Gold Medal
Nomination Form

Since the formation of his Melbourne-based practice in 1986, John Wardle has devoted his energies to maintaining the design ethos of the small office to ever larger institutional and commercial projects across the country.  His early practice was built upon the design of single-family houses such as the Kitamura house, Kew (1995) and Isaacson-Davis house, Balnarring (1997) whose external forms, interiors and joinery rejoiced in the pleasures of creating place, spatial delight and exquisitely resolved detail.  At the same time, Wardle commenced a long and productive association with institutional clients, CSIRO and the Salvation Army, designing, on the one hand, laboratories and research facilities and on the other, low-budget low-income residential accommodation.  As a result, Wardle and his office developed considerable expertise in responding to programs and client bodies of considerable complexity, while at the still delivering projects of considerable architectural design integrity.  

More than three decades of honing skills to address often competing agendas, purposefully and cogently, with the ongoing support and development of a studio-based office of committed staff at every level, has meant that John Wardle has created a practice of national stature and international repute; a practice where design excellence takes the prime position in every single project and at every scale. 

In the last decade, Wardle’s institutional and commercial buildings have reasserted architecture form at the city scale.  The Urban Workshop (2000-07) and the Nigel Peck Centre for Learning and Leadership (2004-2007) in Melbourne, the Kaurna Building (2002-05) in Adelaide, and the Queensland Brain Institute (2004-2007) in Brisbane, and the Jane Foss Russell Building in Sydney (2009) exemplify the national impact of Wardle’s personal project of raising the public status of architectural design.  His public buildings have become exemplars of quality for institutional and commercial patrons.  

Wardle’s domestic projects too are of note, continuing the great Australian tradition of the single-family house as the architect’s laboratory for experiment and innovation.  His iterative design process is an exemplar for students of architecture.  His collaborations with artists and craftspeople comprise a practice of mutual enrichment not only for the built environment but also for each contributing discipline. 

Evidence of consistent peer recognition over more than 30 years reinforces the view of John Wardle as an architect whose contribution to the development of Australian architecture has been distinguished and substantial.  His practice has been the recipient of numerous state Institute awards for architectural excellence in Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland as well as numerous awards at the national level. 

In Victoria, Wardle is a two-time winner of the Victorian Architecture Medal (1997 and 2008), the state’s highest accolade.  He has won the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award for residential architecture three times (1995, 1997 and 2004), the Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for commercial architecture twice (1997 and 2006), and the William Wardell Award for public buildings twice (2000 and 2008).  

At a national level, he has twice been the recipient of the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Buildings (2002 and 2006), the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture twice (2012 and 2013) as well as the inaugural Daryl Jackson Award for Educational Architecture (2015).  Such acknowledgement of design excellence demonstrated across a range of building types and geographic locations is further evidence of the deserved peer respect for the dexterity of his formal compositions, his programmatic innovations as well as his engagement with residential, institutional and commercial clients.

John Wardle is an outstanding Australian architect who maintains an exemplary practice. Across the nation he has restored faith in what architects do best – the design of buildings that function well and please hand and eye.  He is a most worthy candidate for the award of the Gold Medal, the highest accolade of the Australian Institute of Architects.