Who won?
The winner of the BlueScope Steel Glenn Murcutt Student Prize was announced by Glenn Murcutt on the 20th March at the Australian Institute of Architects’ Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards in Canberra. The winners are……
- WINNER $8000: James Loder, RMIT University
- COMMENDATION: Anthony Parsons, University of Newcastle
- COMMENDATION: Christopher Mullaneys, University of Newcastle
Please refer to the below jury citation and the online gallery for further information on the winning projects. The Gallery also includes the work of all 24 finalists and we encourage you to vote for the your favourite project in the People’s Choice Award.
JURY CITATION:
James Loder of RMIT University has been announced as winner of the 2013 BlueScope Steel Glenn Murcutt Student Prize. Loder’s final year project, ‘Cider Hill’, clearly demonstrates excellence in response to Place, Culture and Technology, the key criteria for the prestigious biannual student prize.
The jury, which included acclaimed Australian Architect Glenn Murcutt, Australian Institute of Architects’ President Shelley Penn and SONA Australia President Danny Brookes, were unanimous in their decision to award Loder the 2013 prize.
James Loder’s hypothetical project for a university Horticulture Research Centre, sited in the outer-Melbourne green belt, engages in highly relevant climate, agricultural and land productivity issues. It offers an engaged architecture that is hopeful in its outlook for a city currently experiencing rapid population growth and increasing levels of urban sprawl.
The design is successful on many levels, showcasing a high level of rigour and resolution. The elements of light, scale and texture have been grasped beautifully, and the complexity of the program has been resolved with an innovative and highly responsive solution – demonstrating a clear interest in human wellbeing.
The scheme strongly integrates architecture with landscape, with the two physically and perceptibly merging into one another. A sequence of compressed and open spaces, gradually revealed to the user, offers an intriguing spatial experience that enhances the nature of the research building typology. The fluidity of spaces is distinctly architectural and appears to offer an interesting experience for the user.
The judges noted Loder’s skillful use of computer technology to effectively communicate the quality of the architecture’s scale, light, texture and sense of atmosphere, in both rendered and diagrammed formats.
Evocative of the work of architects such as Scarpa, Ando, and others, the work clearly demonstrates skill and control. There is a fine level of detail, craftsmanship and understanding of material expression demonstrated in Loder’s drawings.
The jury also awarded two commendations to Christopher Mullaney and Anthony Parsons, both of the University of Newcastle.
Anthony Parsons’ conceptual project, ‘The Iron Blow’, proposes a futuristic architecture for space travellers leaving planet Earth. Sited in an abandoned copper mine in the West Cost Ranges of Tasmania, Parsons’ scheme demonstrates a truly poetic architectural response to a raw, industrialised landscape. The judges were impressed with Parson’s interest in balancing a sense of the archaic with the contemporary, as well as the use of materiality that changes with time.
Christopher Mullaney’s project, titled ‘Muloobinba’, is for a disused floating dock in the Newcastle Harbour. The design presents a framework for adaptive re-use of post-industrial infrastructure through the lens of both architecture and social entrepreneurialism. The jury was impressed with the rigourous and innovative thinking evident in Mullaney’s project, as well as the beautiful hand drawings and finely crafted models that clearly articulated the design intent.
The BlueScope Steel Glenn Murcutt Student Prize was established in 2005 to recognise outstanding architectural student work that demonstrates excellence in response to Place, Technology and Australian Culture. The biannual prize is presented at the Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards, with prize-winning and short-listed design entries exhibited on the Australian Institute of Architects and SONA Australia websites.
JURY:
- Glenn Murcutt LFRAIA
(Chair) - Shelley Penn FRAIA
Australian Institute of Architects National President - Danny Brookes
SONA President
