Entered across two categories, they are also in the running for the Australian Institute of Architects' major prize, the Victorian Architecture Medal.

The winning designs will be unveiled at a ceremony in melbourne on June 25.

Below are the stories behind the cleverly designed entries:

Sorrento Hill Top by Nettle Architects

While the budget for this house was modest, the brief was complex. The architects were required to provide streamlined, flexible, uncluttered light-filled spaces, suitable for a couple or family and entertaining all year round. Category: Harold Desbrowe-Annear award for residential architecture.

Shoreham Residence by SJB Architects

On about 20 hectares, this holiday house was conceived as a pair of parallel plains suspended over the landscape. Each plain slips horizontally along the contours to maximise views across Western Port and create two distinct pavilions. Category: Harold Desbrowe-Annear award.

Farfor Flats 1 & 2 in Portsea by Lovell Chen

On a bay-front site, the fats were designed by Robin Boyd in 1966. The four single-storey units were conceived as holiday houses. Each features an L-shaped floor plan, built around a courtyard and an unusual verandah profile, where the roof is tilted upwards by a series of cantilevering timber props. Lovell Chen has completed alterations and extensions to the flats at the rear of the site, including the addition of second storeys and the construction of pools overlooking the bay. Category: Harold Desbrowe-Annear award

Merricks House in Merricks North by Wood/Marsh

The building arcs gently across the landscape, following the contours of the land and framing views to the ocean. A pair of curved earth-walls act as a solid, central spine from which smaller, more refined volumes radiate. Category: Harold Desbrowe-Annear award.

Port Phillip Estate in Red Hill South by Wood/Marsh

Port Phillip Estate Winery carves into an undulating site overlooking picturesque vineyards, Westernport and Bass Strait. Sited just below a ridge, the building unfurls across site, spiralling out of the ground and slowly rising to form a 100-metre-long wall with one opening. A grand ceremonial staircase leads down into the underbelly of the building where state-of-the-art winemaking facilities are housed. Category: Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for commercial architecture.