2020 NSW Country Division Architecture Awards – winners announced!

Our Country Awards page has moved – head to the NSW Chapter page of the Australian Institute of Architects for all information on 2021 Awards here. For historical information and to find out more about the past winners, please follow links below on this page.

Read the media release | Download the catalogue

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.

Read the media release | Download the catalogue

2020 NSW Country Division Architecture Awards – Winners and commendations

JAMES BARNET AWARD
Bathurst Rail Museum | Integrated Design Group | Bathurst

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE AWARD
Easy Street | DFJ Architects | Byron Bay

TIMBER AWARD
Pearl Beach House | Buckwell & Partners Architects | Pearl Beach

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (NEW)
Award
Coolamon House | DFJ Architects | Byron Bay
Pearl Beach House | Buckwell & Partners Architects | Pearl Beach

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS)
Award
Neal & Shirley’s | DFJ Architects | Pottsville

Commendation
Perry Street Residence | Cameron Anderson Architects | Mudgee

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING
Award
Easy Street | DFJ Architects | Byron Bay

Commendation
Larus Marinus – Wategos | Harley Graham Architects | Wategos Beach
Mona Lane Apartments | Zac Tooth Architect | Brunswick Heads

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – AFFORDABLE HOUSING (UNDER $400,000)
Award
Mum’s House | Integrated Design Group with Jennifer Price Landscape Design | Mount Victoria

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Commendation
Art House | Villar Architect | Wentworth Falls

HERITAGE ARCHITECTURE
Award
dAIRY CReATivE | Integrated Design Group | Bathurst

Commendation
Sir George Stable Restoration | Noel Thomson Architecture | Jugiong

COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE
Award
Stone and Wood Brewery | Harley Graham Architects | Byron Bay

Commendation
Island House | Derive Design | Lord Howe Island

EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Award
Q Block | GPG Architecture and Design with Mark G Golden and Associates | Wagga Wagga

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Award
Bathurst Rail Museum | Integrated Design Group | Bathurst, Central Tablelands

SMALL PROJECT ARCHITECTURE
Award
ANZAC Walk | PELLE Architects | Batemans Bay, South Coast

Commendation
Bangerang Park Amenities | Regional Design Service | Corowa

VISION AWARD
Award
Conjola Connected Communities | Takt Studio | Conjola

PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Pearl Beach House | Buckwell & Partners Architects | Pearl Beach

2020 JURY

Nicholas Brown, Studio Two Architecture & Design (Jury Chair & NSW Country Division representative)
Ken Crosson, Crosson Architects
Paulo Macchia, Government Architect NSW
Jasmine Richardson, Ekah Studio
Fenella Kernebone, TEDxSydney

IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

2020 NSW Country Division Awards – Entry Handbook

With reference to the above handbook, please note that:

you will need to submit most of your materials on line including copyright forms, please familiarise yourself with the online entry portal early on in the entry process.
The Project must have reached practical completion by 15 March 2020.

A2 DISPLAY BOARDS digital artwork: please provide the digital artwork for the boards in the online entry system.
This year printing of the A2 Display Boards is not required, more details are provided in handbook (see page 3).

2020 KEY DATES

Online entries open: 4 June 2020
Online entries closed: 17 August 2020, 11.55 pm, extended from 30 July
The results of the awards will be announced and presented at the NSW Country Division Conference Awards Night (TBC).

JUDGING 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.

JURY

A call for EOI for the 2020 Country Division Awards Program was open for submissions to 28 May and the Jury was 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.

AWARDS AND CATEGORIES

THE JAMES BARNET AWARD

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.

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.

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – AFFORDABLE HOUSING UNDER $400,000.00

Criteria – 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 – 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 & 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.

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).

COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE

Projects in this category must be built primarily for commercial purposes, generally falling within BCA Classes 3b, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

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.

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

Projects in this category must be interior spaces and environments within a new building or the refurbishment of an existing building.

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.

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.

VISION AWARD

Criteria – 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.

Purpose – 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.

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.

Contact

Our Country Awards page has moved – head to the NSW Chapter page of the Australian Institute of Architects for all information on 2021 Awards here.