Families frustrated by the cost of living crisis have been building some unique, architecturally designed multi-generation homes that push the boundaries of new construction.

PropTrack data shows prices have soared, housing shortages have become the norm in much of Sydney and other capitals, and property experts have reported a surge in multiple generations living in the same property to save money.

Multigenerational living is also meant to heal family rifts caused by unaffordable housing costs, which often force adult children to move to cheaper places far from their parents and where they grew up.

While basic house extensions and grandmother apartments are still the most common solutions, some families have sought more creative and innovative solutions.

Many of these projects featured prominently in the recent list of nominees for the House Awards, offering some of the more original ideas for making shared living easier.

They include a backyard guesthouse made of steel plates, a small bungalow converted into a three-generation home, and a North Shore gazebo granny apartment called "the Spirit who keeps giving."

There is also a unique Waterloo house, made from recycled materials, which covers just 30 square metres.

In nearby Camperdown, a converted home from an old warehouse reveals how canny design principles created a larger living space by removing much of the original building.

Alexa Kempton, chair of the judging panel for the Housing Awards, said new ideas were emerging in the way public and private areas of homes are arranged.

Sioux Clark, co-director of architect diversity and a member of the jury for the award, which will be announced in July, said the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many people think about their homes, and the new buildings are responding.

"We may be entering a period of change, similar to the postwar period, but post-pandemic. It's a boom time, people are more interesting, more colorful, "she said.

"The other side is the economic environment, which in some ways makes us more restrained. I think the result is that houses are becoming more and more individual.

"Before COVID-19, there was a design movement that was stark and sometimes repetitive. After COVID-19, home is more like a place to raise children, more like a refuge. They are gentler and softer. They embody the personality of the people who live there."

Ms Clark added that a move towards well-designed, multi-generational housing could improve the social fabric of our cities.

"It's something that's equally important in other cultures," she said. "It's an irony in Australia that you have older parents living in the inner city and their children have to live in the outer suburbs and there's always a distance between parent and child."

One of the more striking granny flats built recently is the Steel House, a free-standing addition at the back of a property in Darlinghurst.

The alley is adjacent to an older, craggy terrace in front of the 1830s House, called the Stone House.

Other unique living Spaces built recently include Studio Elroy, a home converted from an old basement of a traditional building, and a Copacabana house with an L-shaped wooden shell that focuses attention on the beach.

Hawthorn Backyard Studio built a studio for a teenage son, with the studio, shed and pool forming a rear fence to create more garden space.