From one year to the next, Habitus House of the Year prides itself on the ideas contributed by important designers across the industry. The 2025 program in back – once again in collaboration with Winnings as Major Partner as well as Supporting Partners, Rogerseller and Billi – so it’s a fine time to look at some of the connecting threads between this year and last.
The extensive 2025 jury was recently announced – more on that in a moment. Before that, however, let’s reflect on one of the highlights from the 2024 program. Mim Fanning, founder of renowned Melbourne-based practice Mim Design, joined us in the capacity of neither juror nor shortlister. Instead, she kindly attended the awards night at Winnings Richmond as a keynote speaker, specifically to share her thoughts on what makes a house a home and why residential design is meaningful to designers.
“I love what I said [at the event], which is still really relevant,” says Mim, who discussed the memory recently on a Stories Indesign podcast interview. “Who gets to work in an industry where people come to you and you have the ability to change their environment, an environment that creates part of their memories through life? That’s a pretty special thing to be involved in, because it’s not just an interior that you’re creating – you’re creating almost an emotional space where people can actually collate memories and live in that space. And that’s something that I really love about the interior design world.”
Mim also reminisces about the sheer energy of the 2025 Winnings x Habitus House of the Year Awards night. With over 500 people in attendance, it was quite a party atmosphere. Indeed, the program also prides itself on balancing design rigour with fun and community. It’s a refreshing exception to the sit-down dinners of the awards circuit, and Mim was on hand to give a short speech and present two of the four named awards. 2024 saw two House of the Year winners – Proclamation House by State of Kin and Burnt Earth Beach House by Wardle – while MEGA received the Winnings Emerging Talent Award and Speargrass by Arent&Pyke took out the People’s Choice Award.
Mim concludes: “With any design, whether it’s a home or a restaurant or a retail fit-out, people like to connect with things – and if there’s a true connection, it just makes things so much better. I think being able to create an interior where people get joy or have an emotion is really, really good.”
Turning to 2025, the design insight continues with a talented, varied jury. The main reason for selecting such a large jury is to capture the breadth of expertise and perspective across the whole design industry. Phillip Withers is an example of this expanded approach in 2025, with the founder of his eponymous practice bringing a rich knowledge of landscape design to the jury deliberations.
Watch the full jury reveal announcement in the video below!
It’s clear that any successful house design, and certainly any candidate for Habitus House of the Year, must have a considered elements of landscape design and outdoor spaces such as a garden. Some of the strongest projects from 2024 stood out in this area, so we asked Phil to join us for this year’s jury.
“I’ll be seeing it one hundred per cent from a different lens,” says Phil. “But still, some of those fundamental considerations that go from one practice to another are really important and vital – for example, how does a house connect to its locality? Just looking at it initially is really important [in terms of] beautiful design, but does it connect to place and how does that feel? Because if something is beautiful, it sits well in its place.”
Phil then raises the issues of views in relation to outdoor spaces: “How do we connect those views? I see it from the outside – but we need to see it also from the inside out, looking out to a landscape. You build such a good vocabulary about what the landscape should look like from the inside, and that’s the honouring the architect and the designer just as much as it is landscape, because we have to work together. So, it’s fundamental to get all those things right.
“I think [the scale I’m looking at] is definitely stronger in terms of its exact connection to place, because that’s where it needs to sit in the landscape. How does it sit there and does it create that beautiful connection even just by way of looking at it? And it can do it in its own way. It can be beautiful in its own right, but it should also connect to that landscape in some way, shape or form. Good architecture does that.
“And then, probably less so but still important is [the question]: does it tell a story? Does it tell a story for that particular town or location? I think some of the most beautiful work really does that so well.”
The full Winnings x Habitus House of the Year shortlist is announced in October 2025, with voting for the People’s Choice Award open from 15th October. Follow us on Instagram for live updates.
