31 October 2003
‘Architecture reflects in a built form the changes taking place in our culture and community and this is particularly evident in the winners of this year’s National Architecture Awards,’ said Mr David Parken, President of The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).
Conducted by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, the Architecture Awards are the most prestigious prizes given to buildings in Australia and are a showcase of cutting edge building design.
Winner of the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Buildings is the Birabahn Indigenous Centre at Newcastle University by architects Peter Stutchbury, Richard Le Plastrier and Sue Harper.
For the first time ever the same architect has won the two major prizes. Peter Stutchbury of Stutchbury + Pape has also been awarded one of the two joint Robin Boyd Awards for Residential design for the Bay House in Sydney ‘a beautifully realized coastal dwelling’.
The other joint Robin Boyd Award was given to a Sunshine Beach House that ‘captures the spirit of sensuous seaside living with elegance and calm’ by architect Kerry Hill.
The inaugural 25 year award was given to the Sydney Opera House, architect Jorn Utzon and Stage 2 architects Hall Todd and Littlemore, ‘for the great contribution that architecture can make to a city and a nation’.
Melbourne’s Federation Square designed by Lab Architecture Studio in association with Bates Smart received the Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design for producing ‘a major urban enhancement to the city’.
Lab Architecture Studio in association with Bates Smart also received the Interior Architecture Award for the Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, as a ‘major achievement in international gallery design’.
Architect John Taylor’s dedication to researching the work of priest architect John Hawes and his 1920’s Church of our Lady of Mt Carmel and Sts Peter and Paul in Mullewa, WA, gained him the Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage.
A lively retail centre in Queensland, the James Street Market designed by Cox Rayner Architects that ‘cleverly incorporates existing driveways, loading docks, rights of way and pedestrian access routes’ received the Award for Commercial Architecture.
‘Robert Morris-Nunn has demonstrated a persistent exploration of passive and low-energy designs, and applies his experience and skill to this hybrid building type for Forestry Tasmania,’ said the jury citation for the Award for Sustainable Architecture that went to the Forest Ecocentre, Scottsdale, Tasmania.
The use of steel screens that ‘create a secure environment behind which the windows can be operated, as well as reducing solar gain on the northern elevation,’ on the Army Headquarters Training Command, Paddington, gained architects Bates Smart Pty Ltd the Colorbond Award for the use of Steel.
In addition to the nine named awards, the jury also gave commendations to: Woodleigh School Science Building by Sean Godsell Architects, Toumbaal Plains House by Fergus Scott, Heide 1 - John & Sunday Reed House by O’Connor + Houle Architecture (with Bryce Raworth Pty Ltd), Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures by McElroy Morrisson Pierce Architects Pty Ltd, Commonwealth Place by Durbach Block Architects, Monash Science Centre by Williams Boage Pty Ltd Architects.
The jury members were architects Graham Jahn, Adrian Welke, Catherine Townsend, Jamieson Allom and lay member David Meagher.
National Architecture Awards commenced in 1981 in Canberra and were presented by the then Governor General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen. This year, the awards are being presented in Hobart on 30 October and Sir Zelman Cowen will attend along with the new Governor of Tasmania, His Excellency Mr Richard Butler AC.
Nearly 600 projects were entered into the State and Territory Awards earlier this year. The national winners are selected from those projects that won awards in their respective State or Territory.
These are the hardest awards to win in the building and construction industry and the winners of this year’s awards will now be either strengthening or staking their place at the top of the architectural ladder. ENDS
Contact:Stella de Vulder 02 9356 2955 mob 0412 341 013
Annette Dearing 02 9356 2955 mob 0407 921 324
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