‘Stable House’, Wood St Forest Lodge, by Sibling Architecture

by Andrew Wood, Blue Wren Subcommittee Convenor, August 2022, from Bulletin 6/2022

“A joyful Forest Lodge home” in Wood St has been awarded the 2022 Wilkinson Award for the best new home. Stable House is owned and designed by Qianyi Lim, a Director at Sibling Architecture and Associate Professor of Practice (Architecture) at the University of Sydney.

The Jurors stated:

Stable House is a small family home that pops with joy and colour. Sibling Architecture has created an incredibly adaptable house with an eye to the future, without losing sight of the past. It belies its small footprint, with a series of overlapping spaces, artful voids and curated views of greenery. The house weaves within the skin of the existing stable wall creating a delightful quality of natural light and depth of texture. The folded roof form is both a sensitive design response to neighbours and a delicate canopy of light. Central to the home is the kitchen. Designed with memories of extended family gathering around for meals – the space is perfectly proportioned to fulfil this function in a small footprint. Jurors agreed that the house is an inspirational model for how pockets of forgotten space in densely populated areas can be transformed into calm sanctuaries for living.

‘Stable House’, Wood St, Forest Lodge, by Sibling Architecture

This is the second occasion on which the Wilkinson award was made to a house in Glebe/Forest Lodge – in 2020, Chenchow Little Architects received the award for their house in Ferry Rd.

Qianyi was also awarded the Emerging Architect Prize:

Amongst a group of highly talented nominees, the jury considered that Qianyi’s impressive and rounded career portfolio that spans across private practice, education and advocacy made her the ideal candidate for this prize. Qianyi has used her reach in the profession to champion diversity and advocate for women in architecture through invited panels and talks. Further to this, her built work puts Sibling’s research into practice exploring relevant societal themes such as models of home ownership, ageing and multigenerational housing.