Best of est 2025 | Australian Homes

Home » Architecture & Interiors » Best of est 2025 | Australian Homes

Best of est 2025 | Australian Homes

WORDS

architecture Australian Homes best of est best of est 2025 Interior Design

Temple House by GOLDEN | Photography by Sean Fennessy

We’re commencing our annual Best of est series for 2025 with the Australian homes that most resonated with our audience this year. From a Tasmanian bushland home to a reimagined Victorian maisonette in Melbourne’s East, these five projects capture the diverse talent and topographies shaping Australian residential design.

Proudly supported by Skupa

Temple House by Golden

Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong Country / Melbourne, Australia

An expertly-designed home for modern living often combines seemingly opposing qualities—functional and refined, contemporary and timeless, open and private. This nonconformist approach is exactly what J.Kidman Architecture and interior design firm GOLDEN embraced while designing ‘Temple House’.

J.Kidman Architecture founder James Reid leant into the idea of a domestic temple, focusing on how a home might invite deep contemplation without ever overstating itself. This meant striking a balance between intimacy and monumentality. “Wherever monumentality was established, the subsequent step was always to rewind by eroding it, delaminating it, introducing fissures and slippages—unbuilding it almost—so as to soften it into something more flawed and relatable,” he says.

This approach informed every design decision, starting with materiality. To maintain a sense of wonder for what lies within, materials were kept visually clean through the use of bagged masonry, ribbed limestone and unfilled travertine flooring. When viewed up close, however, Reid describes these materials as having a satisfying haptic quality.

Temple House by GOLDEN | Photography by Sean Fennessy

Verdant Residence by Mim Design

Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong Country / Melbourne, Australia

Located in Melbourne’s South Yarra, Melbourne-based architecture and interior design studio Mim Design has reinvigorated a family’s Victorian maisonette with a contemporary touch. After a series of renovations that diluted the home’s character—its cohesive Victorian maisonette style replaced by a patchwork of incongruous details—the owners turned to Mim Design to help realise a new vision. Long-time clients of the studio, they saw the recently acquired home as an opportunity to start afresh, now that their children had grown up.

“As their lifestyle changed, our clients sought a more efficient home that maintained proximity to the urban amenities they know and love,” principal and founder of Mim Design Miriam (Mim) Fanning says. “We embraced a refined language across interior, exterior and landscape settings, while offering a respectful nod to the property’s Victorian heritage.” This approach shaped a home that balances contemporary refinement with period-appropriate restraint, restoring clarity to what was once fragmented.

Many of the home’s original features informed its redesign, including the narrow layout, which prompted a spatial arrangement to enhance flow and openness. A winding, jasmine-lined path and oak tree-shaded street lead to the reinstated cricket bat door, now framed by delicately crafted stained-glass panels. Inside, a petite, light-filled entrance and stairwell offer an early glimpse of the materials and details that unfold gently throughout the home.

Verdant Residence by Mim Design | Photography by Timothy Kaye

Luna House by Leeton Pointon Architects & CJH Studio

Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong Country / Melbourne, Australia

Alluring and sinuous forms define Leeton Pointon’s residential designs, becoming a signature hallmark of the studio’s architectural identity. Echoing this dramatic movement, Luna House employs curves to provide privacy from the Melbourne home’s suburban streetscape.

The curved exterior offers a delicate balance of privacy and protection, while inside, the spaces flow seamlessly, creating an interconnected series of carefully curated living zones. Volume is used theatrically: a double-height void showcases a sweeping serpentine staircase, which separates the living and private areas across the two floors. Materiality, colour, and texture engage in fluent dialogue to delineate distinct zones within the home. Softly finished plastered walls facilitate the flowing movement, enabling light to reflect throughout the spaces and adding depth and warmth.

Colour is used sparingly but with intention to define spaces, enhanced by expressive furnishings and lighting curated by CJH Studio. The living room and study are drenched in a marine blue, creating a sense of reclusion from the other living spaces, where a brass cabinet introduces a reflective light quality.

Luna House by Leeton Pointon Architects & CJH Studio | Photography by Sharyn Cairns

Taroona House by Archier

Mouhenneener Country / Tasmania, Australia

Tucked away in the dense bushland of southern Tasmania, Taroona House by Archier draws from its natural surrounds, taking the form of an innovative home centred on stillness, connection and creativity.

Born from the clients’ desire to have a home of immersion for living, creating and retreating, Archier architect and director Chris Haddad says, “We imagined three forms cascading down the hill like fallen branches.” The composition of pavilions, glass and timber cultivates a gentle balance between person and place, remaining true to the client’s original vision of embodying their artistic practice and connection to the land.

Rather than asserting itself, the home submits to its setting. A restrained palette quietly amplifies the textures, shadows and serenity of the bush. “The use of native timber, both structurally and aesthetically, helps the building blend into its setting,” Haddad says. It’s not just about seeing the bush; extensive operable glazing invites “the sounds of birds, rustling leaves, and distant ocean swells,” as Haddad describes, indoors. Through thoughtful details like dark timber, native hardwoods and Japanese tiles, Archier has softened the boundaries between built and natural environments.

Taroona House by Archier | Photography by Thurston Empson

Montana Jewel by Homeroom Studio

Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung and Bunurong Country / Melbourne, Australia

Striking a balance that feels at once expansive and intimate, Montana Jewel by Melbourne-based multidisciplinary studio Homeroom Studio is a testament to thoughtful reinvention, preserving the home’s original framework while crafting a space that amplifies a feeling of authenticity and warmth.

Homeroom studio sought to retain the home’s original framework, and at the same time, reimagine the interiors to create an enduring space that celebrates the lifestyle and personal interests of those who call it home. “History emanates within the walls of Montana Jewel,” Homeroom Studio founder and director Romy Dankner says. “Drawing on our client’s affinity for collecting artifacts throughout their travels, the design reflects a deep reverence for traditional practices and heritage techniques, blending them seamlessly into a contemporary landscape,” she adds.

Finding a harmony between the interiors and architecture by ADDARC, the spatial reconfiguration centralises communal areas, responding intuitively to the personal rhythms of the client’s daily lives. “The design collaboration between ourselves and ADDARC led to a deeply considered reorganisation of the interior, strategically centralising the main living spaces to align with the client’s needs,” Dankner continues.