Curious Practice

We are very excited that Fort House has been shortlisted in the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects Architecture NSW Awards. Thank you to the clients, the jury and our many collaborators on this project. Builder: @aj_andoni_building Joinery: @pinnaclejoineryaus Heritage: @heritas_architecture Photography: @_clintonweaver @architecturensw

Curious Practice version of a dual basin ensuite. Hardwood ply construction solely. Copper tapware. The vanity pedestal within this renovated heritage terrace sunroom navigates couples morning rituals and the existing room. A single basin version was also made for the main bathroom. Fort House 2025 Builder: @aj_andoni_building Images: @alexmcintyre_photography & Curious Practice #newcastle #australianarchitecture #architecture #interiordesign #newcastlensw #heritage #bathroom

Fort House has had big couple of weeks! Starting with picking up an award for Residential Architecture - Houses (Alts & Adds) at the recent 2026 NSW Regional Architecture Awards. Thank you @architecturensw , @raia_nsw_regional_committee and the jury :) It was a great night to stop and reflect in Coffs Harbour. A special thank you to our clients and builder @aj_andoni_building on a challenging build. Congrats to Brian and Colebee @studio_zawa on your incredible project. Well deserved. Fort House was also featured in issue 108 of @greenmagazine along with some other incredible architects and designers. Thank you @laralilychapman for your wonderful words - It was great to chat. Builder: @aj_andoni_building Engineering: Skelton Consulting Engineers Joinery: @pinnaclejoineryaus Photographer: @_clintonweaver Heritage: @heritas_architecture Words: @laralilychapman Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation

Issue 108 is out now. Inside; a lord, a well-known sea captain and now an artist and her family – these are just some of the people who have occupied a roughly 120-year-old terraced house on Awabakal land in East Newcastle.⁠ ⁠ Titled Fort House, it is a building that is steeped in history, its character shaped not only by those who have lived there but also by the stories of its surroundings.⁠ ⁠ When Curious Practice, a local architecture studio run by Warren Haasnoot and Greg Lee, were asked to renovate this house, they felt it was a shame that it was isolated from its unique location and history.⁠ ⁠ 👉🏽 Read more inside issue 108, available now (link in bio).⁠ ⁠ ~architect @curious_practice ⁠ ~text @laralilychapman ⁠ ~photos @_clintonweaver ⁠ ⁠ 📍 Awabakal Land / East Newcastle / NSW

National Park Street, Merewether | Living & Lounge Architecture @curious_practice Builder @made_homes Landscape @sustainable_surrounds & @liminallandscapedesign @lane_horticulture_irrigation Certifier @buildcert Photographer @sophietyler_creative Styling @beachroadinteriors #architecture #architecturephotography #newbuild #luxuryhomes #heritage #housetour #homedesign #madehomes #newcastlensw

The Cowrie Hole House is conceived as a contemporary coastal terrace, the program is organised as a linear sequence of four interconnected pavilions cascading down the site. The design carves out protected courtyards between each element to temper the prevailing winds, admit sunlight, open views and dissolve the overall mass into a finely scaled composition. With an intimate terrace-scale streetscape to the west and an ocean-facing public realm to the east, where salt-air, strong winds, waves and sunlight demand robust materials, sheltered thresholds and calibrated openings manage exposure, while preserving outlook and connection to the coast. Art: @drink_water_james Builder: @gts_constructions Joinery: @fineearthjoinery Engineering: @izzat_consulting_engineers Photographer: @_clintonweaver Heritage: @heritas_architecture Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation

Tangerine House celebrates the classic cottage, with additions respecting the traditional influences, yet adapting to meet the needs of a young family. The cottage layout is maintained, with the additional spaces designed to enhance connectivity to the North-facing backyard, creating a seamless transition between interior and exterior spaces. Seasonal calibration, the patterns of sun and moon, and family rituals like meals, coffee, and bathing are woven into the design to foster joy and calm. From our client: This space has enhanced our life in every season. We moved in the peak of winter. The house closed-up and gathered our family in the kitchen or around the fire. By spring, the warm light flooded the kitchen and by summer we relished opening the house up to the garden. The dining room brings us together, watching the sun reflect off the pool, dragonflies hide from the heat or rain running off the roof. Our home is a daily ritual, a retreat from busy lives. Builder: @lexarconstruction Landscape: @plant_to_perimeter Photographer: @_clintonweaver + @alexmcintyre_photography Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation.

Terrace houses are often intensely internally focused, being so as their relationship to prevailing breezes, sunlight and context are reduced to just their smaller frontages. Fort House is devised as a series of coordinated additions that allow the building to become more responsive to the areas seasonal living; provide space for shared family rituals and to allow the long concealed sense of place to be engaged with. The updated roof splays and opens on its existing footprint to reveal its context, capture sun and views. The new tin roof balances the complex formal arrangements of both street addresses through a contemporary interpretation of the varied, multiple and wonderful add-ons, lean-tos and renos of earlier dwellings in its immediate context and the greater Newcastle East conservation area. Builder: @aj_andoni_building Engineering: Skelton Consulting Engineers Photographer: @_clintonweaver + @alexmcintyre_photography Heritage: @heritas_architecture Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation

Princes Studio is a small appendage to a existing small, three-bedroomed-single-bathroomed cottage, conceived as detached space to provide the inhabitants relief from a busy household and allow freedom in how they use the space now, and into the future. The studio was intended to remove the television from the house, provide guest accommodation and allow flexibility for use as the young children grow up. The building brief allowed us to test this typology as a response to housing affordability, adaptability and sustainability, having achieved a huge amount of program and delight within a very small floor area. Photography: @alexmcintyre_photography Builder: @fnddevitisbuilding Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation

H House is an exercise in responding to the qualities of the existing house, and spirit of the original heritage listed ‘Garden Suburb’ subdivision. The rhythm of the surrounding context is continued and the single-storey character maintained, concealing a second storey within the shadowy gable form. The pure silhouette recesses modestly behind the original north-east-facing street frontage. To enable direct sunlight into the living spaces, the addition is separated from the existing building by a roof garden that defines a new entry and creates a threshold between old and new. Landscaping introduces splashes of colour and dappled light through the gable windows, changing with seasons. Builder: @gjmilliganbuilding Photographer: @alexmcintyre_photography Heritage Architect: @heritas_architecture Traditional Owners: Pambalong Clan of the Awabakal Nation

The LEDA Art Prize is BACK for 2025! Presented by @abicus_store , this year’s theme is REFLECTION We’re calling on artists of all backgrounds to explore the power of reflection — whether it’s personal, cultural, environmental, or abstract. 🗓 Submissions close: October 22nd, 2025 🔗 Submit via the LEDA website — link in bio Don’t miss your chance to be part of the LEDA Art Prize. A huge thanks to our major sponsor @shoutbrewing 🍻 And to our supporting sponsors @curious_practice and @slingtownespresso for backing local art 🙌 #LEDAArtPrize #LEDA2025 #ArtPrize #CallForArtists #ArtistOpportunity #AbicusStore #ReflectionTheme #ArtCompetition2025 #ContemporaryArt #ShoutBrewingCo #CuriousPractice #SlingtownEspresso

𝗔𝗿𝘂 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 | by 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 - @curious_practice Curious Practice: Weatherboard cottages built in the first half of the twentieth century were often generous at the front and restricted at the rear, with their relationship to prevailing breezes, appropriate orientation, and gardens being a low priority. Aru House (Awabakal word for “insect”) plugs in a series of carefully balanced sensory amplifiers and connectors to just such a cottage in order for a long-ignored sense of place to re-emerge. These sympathetic augmentations to the existing dwelling allow the building to become responsive to seasonal living patterns with a newfound sense of contextual sensitivity. All the new, and old, programs of the house overlap and borrow from each other, becoming more flexible and generous which enables efficient planning and an ability to focus on quality over quantity. As a result, the value of the project is measured in joy and delight through the way materials are crafted, light is choreographed and edges are blurred. Architect: Curious Practice - @curious_practice Builder: Built by Eli @builtbyeli Landscape: @wattlebird_garden_designs Stylist: @monsoonliving ©️📷Clinton Weaver @_clintonweaver 📍#AwabakalCountry, MaryvilleNSW, #Australia🇦🇺 . . . Comment your thoughts below😍 Tag your friends! . ═━═━═━═━═━═━═━═━ 🖤Follow @archfeed_ for more 🖤 ═━═━═━═━═━═━═━═━ . Like❤️| Comment💭| Share⚡ 📲 DM for credit or removal. ✅Don’t miss out! Enable post notifications now . . . . . #AustraliaArchitecture #Australiaarchitects #Australiabuildings #architecture #interior #interiordesign #concept #architecten #architect #Weatherboard #Awabakal #Maryville #architetura #weatherboardcottage