Little Loft House - Big Winner
On Friday night, the winners of the ACT Architecture Awards were announced. Our Little Loft House picked up TWO prestigious accolades. To quote the Institute of Architects:
Little Loft House by Light House Architecture and Science was among the most highly-awarded projects receiving both The Gene Willsford Award for Residential Architecture (Alterations & Additions) and The Derek Wrigley Award for Sustainable Architecture. Working from a modest budget, the Jury noted how this project “exemplifies the skill of the architect to transform a dark and unremarkable home into one that feels contemporary and light-filled.” Importantly, the Jury notes that it “promotes the application of practical energy efficiency measures to a common building typology synonymous with poor performance” resulting in “energy savings of up to 80% of that of the typical Canberra home.”
BUT that’s not all…
In the same Sustainable Architecture category and also by Light House Architecture and Science, Pettit & Sevitt Revival received a commendation for illustrating how, “The salvage and re-use of much of the existing building fabric demonstrates that thermal comfort and energy efficiency can be achieved without a price to Canberra’s architectural heritage.”
You can read more about our wonderful winners on our website under ‘Architecture’ here and under ‘Science’ here. You can also view the 2021 Winners booklet online to read more about what impressed the jury (see pages 38-39 and 54-55 and 56-57).
Most of the Light House team were at Jenny’s house for a pizza party to watch the awards. We were incredibly excited to receive two live-to-air skype calls to chat about Little Loft House as the awards were announced. Sarah and Jenny grinned madly and tried to let the amazing Duncan Hall, the design brains behind this beautiful project, do most of the talking. You can watch the full awards announcements at the video link below - you’ll find Sustainable Architecture at about the 12:40 mark and then Residential Alterations and Additions at about 47:50 (we get a little rowdy second time around!).
*AND due to popular demand, you can see the before and after floor plan of the home at the bottom of this post (it’s also available at the links to parts of our website above).
