How does a house contribute to its neighbourhood?

Mel Bright, a Victorian architect and jury chair of the Residential Architecture category in the state's AIA awards 2016, says:

"architects are pushing their clients to understand that their private house is more than just real estate and quantity of bedrooms. There is a role to play in the greater context and that, even at the scale of a private home, there is opportunity for the project to make a positive contribution to its place and to local communities."

Austin Maynard's THAT House, which won an award, is a great example of a house that contributes to the streetscape and sense of neighbourliness. It's also not as big as the surrounding house, because the clients wanted "just the right amount of space". Read more about it here.

Photography by Tess Kelly