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An architect-designed outdoor dunny on a secluded hill in NSW bush is nothing like those of the past, when a page ripped from a tatty phone book served as toilet paper. Nor does the new $836 million Sydney Fish Market resemble the old pongy shops or the sheds that inspired its architects.
But these winners of the 2026 NSW Architecture awards announced on Thursday night were, like other awarded homes and projects, “distinctly Australian”, said the chair of juries Bill Tsakalos.
They responded to our climate, landscape, culture and materials with confidence and originality, he said.
The top award winners ranged from Magenta Outhouse – an open air toilet, tub and shower made from recycled materials on the tightest of budgets by young architects Atelier Marks Gael -- to city-shaping projects including Sydney Fish Market, the updated Central Station, and the northern cycleway to the Harbour Bridge.
When it came to new homes and alterations and additions, winners turned narrow and awkward-shaped blocks on cliffs, in the middle of the city and near railway lines into award-winning homes, often managing to squeeze a garden oasis in the middle.
Across from Newcastle’s historic city baths, and named for a local landmark, Cowrie Hole house by Curious Practice won the highest award for new homes, the Wilkinson Award.
It is a coastal spin on the terrace homes common in inner Sydney.
Replacing an old home filled with Mr Fluffy insulation, the new home, on a five-metre-wide block, flows down the hill. Colour and art softens the walls and ceilings.
Newcastle architect Warren Haasnoot, director of Curious Practice, told the Herald that the design was based on series of pavilions that were “pulled apart in some areas to allow for the views, and in others to create more protected enclaves away from the wind”.
To its owner [name withheld], it was a legacy project: “I see myself as its caretaker, creating a place where my children can grow … and always have somewhere special to return home.”
Other award winners included EA House in Mittagong by Bokey Grant, which also won the Blacket Prize for regional architecture. The jury said the small home, “stripped of excess”, skilfully negotiated a complex site previously overlooked as unbuildable.
OK House by Stephen Collier Architect in Scarborough, south of Sydney, negotiated a similar challenge, building on a steep block within metres of a train line. The other winner was Queenscliff House by Chenchow Little.
Homes: Alterations and additions
In Sydney, Anthony Gill Architects also reinvented the terrace to give it a warehouse vibe to win the highest award for alterations and additions to homes and apartments, the Hugh and Eva Buhrich award for residential architecture.
Gill restored a derelict old terrace – facing one street – and expanded the home across a difficult and derelict L-shaped empty site with access to another street.
It connected the two wings with “a clever set” of stairs around internal courtyards, said architect Stephen Varady, who visited the home, called Darlinghurst House.
“This is what architects do that others can’t,” said Varady, who has taught architecture across Australia. “They think about space differently, and come up with ideas that others can’t.”
The owners said Gill had created a strong environment that cocooned them. “As we settle in, and the garden grows, the house gets better.”
Other award winners included House Gretchen by Lintel Studio for Architecture, Lilyfield House by Tribe Studio Architects, Surrey 112 by Smart Design Studio (which also won the John Verge Award for Interior Architecture for the same project), and The Corner Shop House by Downie North.
Big Sydney projects
Sydney Fish Market by architects 3XN, in association with BVN and ASPECT Studios, scooped the pool to win the 2026 Premier’s Prize, the Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture, and an award for public architecture.
Premier Chris Minns said it was a “new iconic landmark rising straight out of our harbour”. The jury said its soaring timber canopy, which resembles fish scales, set a benchmark for low-carbon construction.
Another one of Sydney’s largest projects, the transformation of the 1906 Central Station by Woods Bagot in collaboration with John McAslan + Partners, took out the NSW Architecture Medallion and won the Sulman Medal for public architecture.
For full list of winners, visit Architecture Australia.
Julie Power is a lay juror for the Australian Institute of Architects’ NSW Architecture Awards and served on the panel for multi-residential housing.
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