad – I bought an excellent attachment that allows me to transfer photos from my camera straight onto my beautiful tablet.

The sorbet-coloured terraces march up and down Surry Hills’ hilly streets, which I find extremely pretty. The contrast in the shades ensures that each facade makes its own impression on the viewer.

While Surry Hills is an expensive area, I find it difficult to agree with people who argue it’s been gentrified. I mean, it’s certainly different to what it once was – but I wouldn’t equate it with Paddington yet. Its food and bar scene is definitely its best quality – there is always something of a high standard near by (even one of its sandwich shops, City Edge Cafe, is excellent), and the presence of The Winery cements the suburb’s boutique cuisine and beverage credibility.

But for every renovated terrace, there are ten unrenovated ones.

Its upmarket design stores also provide the suburb with a more genteel flavour, but its grimey, raw undercurrents are still there – the pathways are in cracked disrepair, you’re almost certain to see someone who you suspect has a drug problem, and on a grey day the lines of tiny worker’s cottages can make Surry Hills look sombre.

The houses here are generally Victorian, and range from one-storey attached cottages; two-storey worker’s terraces (more common), which are easily identifiable as they tend to be built directly on the pathway (they have no patio and iron lace fence blocking them from the street) and lack the ornate front yard dividing walls that afford larger terraces privacy from neighbours; larger terraces that presumably belonged to the middle class; and the occasional large Victorian house. A more modern development has been the conversion of warehouses into industrial-tinged modern residences.

I noticed that there is a love heart motif that runs through the suburb’s unrenovated places. My evidence is in the first and last images. Older houses tend to have unexpected features that come out and grab you. That is what makes them so appealing.