Commendation for Public Architecture Archives - Australian Institute of Architects

The Round | BKK Architects + Kerstin Thompson Architects

Eromanga Natural History Museum | Architectus

The Eromanga Natural History Museum is designed to showcase the museums collections and activities to the public, provide exceptional research facilities, and prepare for a future exhibition space.

The project includes an entry building with public spaces, a courtyard and workplace. A research building houses labs and spaces for fossil preparation and storage.

On Boonthamurra Country in remote Queensland, the museums simple yet elegant concrete form sits comfortably within the landscape. From a low ridgeline, it opens to views of bloodwood trees and gilgai wetlands, while its canopy provides shade and textured walls respond to light conditions.

Understanding the remote context and the clients notforprofit status, the team designed the museum to withstand extreme temperatures and selected robust systems and materials to minimise costs.

Close collaboration and thoughtful design have resulted in a museum that is memorable and engaging for visitors and supportive and inspiring for staff and volunteers.

The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre Sutherland | CHROFI & NBRS

The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre (formally the Sutherland Entertainment Centre) holds an important place in the collective memory of the Sutherland community. As an iconic building in a prominent location, this substantial refurbishment afforded the opportunity to create a catalyst for local placemaking. Our approach was to work with the existing building, creating a versatile, welcoming timber and glass foyer that improves connection with the neighbouring Peace Park.

The venue boasts a spacious auditorium with seating for over 680, offering every visitor an intimate and engaging experience. The Pavilion also features versatile events spaces that can accommodate a range of performances, exhibitions, conferences, and community gatherings. Visitors are immersed in a captivating atmosphere that blends elegance, innovation, and artistic vibrancy. The Pavilion Performing Arts Centre sets a benchmark for performing arts facilities in the Shire, supporting the local community, while attracting touring productions to the region.

Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium) | Cox Architecture with ASPECT Studios

A stadium in the park a public building set within a public park. The stadium is a memorable public room for shared play and celebration.

The surrounding public domain is expanded, legible, and accessible. Varied in activation it includes intimate spaces, new public play spaces half basketball play, exercise, kids play to a civic gesture in the form of the Kippax stairs connecting Paddington and Surry Hills.

A rusticated base mediates topography, while a visually recessive bronze body contains significant program. A sinuous highly efficient white steel diagrid roof provides identity. Guided by a do more with less approach, the project achieves LEED Gold.

The Sporting Club of Sydney positioned adjacent the stadium mediates a scale shift to the smaller heritage buildings of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The clients objective to (re)positions Sydney ahead of competing cities through offering uncompromised patron event amenity while attracting national / international events is achieved.

Redfern Station | DesignInc

Redfern Station is a transformative piece of urban infrastructure that revitalizes, reconnects, provides universal access and enhances the station and precinct. The new southern concourse and station entries at Little Eveleigh and Marian Streets provide high quality, high amenity places that draw on their rich natural, cultural and built heritage context.

Design cues are taken from Eveleigh’s original wetland landscape as well as its more recent industrial past, with ideas of mist and steam expressed in the perforated cladding, and views framed towards local vistas and the existing heritage buildings. The design also adaptively reuses the industrial warehouse at 125 Little Eveleigh Street as a main entrance. Along with the new public connection across the railway line, shared pedestrian and bicycle zones improve access to local facilities. Thoughtfully combining Indigenous, natural, industrial, and contemporary heritage, the project truly encapsulates the spirit of place, promoting a vibrant local community.

Memorial Drive Centre Court Stage 2 | Cox Architecture

The redevelopment of Memorial Drive completes a 10-year transformation of one of Adelaide’s most loved sporting and performance venues.

Blending a rich history with contemporary new form, the re-imagined ‘Drive’ provides a major showcase of tennis and events, set within the context and intimacy of the existing southern stand and red brick arches that characterise the site. The project connects Memorial Drive to the Adelaide Oval Plaza, further enhancing the public realm offering and enhancing the activation of Riverbank.

This project marks a highly successful collaboration with our client Tennis SA. The Drive’s evolution has created a new benchmark for sporting and event facilities that celebrate their site, location and context.

Koorie Heritage Trust Stage 2 | Lyons with Greenaway Architects and Architecture Associates

The Koorie Heritage Trust, now expanded into all floors of the Birrarung building in Federation Square, is the first of its kind in an Australian capital city. Delivered through thoughtful collaboration, the First Nations arts and cultural centre connects to Indigenous perspectives and amplifies Indigenous culture in Melbournes CBD. A key third pillar of Federation Square, the Koorie Heritage Trust renovation seeks to anchor in the primacy of Country, echoing the colours of Country the water of the Birrarung, the reds of the blossoms and the river red gums, the warmth of the lightly wooded landscape that once existed in proximity. It is a significant gathering place, a culturally safe space, and a place for people on Wurundjeri lands to be inspired.

Singleton Arts and Cultural Centre | BKA Architecture

The new Singleton Arts and Cultural Centre encourages fresh and exciting creative opportunities in the Hunter Valley. Located on a floodplain, the gallery sustains a flexibility throughout, catering to various demographics and changes in exhibitions, with the design being future proofed to allow for further expansion. Openings of varying shapes puncture the tilt-up concrete envelope, providing glimpses of views to the parkland. The studios are distinct in form, planning and colour. Vivid red steel cladding and steep roof forms solidify the new building as a future icon in the Hunter Valley. With bold sloping roof forms, the gallery emerges from the parkland site as one makes their way along the New England Highway, a thoroughfare for tourists. The new building promotes creative activities, providing space for functions and art shows, as well as providing the rural community with access to international exhibitions.