The beginning of September marks not only the beginning of spring this year, but also the launch of the annual Habitus House of the Year special edition. The flowers are revealing themselves and so are the 20 most outstanding examples of residential architecture Habitus has selected for its 2019 collection.
Generously hosted by Gaggenau in the South Melbourne showroom designed by Carr Design, myself, Raj Nandan (founder, publisher and CEO of Indesgn Media) and the Habitus team was joined by architects, designers, architecture writers and photographers, industry grandées and supporters of the initiative to celebrate the launch of the September issue and, perhaps most importantly, reveal the architects and their projects that have made it into this years’ exclusive selection.
In consultation with the founding editor of Habitus, Paul McGillick, we have carefully curated an extremely tight collection of recently completed residential architecture that we feel represents the Indo Pacific Region and our unique and thoughtful approach to design.
We couldn’t have come up with the diverse array of houses that we have – that vary in size, location, purpose, materiality, layout, ideology and the like – without the research and insights from our architecture editors and writers on the ground who are constantly searching on our behalf for the most impressive, innovative and thought provoking examples of architecture in their local stomping ground. So we’d like to recognise the efforts of Stephen Crafti, Rebecca Gross, Margie Fraser, Andrea Stevens, Chu Lik Ren, Thanh Nguyen, Tonkao Panin, Yen Kien Hang, Asih Jenie from our Singapore office and of course, Habitus House of the Year Consulting Editor Paul McGillick.
While these 20 houses represent the Region geographically, we also feel they accurately reflect the Habitus values. That is to say architecture that emphasises a sense of place; shows clarity of concept; promotes sustainability and responsible design; and clearly embodies the residents’ way of life.
Habitus is lucky to partner with brands – and people behind these brands – that share our values. Without the support of our partners we wouldn’t be able to reach the milestones that we have nor champion the accomplishments of the local architecture community in the way Habitus House of the Year does. We’d like to thank our Major Partners: Gaggenau, StylecraftHOME, and Zip; and our Supporting Partners: Armadillo & Co and Earp Bros. We’d also like to thank our our Design Hunter Partners: Armadillo & Co, Boyd Blue, Earp Bros, Euroluce, Hale Mercantile Co, Nique, Premium Sound, Phoenix Tapware, Project 82, Studio Gallery Melbourne and Tsar Carpets.
Thanks again to the team at Gaggenau for hosting Habitus and our loyal republic of Design Hunters to launch this very special issue. If you weren’t there you might have to wait a few days until the issue drops on Thursday 12 September, but in the interim you can enjoy the images from the night below!
Holly Cunneen
Editor
Photography by Marcel Aucar
Habitus House of the Year wouldn’t exist without the support of our friends, colleagues and regular collaborators in the industry. We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to our Major Partners Gaggenau, StylecraftHOME and Zip and Supporting Partners Armadillo & Co and Earp Bros. Likewise we would like to recognise our Television Partners for joining us on our journey to a new medium.