NSW Country Division Architecture Awards

NSW Country Division Architecture Awards
Celebrating design excellence
and its contribution to communities Across regional nsw
Since its inception in 1960, the NSW Country Division has provided continuous representation and service to regional architects of the Australian Institute of Architects outside the metropolitan areas of Sydney and Newcastle.
The NSW Country Division Architecture Awards celebrate the work of architects working in regional NSW.
NSW Country Division Architecture Awards program

The Awards Program enables public and peer recognition of the innovative work of our members.

Participating in the awards can be an important step in strengthening your membership in the architectural community, and a celebrated career milestone.

Key info and judging dates relating to the 2021 NSW Country Divisions Architecture Awards will be listed here.

If you are planning to submit an entry into the 2021 NSW Country Division Architecture Awards, we recommend that prior to commencing your entry, you become familiar with the Awards, Prizes and Honours Policy.
The 2020 award winners have been announced!

For further details, contact us below.
About the NSW Country Division Architecture Program

Recognising excellence in regional nsw
The NSW Country Division Architecture Awards celebrate the work of architects
working in regional NSW.
Since its inception in 1960, the NSW Country Division has provided continuous representation and service to regional architects of the Australian Institute of Architects outside the metropolitan areas of Sydney and Newcastle.
The annual Awards program has grown in prestige over many years, recognised as a forum to showcase regional architecture at its best.
The program not only celebrates the high level of design excellence in country NSW, but also celebrates the achievements of our members practicing architecture, often in remote regional locations.
The Jury will pay special attention to the regional context and constraints of the entries.
2020 NSW Country Division Awards Judging

2021 Jury EOI opening soon
The Institute’s Architecture Awards recognise excellence and innovation in design and are conferred via a rigorous system of peer review.
A call for EOI for the 2021 Country Division Awards Program will open in Q2 and the jury will be selected following the criteria listed here below.
The Jury may consist of:
- Members of the NSW Chapter Country Division Committee.
- NSW Chapter Members selected by the Country Division Committee via an open call for expressions of interest.
- One member of a media organisation related to the design and construction industry.
The Jury Chair will have the casting vote.
Entry requirements
Enter the 2021 NSW Country Division Awards
The 2021 NSW Country Division Awards will open in Q2.
core criteria
Judging will be based on the following core criteria. These are addressed within the project description text provided as part of your entry:
- Conceptual framework: Underlying principles: Values; Core ideas; Philosophy.
- Public and Cultural Benefits: The amenity and concepts contributing to the public domain.
- Relationship of Built Form to Context: Concepts engaged with new and pre-existing conditions.
- Program Resolution: Functional performance assessed against the brief.
- Integration of Allied Disciplines: Contribution of others, including engineers, landscape architects, artists and other specialists to the outcome.
- Cost/Value Outcome: The effectiveness of decisions related to financial issues.
- Sustainability: The benefit to the environment through design.
- Response to Client and User Needs: Additional benefits interpreted from the brief, serving the client or users and the community.
Awards and categories
Residential Architecture – Houses (New)
Projects in this category must be residential, generally falling within BCA Class 1a and must be new builds. Projects with up to two self-contained dwellings may be entered in this category.
Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)
Projects must be residential, generally falling within BCA Class 1a, and must include renovations or alterations or additions to an existing building, whether or not the building was residential in nature in the first instance. Projects with up to two self-contained dwellings may be entered in this category.
Small Project Architecture
Projects in this category will be those considered to be ‘small’ in terms of area or budget as determined by the Jury. Projects are recognised that have been constrained by space or cost restrictions, but have achieved a level of invention, creativity and craftsmanship beyond these constraints. This category can accommodate projects which may be over-looked against larger scale projects in other categories or may be transient or experimental in nature, such as exhibition design, set design or installations. Projects of all functional types may be considered.
Residential Architecture – Houses (affordable housing under $400,000.00)
To be a residential dwelling/s, detached or attached (not apartments) with an individual dwelling cost not exceeding a contract price of $400,000.00 excluding non-essential landscaping, pools and consultant fees.
Residential Architecture – (Multiple Housing)
Projects in this category must be residential and comprise of, or include, two or more self-contained dwellings (whether or not the building includes uses for other purposes).
Urban Design
Projects in this category may be single buildings, groups of buildings or non-building projects, studies or masterplans, which are of public, civic or urban design in nature. Awarded projects must have enhanced the quality of the built environment or public domain or contribute to the wellbeing of the broader community.
Commercial Architecture
Projects in this category must be built primarily for commercial purposes, generally falling within BCA Classes 3b, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Interior Architecture
Projects in this category must be interior spaces and environments within a new building or the refurbishment of an existing building.
Public Architecture
Projects in this category must be predominantly of a public or institutional nature generally falling within BCA Class 9. It does not include projects falling within the definition of Educational Architecture or any BCA Class 9b building used primarily for educational purposes.
Educational Architecture
Projects in this category may be any preschool, primary, secondary or tertiary educational facility and/or joint research facilities in which an educational institution is a significant partner. Education projects may not be entered in the Public Architecture category.
Sustainable Architecture
Blurb about jury here
- Juror Name
- Juror Name
Heritage
This category is for any built conservation project or study developed in accordance with the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter, or any adaptive reuse of a heritage structure.
Timber Award
This award is given in recognition of outstanding architectural work by a NSW Country Division Architect. The use of timber must be integral to the success of the project, with a significant and/or ingenious use of timber being displayed in the design. All entries can be considered for this Award, no additional entry fee is required.
Vision Award
Projects can be built or unbuilt in NSW, interstate and overseas, not type specific, could be conceptual, could be consultancy/advice lead, could be community art-based, could involve `change leadership’, could be a masterplan, could be a building overseas.
The purpose of this award is to showcase the skills and capacity of NSW Country Division Architects, ideally in community focussed endeavours but also to recognise projects that may not easily fit the main awards whilst still providing credibility to what we do as a broader organisation.
James Barnet Award
Highest Honour of the NSW Country Division Architecture Awards, all submissions to the NSW Country Division Awards will be considered for the James Barnet Award. This award will be made, where appropriate, for outstanding work by a NSW Country Division member of the Institute, in any category.
Entry fees
Chapter | standard entry fee (ex gst) | a+ Membership Fee (10% discount) ex gst |
---|---|---|
NSW | $700 | $630 |
Newcastle | $350 | $315 |
*Winners of Newcastle Awards will be required to pay an additional State entry fee to be considered for the NSW State Awards. There is no additional charge for progression to the National Architecture Awards. Entry fees are exclusive of GST.
Key dates
chapter | Entries open | Presentation to Juries | Awards Presentations |
---|---|---|---|
NSW | 18 November 2020 - 19 February 2021 | 4 - 10 March 2021 | Friday 2 July 2021 |
Newcastle | 18 November 2020 - 8 February 2021 | N/A | Friday 19 March 2021 |
2020 NSW Country Division Awards winners
2020 NSW Country Division Architecture Awards – winners announced!
The Bathurst Rail Museum by Integrated Design Group took out the prestigious James Barnet Award and the award for Public Architecture. The museum successfully delivers on the promise of recording, rediscovering and reinvigorating the continuing social and railway history of Bathurst, Australia’s oldest inland European settlement. The design skilfully combines the preserving and enhancement of a heritage building with the successful addition of new buildings and insertions into the engaging precinct, adding a new built history to the existing. The contrasting form, colour and materiality of the contemporary buildings clearly defines old and new.
Across this year’s awards program, Integrated Design Group took out four awards. The honours also included the award for Heritage Architecture for dAIRY CReATivE and the award for Residential Architecture – Affordable Housing (Under $400,000) for Mum’s House. dAIRY CReATivE offers a great collaborative workspace and preserves and reveals materials, trade and technology through the adaptive re-use of a 115-year-old brick ‘shed’. Mum’s House, in collaboration with Jennifer Price Landscape Design, epitomises true sustainability, delivering a sophisticated ‘shed’ with strong reference to the Australian farm vernacular.
Multi-award winning DJF Architects were recognised for three projects including: Easy Street, recipient of the Sustainable Architecture award and award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing; Neal and Shirley’s awarded Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions); and Coolamon House awarded for Residential Architecture – Houses (New.) Easy Street in Byron Bay delivers uncompromisingly designed, compact, low-cost apartments creating an affordable, flourishing community for key workers. Neal and Shirley’s modest mid-century bones warranted preservation, and reconfiguring the beachfront pavilion into an efficient two-person home that better engages with its unique dune system setting saved the much loved 1957 Tweed Coast home. Coolamon House perches on an exposed escarpment. By conceiving the home around a central oasis courtyard set within a transparent outer shell, the architecture affords protected immersion in the expansive landscape while capturing internal views through the house itself.
Pearl Beach House by Buckwell & Partners Architects took out awards for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) and Timber. Using thoughtfully resolved, recycled materials this passive solar house hugs the site and celebrates the natural beauty of its surroundings.
Harley Graham Architects received the Commercial Architecture award for the Stone and Wood Brewery. A steel and timber structure that deconstructs as it opens to the north where the courtyard defines the entry and greenery climbs the vertical timber screen, it creates a spiritual home for the team.
The award for Educational Architecture went to Q Block by GPG Architecture and Design with Mark G Golden and Associates. Here internal learning areas connect seamlessly with covered outdoor zones to create transitional learning environments that serve as natural backdrops to the energetic days of the occupants.
The Vision Award was won by Takt Studio for the Conjola Connected Communities masterplan to assist future development following the catastrophic bushfires of 2019/2020. It is a vision of a community that becomes more resilient, more inclusive and more sustainable than it ever has been.
ANZAC Walk by PELLE Architects received the award for Small Project Architecture. The Batemans Bay Soldiers Club ‘ANZAC Walk’ is a sensitive and respectful tribute to past servicemen and women, creating a contemplative and reflective arrival sequence and using undulating geometry to create compression and relief when transitioning through the space shaping the sculpted displays.
In addition to the 15 jury awards and ten commendations, Pearl Beach House by Buckwell & Partners Architects also won the People’s Choice award by popular vote. Supporters were no doubt impressed by the state-of-the-art passive solar home that generates electricity, uses thoughtfully recycled materials and celebrates the natural beauty of the environment around it.