The Blok Three Sisters project on Stradbroke Island, Queensland, has been honored with the 2025 Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing. This innovative coastal development represents a groundbreaking collaboration between Blok Modular's prefabricated construction expertise and the distinctive South-East Queensland design sensibilities of Vokes and Peters.

The award-winning project consists of three coastal townhouses that replaced a single-family beach shack on the same site. The development was specifically designed to accommodate three sisters and their extended families, who had been enjoying the beachfront location since childhood. The jury praised the project as "a very special little building" in "a special place," highlighting how it transforms childhood memories into a functional architectural solution for intergenerational living.

The design embodies the concept of nostalgia manifest in architecture, facilitating the passing of knowledge about place, community, and beachside living traditions from one generation to the next. Each townhouse features a sequence of efficient spaces that blend seamlessly with the natural landscape and open dramatically at the rear through double-height-volume terraces that embrace ocean views. The modular construction process demonstrates how strategic prefabrication can be successfully adapted for Australian building practices.

Architectural details throughout the project reflect its coastal setting and practical beach living requirements. Decking floors are designed to accommodate sandy feet, while operable walls and panels capture ocean breezes and allow air to flow naturally through the spaces. The design includes a practical front shed balanced by a distinctive roof form that kicks up to embrace the canopy of adjacent trees, creating visual harmony with the surrounding environment.

The townhouses incorporate inherent flexibility into their floor plans, allowing each resident to personalize their configuration within a consistent architectural envelope. This approach maintains visual cohesion across all three units while providing individual families with the ability to adapt their living spaces to their specific needs. The jury noted that the robust simplicity of these classic terrace forms successfully draws inspiration from the past while clearly aspiring to future living standards.

Located in Point Lookout, Queensland on Quandamooka Country, the project showcases how modular construction can deliver high-quality residential architecture without compromising design excellence. The development serves as a clear blueprint for how prefabricated construction techniques can be translated into new construction methods across Australia, potentially revolutionizing the residential building industry.

The project team included architects from Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters, with Daniel Burnett, Stuart Vokes, James Lewis, Jarred Gunn, and Sarah Binns serving as key team members. Pagewood Projects served as the builder, while additional expertise was provided by BA Certifiers as building surveyor, Optimum Structures for structural engineering, Survey Mark for town planning, and HCE Engineers as civil consultants. The project was reviewed by Lisa Kuiri for Houses magazine and photographed by Christopher Frederick Jones.