This sleek Sydney home was recently named the world's best house — but take a look at the view outside.
The larrikin pictured with a beer in his hand on the back of a police lockup van on Australia Day was posing outside Small House, an award-winning, four-storey home in the inner-city suburb of Surry Hills.
His mate, who posted the photograph on social news website reddit, took the photo while friends were holding a party next door that spilled onto the street, attracting the attention of passing police.
"We were just using the road as extra space … and not causing any trouble," he wrote.
"[The police] came and told us to move it inside, and we agreed and made the motions that we were moving back in, they left, and we just went back into the laneway."
The photo was taken in front of a home hailed as a stylish urban triumph — and in a gentrified neighbourhood that has pushed out young people in recent years, real estate agents say.
Small House, designed by owner and architect Domenic Alvaro, has won numerous architecture awards since it was completed in 2010.
Built on a 42-square-metre corner block in Bellevue Lane, it is praised for its efficient use of a small space.
The home was featured in TV show Grand Designs Australia and won best house award at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona last November.
The irony of a beer-drinking yob posing outside was not lost on the reddit community.
"I thought Surry Hills was meant to be little bit posh!" one user wrote.
The neighbourhood's rising property prices in recent years have seen share households of young renters around Bellevue Lane replaced by owner-occupier professional couples aged in their early 30s and up, said local real estate agent David Howarth, from Cityside Properties.
A spokesman for Surry Hills local area command said there were few alcohol-related incidents on Australia Day and police did not have to respond to any reports of wild house parties.
"Australia Day celebrations tend to congregate around foreshore and beach areas instead," crime manager Paul Kelly said.
"But we always assess the risk here and use appropriate policing to enforce the legislation on anti-social behaviour and the consumption of alcohol in public places."
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