By CASEY NEILL and GEORGIA WESTGARTH
A HALLAM design studio is in the running for top housing awards.
Graham Jones Design’s home Emerald is a nominee for a residential design award in the new houses valued at $300,000 to $500,000 category at the Victorian Building Design Awards (BDAV).
The design is named after its location, which inspired its appearance.
The firm’s project Mt Martha, located in Mount Martha, is also nominated in the residential design category for new houses valued at $500,000 to $1 million.
Graham Jones is also in the running for the People’s Choice Award, which allows Victorians to choose their favourite design project.
The Building Design Awards celebrate Victoria’s best building designers across heritage conservation and residential, interior, energy efficient and non-residential design.
Tracey Johnson from Graham Jones Design said conceptual design for Emerald started in late 2011 and a young family had been living in the home for a year.
“It was what most builders would see as a difficult sloping site, which was why it was a custom design,” she said.
Access to the home is via a sweeping driveway that guides guests through a timber gate, and the site is nestled among the trees and next to the Puffing Billy train line.
Ms Johnson said the family asked for an understated, low maintenance home that complemented the environment and fitted in with the vegetation on the site.
It is predominantly Colorbond and timber and is split into two divided pavilions separated by the entry – the living and parent zone and the kid’s zone, garage and storage.
Graham Jones Design has won more than 80 awards over the past 25 years and will learn the fate of its Emerald design at the BDAV annual dinner on Saturday 25 July.
People’s Choice Award voting is now open at www.bdav.org.au and closes Monday 13 July.
