Sustainable buildings take out top honours at state property awards
Efficiency in energy and water use, as well as a sophisticated approach to adaptive reuse in commercial spaces prove to be winning combinations
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Heritage preservation and sustainability concerns have won out at the Property Council of Australia’s state awards.
Brookfield Place in the heart of Sydney’s CBD took out the NSW Development of the Year award. With direct access to Wynyard Station it offers more than 6,300sqm of lettable retail space and 27 floors, while providing expansive views across Wynyard Park. While it represents an attractive commercial opportunity, Brookfield Place has achieved a 6 Star Green Star Office Design & As Built v3 rating as well as WELL Health/Safety accredited in 2022. It is also targeting NABERS ratings for energy and water.
In further signs that sustainable building practices have gained ground, the state honours in Queensland went to the Midtown Centre, where two 1970s buildings have been reimagined to create a commercial precinct including office spaces, a retail laneway and wellness destination. As the hybrid working model becomes the norm, office spaces are outward looking towards green vistas.
The building also has a 6 Star Green Star Design & As Built v1.1 rating and 5 Star NABERS energy rating. It also works as a celebration of the past, with the older buildings on show, contrasting with the new work.
Other state winners include the BHP workplace in Adelaide, which took the top state honour in South Australia, and the cantilevered 405 Bourke Street in Victoria.
The state winners will now go through to the Property Council’s National Innovation & Excellence Awards with winners to be announced in Sydney later this year.
Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said the winners represent the pinnacle of property innovation, design and construction in Australia.
“Our winners have created incredible places for people to enjoy and to thrive in. I congratulate them for their extraordinary rolemodelling and their dedication to the communities they serve,” he said.
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For affluent homeowners, the laundry is no longer a utility space. It’s becoming a performance-driven investment in hygiene, longevity and seamless living.
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In high-end homes, the most telling upgrades are no longer the obvious ones.
It’s not just the marble in the kitchen or the view from the terrace. Increasingly, it’s the rooms you don’t see, and how well they actually work.
The laundry is a perfect example.
Once treated as a purely functional space, it is now being reconsidered by architects and homeowners alike as a zone where performance, hygiene and design need to align.
And for buyers operating at the top end of the market, that shift is less about aesthetics and more about control.
Because in a home where everything is curated, inefficiency stands out.
ASKO’s latest “Laundry Care 2.0” range leans directly into that mindset, positioning the laundry as a long-term investment rather than a basic appliance purchase.
Built on more than 75 years of engineering, the Scandinavian brand’s latest systems focus on durability, precision and what is becoming a defining luxury in modern homes: quiet.
One of the more telling innovations is something most buyers would never think to question until it fails.
Traditional washing machines rely on rubber seals that trap dirt and bacteria over time. ASKO replaces that entirely with a steel solution designed to maintain a cleaner, more hygienic drum.
It’s not a headline feature. But it is exactly the kind of detail buyers tend to notice.
Then there is the issue of noise.
As open-plan living has become standard in prestige homes, the background hum of appliances has gone from unnoticed to intrusive.
ASKO’s suspension system is engineered to minimise vibration almost entirely, allowing machines to run without disrupting the wider home environment.
In practical terms, that means a load can run late at night without carrying through the house. In lifestyle terms, it means the home functions as intended.
The same thinking extends to the drying process. Uneven loads, tangled fabrics and repeat cycles are treated as inefficiencies rather than inconveniences, with technology designed to keep garments moving evenly and reduce wear over time.
For buyers, this is where the value proposition sharpens.
It is not about having more features. It is about removing friction.
Less maintenance. Less noise. Less time spent correcting what should have worked the first time.
In that sense, modern laundry is no longer just a utility. It is a reflection of how a home performs behind the scenes, and whether it lives up to the expectations set by everything else.
Because at this level, luxury is not just what you see.
It is what you don’t have to think about.
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