2024 Australian Urban Design Awards Celebrate Outstanding Projects Shaping the Nation’s Urban Landscape

The prestigious Australian Urban Design Awards, established in 1996 by the Urban Design Taskforce under Prime Minister Paul Keating, proudly announce the winners for 2024. For over two decades, the Australian Urban Design Awards has been instrumental in recognising exemplary urban design projects across Australia, advocating for best practices that enrich communities and cities nationwide. 

Co-convened by the Australian Institute of Architects, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and the Planning Institute of Australia with support from peak organisations in the sector, the Australian Urban Design Awards continue to emphasise the crucial role of innovative urban design in shaping our nation’s built environment. 

“This year’s awards have demonstrated that good urban design is not a superficial and optional layer to how we build cities, but a fundamental and unifying way to create places that connect us to each other and begin to address climate and biodiversity crises,” says Katherine Sundermann, Convenor of Juries. 

“The role of government in leading innovation is evident in the award-winning streetscape and riverside transformations led by the City of Melbourne and City of Sydney. Here, public land is rediscovered for human and ecological benefit. A renewed focus on developing an evidence base for good urban design is highlighted in quantifying quality, marrying algorithmic assessment with crowd-sourced public intelligence to define the most important elements of public space, alongside commended projects that provide targeted tools to lift the quality of ‘missing middle’ housing and transport projects,” says Sundermann. 

This year’s competition attracted over a hundred entries across two categories: Built Projects and Leadership, Advocacy & Research, each further segmented into City and Regional Scale as well as Local and Neighbourhood Scale. 

The winners, selected by esteemed juries comprising industry leaders and experts, were honored at the awards ceremony held in Canberra at Australia Parliament House last night with gratitude extended to Principal Partner, Bondor Metecno for their support.

The event was attended by shortlisted entrants, leader within the profession, several elected members of Federal Parliament as well as representatives from the three co-convenors of the Awards. Our special thanks to the Honorable Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Elizabeth Watson-Brown MP, Member for Ryan for their attendance and announcement of The Parliamentary Friends of Australian Urban Design.