2018 Gallery
Winner: Emerging Architecture Practice
Brad Swartz Architects for Loft House x2
Loft House x2 replaces cars with people. Collaboration between two inner-city neighbours saw their rear-lane parking spaces replaced with conjoined one-bedroom houses. On a footprint of just 35 square metres each, they will serve as both traveller’s accommodation, and a secondary family home.
Jury Citation
Sydney-based Brad Swartz Architects won the Apartment or Unit category of the 2015 Houses Awards with the twenty-seven-square-metre Darlinghurst Apartment, in the same year that the practice was established. Since then, this emerging practice has continued to refine the art of the Tetris puzzle that is small-space design, and this year is again the winner of the Apartment or Unit category. By making the most of clever joinery, demonstrating spatial innovation and using cost-effective design strategies, Brad Swartz Architects reminds us that good design can be made available to all.
The practice’s body of work to date is concerned with making better use of existing spaces and the need to achieve rich amenity within the increasingly confined footprints of our capital cities. The Loft x2 is an example of infill housing that doubles the density of a set of Sydney terrace sites. Boneca Apartment and Darlinghurst Apartment are examples of the reuse of existing building stock that no longer suited contemporary lifestyles. Each project is refined, with a real sense of delight at what is possible. The jury is excited to see what’s next for this inspirational young practice.
