Do architects in Melbourne win more HOUSES awards?

You may remember my article Do Architects in Melbourne win more architecture awards, which I published earlier this year.

It contained new data that shed light on the distribution of accolades across various states and territories, and six awards programs, over the past 10 years.

The 2022 HOUSES awards jury from left to right: Alexa Kempton, Matthew Eagle, Clare Cousins and Isabelle Toland. Absent from photo: Kieran Wong

Following the announcement of the 2023 HOUSES awards shortlist in early May, I’ve spent some time delving into the dataset for this and the previous 10 years. I was curious to see whether there were any patterns or trends around divvying up the spoils for the HOUSES awards, which many would agree is the most highly sought-after recognition for residential architecture.

The fifth 2022 juror: Kieran Wong

What data am I referring to for this article?

Last year, I received an awards dossier that assembled a raft of data and unpacked the distribution of award winning projects (both shortlisted entries and winners) and people (looking at where jurors are sourced from) across Australia.

It contains information drawn from publicly available websites about six major awards programs - over the past 10 years - including:

• the Institute’s Chapter and National Awards,

• the HOUSES Awards,

• the Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA),

• the Eat Drink Design Awards,

• the Sustainability Awards, and

• the Timber Design Awards.

These data and their accompanying analysis provide some fascinating insights about the location of the most awarded projects are in Australia, and whether there is any correlation between the home states of juries, shortlisted entries and winners.

This article looks specifically at the HOUSES Awards, and I’ve updated the dataset with new information from the 2023 program for comparison purposes.

As you can see in the graph below, which collates the data from 10 years of the HOUSES Awards, there was very strong representation from Victoria in the shortlisted entries and award winners.

From these raw figures, it’s easy to conclude that the main accolades are bestowed on four states: Victoria has 39% of the total winners, NSW has 37%, Queensland has 23% and Tasmania has 2%. The remaining states and territories have none between them.

When those figures are adjusted for population and the number of practicing architects, the weighting that favours some states – NSW, Vic, Qld and Tasmania – is magnified: Victoria has the most awards per head of population (at 5.46 per million people) while Queensland has the most awards per registered architect (0.82).

So what’s driving these patterns?

• Is residential architecture of a higher standard in Queensland?

• Do architects in “the Eastern states” enter more projects into awards than architects in states with lower populations?

• Are there simply more architect-designed houses in Victoria – the state with the most design-conscious community – potentially leading to higher quality outcomes, which in turn increases the odds of winning an award?

• Or could the disproportionate number of winners from Victoria – which has the highest number of winners overall, and the highest number of winners compared to population – be caused by unconscious bias on the part of the program organisers and/or jurors, 53% of whom are from Victoria?

What can we learn from the 2023 HOUSES shortlist?

This year the breakdown of shortlisted projects is looking slightly more positive – from a Western Australian viewpoint at least! WA has 11 shortlisted projects (some across multiple categories), compared to 3 shortlisted projects in 2022; 4 shortlisted projects in 2021 and zero in 2020.

According to the 2023 HOUSES Awards Gallery^, there are only 7 projects in Queensland this year, 2 from South Australia, and 0 from both the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory.

(^ It’s worth noting that spotted some inconsistencies with the 2023 Gallery – it’s showing only four projects in WA when sorted by state, but perusing the published lists for each category yields 11 individual projects from WA, so it seems that some WA projects have been miscategorised in the gallery database. I’m not sure if the same issue is affecting data from other states.)

What do these results mean for you and your entries?

In the precursor article – which compared data across six awards programs – I concluded that the breakdowns of Award Winners Per Capita (the number of awards per 1m people) and Award Winners Per Registered Practicing Architect showed that the awards distribution was mostly even across all states and territories over the past decade, when reviewing collective results from the top three programs (the Institute’s, HOUSES and Eat Drink Design Awards)

But as this article shows, there are anomalies and skewed results within the HOUSES Awards program, that seem to favour the states with the highest populations; and looking at the winners, they are skewed towards Victoria – where the awards organisers are based, and where half of the jury members over the past 11 years live and work.

If this bothers you – and you’re concerned about fair and equitable representation for architects in awards programs across Australia – feel free to provide your feedback, suggestions and recommendations to the various awards organisers.

And if you have other concerns about awards – around the entry criteria, or definitions of sustainability, or the types of projects that are typically recognised – you could share those issues with the organisers too.

For example, the Institute is setting up a new Awards Review Working Group this year, so that’s a useful starting point for programs that are run directly by that peak body, and programs that are run by Architecture Media (ie HOUSES and Eat Drink Design). If you’re an Institute member, you can raise your concerns with your local Chapter office and ask them to forward your feedback to the new Working Group.

Why are architecture awards so important?

Awards play a substantial and significant role in shaping the public’s perception of architecture – and they inform the narrative about who in the community should benefit from good design, and what types of projects are worthy of recognition and accolades.

If you share my belief that architecture has an image problem – in that most people in the broader community believe that architects exist solely to create expensive houses for rich people – then tackling any notions of perceived bias or false misconceptions that may be perpetuated by awards programs is one way to “re-brand” what architecture is and who it is for.

For example, I’m firmly of the belief that as the world transitions to a low carbon future, architects have the opportunity to take a leading role in this transition, so it’s my view that the importance of architecture awards – and how the profession wishes to position itself in a climate changing world – cannot be overstated.

If you’d like to find out how you can start to make this shift in your own awards entries - by elevating and amplifying the types of projects that haven’t historically been recognised in typical awards programs – we offer two CPD training workshops that can help:

Strategically plan your Awards sets out how to choose which projects to enter and which programs will best suit your business development goals, and change the narrative about architecture. Approaching your awards entries strategically means you can use them to attract your ideal clients and win more of the work you love doing.

Turn your Awards into Marketing Gold contains insights from leading and multi-award winning architects – including this year’s Gold Medallist Kerstin Thompson – to help you wring every last drop of value from your entries, by repurposing your messaging across your other marketing channels long after the awards are over.

And if you’d like more detailed help with any awards questions or strategies you’re struggling with, you can book an Acupuncture Session with Rachael directly. She can help you map out your awards strategy and find your project’s narrative “hook”, so you can frame and position your project in its best light.

Lastly, if you’re one of the shortlisted architecture practices whose project is vying for a HOUSES Award this year: good luck with the judging process!