FOUR standout projects on the Mornington Peninsula are in the running for the 2025 Victorian Architecture Awards, showcasing the region’s growing influence in architectural innovation.
The awards celebrate the most inspiring architecture across the state with the winners to be announced at an awards night on 27 June.
The shortlisted projects in Mornington Peninsula include residences House on a Hill, Stumpy Gully House, and The Apple House, as well as Woodleigh School’s Woodleigh Regenerative Futures Studio.
House on a Hill, created by Leeton Pointon Architects + Interiors, sits in a rural setting on the Mornington Peninsula, featuring second hand bricks and concrete, as well as robust materials aimed at longevity, sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint. The home has been shortlisted in the residential architecture – new houses category award.
Director Michael Leeton said, “We feel honoured to have been able to create this multigenerational home on Bunurong Country on the Mornington Peninsula; land that has been a place of ceremonies, initiation and renewal for thousands of years”.
In Balnarring, Stumpy Gully House, a project by Adam Markowitz Design and Stavrias Architecture, draws inspiration from mid-century ‘beachcomber’ homes, and responds to suburban living for a young, growing family. It too is in the running for the residential architecture – new houses category award.
“Our design is trying to capture what is special about its unique coastal village location, drawing on the generous bushy setbacks, open carports and low slung, beach-comber architecture that is typical to coastal villages such as Balnarring,” Adam Markowitz Design director Adam Markowitz said. “Stumpy Gully house is a response to new development patterns on the Mornington Peninsula, which can often be pretty anonymous cookie-cutter builds, built in a ‘fortress’ style with minimum setback and big double garages that close themselves off to the street.”
The Apple House in Merricks North by Sally Draper Architects has been shortlisted in the regional prize, residential architecture – houses category (alterations and additions). “The Apple House was designed for a landscape architect and his family abutting their existing Alistair Knox mud brick house. Set within rolling farmland on the site of an old apple orchard it builds on an architectural language specific to this region,” director Sally Draper said.
In Langwarrin South, Woodleigh Regenerative Futures Studio by Mcildowie Partners with Joost Bakker, is up for the educational architecture category award. “Highlighting the ambition of Woodleigh School to innovate on every level and to set an unrivalled standard for sustainability, the Futures Studio is a carbon-sequestering, solar-powered learning ecosystem that filters pollution, fosters animal life, generates almost zero waste, and provides a dynamic project-based learning environment for students,” McIldowie Partners + Joost Bakker said. “The project was supported at every step by a deeply engaged school cohort and, more broadly, by the extended community, with local trades, makers, contractors and suppliers all contributing to the vision.
First published in the Mornington News – 13 May 2025
