Category: Australian Awards for International Architecture

Australian Awards for International Architecture – 2016 Entries

Small Project Architecture

2016190942_australian-etal_tonkinzulaikha-etal_mikerolfe_0 — _{Australian Memorial, Wellington by Tonkin Zulhaika Greer with Paul Rolfe Architects – photo by Mike Rolfe}

2016191168_d1canopy_stephaniesmith-etal_markmichaelis_3 — _{D1 Canopy by Inovarchi – photo by Mark Michaelis}

Residential Architecture – Houses

2016190997_vanuatu_troppo-etal_troppo_4 — _{Haus Blong Miranda, Vanuatu by Troppo Architects – photo by Troppo}

Interior Architecture

2016191165_tangfoundation_woodsbagot-etal_qingai_2 — _{Tang Foundation by Woods Bagot Architectural Design Consultants (Shanghai) – photo by Qing Ai}

2016190923_thelaluhotel-etal_kerryhillpteltd-etal_theshininggroup_1 — _{The Lalu Hotel by Kerry Hill Architects – photo by Albert Lim}

Commercial Architecture

2016190887_thelaluhotel-etal_kerryhillpteltd-etal_theshininggroup_0 — _{The Lalu Hotel by Kerry Hill Architects – photo by Albert Lim}

2016190736_chinamobile-etal_jpw_shanghaizhangyu-etal_2 — _{China Mobile Office, Suzhou by JPW – photo by Shanghai Zhangyu Studio}

2016191135_interpolglobal-etal_studio505andcpg-etal_dirkzimmermann_1 — _{Interpol Global by studio505 and CPG Consultants – photo by Dirk Zimmerman}

Public Architecture

2016190982_australian-etal_dentoncorker-etal_johngollings_0 — _{Australian Pavilion, Venice by Denton Corker Marshall – photo by John Gollings}

2016190926_nationalgallery-etal_studiomilouwith-etal_fernandojavier-etal_7 — _{National Gallery, Singapore by studioMilou Singapore with CPG Consultants – photo by Fernando Javier Urquijo/studioMilou}

2016191138_nanyangprimary-etal_studio505andltt-etal_dirkzimmermann_0 — _{Nanyang Primary School, Singapore by studio505 and LT&T Architects – photo by Dirk Zimmermann}

2016190925_newwingsatthein-etal_greenhilli-etal_greenhilli_0 — _{New Wings at the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore by GreenhilLi Architecture + Design – photo by GreenhilLi}

2016190913_worldmaritime-etal_terroirkimutzon-etal_torbeneskerod_1 — _{World Maritime University, Tornhuset by Terroir & Kim Utzon – photo by Torben Eskerod}

2016190389_nationalmuseum-etal_architectus_robertweber_4 — _{National Museum & Art Gallery Refurbishment, PNG by Architectus – photo by Robert Weber}

Award for Small Project Architecture – Australian Memorial Wellington by Tonkin Zulhaika Greer with Paul Rolfe Architects

The ANZAC Alliance between Australia and New Zealand is now further memorialised in the new Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington. Sited directly opposite New Zealand’s National War Memorial the Australian memorial, which presents as a grove of red sandstone columns, forms an appropriate counterpoint to the singularity of the striking Carillon tower. Between them lies the newly created ANZAC Square.

The memorial creates a strong sense of place amongst the distinctive sandstone blocks encouraging visitors to move between them and take time to dwell on the various inscriptions contained within their black granite insets. These bear the names of the principal theatres and operations in which Australian and New Zealand forces served alongside one another. The red ‘shadows’ of the blocks are particularly effective in claiming this otherwise grey bluestone dressed piece of kiwi ground.

It cannot go unchallenged that the visual promise of Australia’s’ distinctive red centre gorge landscape, underpinned by the choice of a red stone, is not what it seems. It is not of its place but in fact Indian sandstone. Given the gravity of the memorial’s significance in commemorating historic events of great cultural importance to both sides of the Tasman, a greater emphasis on material integrity would have been preferred.

Most commendable is the success with which the architects’ intervention successfully accommodates the formal and informal, the reverential and the everyday in its contribution to city making now embedded in New Zealand’s capital.

Award for Public Architecture – Australian Pavilion Venice by Denton Corker Marshall

To celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Australian Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale, Venice, Ronnie di Stasio in 2008 curated an international ideas competition for a new Pavilion to replace the “temporary” pavilion designed by Phillip Cox.

In 2011 the Australia Council for the Arts announced a competition for the design of a new pavilion that would be built to be available for the 2015 Art Biennale in Venice. One of the competitors who had proposed ideas for Ronnie di Stasio (and subsequently developed those ideas for the “real” competition) was Denton Corker Marshall, who won the competition and were able to realise their developed original proposition. In Australian tradition Mathew Doyle of the Muruwari people led the smoking ceremony for the pavilion’s opening in 2015, in the company of many Australian dignitaries.

The first installation was by the artist Fiona Hall with an exhibition titled “wrong way time”.

The strong, simple clarity of the Denton Corker Marshall pavilion is based on the “idea to create a simple, yet confident, memorable, powerful statement” that was respectful of the historic garden setting; timeless but with vitality, tactility and materiality that invites curiosity and engagement” with a core idea structured as a white box within a black box.

It is interesting to note that Fiona Hall saw her approach to her exhibition to make a black box within the black box, illustrating the Architect’s intent for the interior to be capable of the flexibility of reinterpretation.

The jury recognised the strength and clarity of the form, in its siting and particularly the power of the cantilever towards the Rio del Giardini canal; articulating its cubic basic form that sits on the back of house functions, utilising the site fall from the entry to the canal.

Award for Residential Architecture – Haus Blong Miranda (Vanuatu) by Troppo Architects

photo by Troppo

Image 1 of 10

Haus Blong Miranda is a house on the beachfront in Vanuatu for Miranda and her extended Australian family and visiting friends.

It is also the base for the health infrastructure and economic craft development programs for this province of Vanuatu. In this extended role it has become a base for visiting architecture students and an open house and experimental house of the village.

The house appears from both the ocean and the street as a village of pavilions sitting on platforms that either perch above or nestle into the land as they step down towards the ocean.

The nine pavilions create a series of outdoor transition spaces for curated journeys filled with artworks, collectibles and gifts.

The project integrates an understanding of traditional construction and ways of living on the land with a contemporary and sophisticated architectural knowledge.

Highly engineered for cyclone protection and passive heating and cooling there is no air conditioning, no glass or plasterboard. There are very few walls, just woven shutters that together with the traditional natangorah thatched roofs create deep shelter, shade and a dark, cool internal environment. This carefully detailed building incorporates double skin thatch roofs, locally sourced kwila thatch, bush timbers and coral stones as concrete aggregate.

This project clearly demonstrates a sense of place that responds to the climate and local setting. It is a beautifully detailed dynamic architecture of adjustable skins which sees life as an outdoor indoor activity. The buildings are designed to simply moderate the intensity of the outdoors and to react to the heat, the cold, the sun, the rain and the special moments of the day.

Award for Commercial Architecture – China Mobile Office Suzhou by JPW

The commercial work place environment and its support of changing modality especially in China, is expressed in the realisation of the China Mobile Centre, a project that was won by JPW in an international design competitive process. Its fundamental premise that develops its socially engaged and environmentally advanced workplace design, reflects the company’s core values of connectivity and technological innovation.

The project tower form with its gently curving facades and horizontally extended podium invokes traditional Chinese roof forms, and is delivered by contemporary high performance façade systems incorporating screening devices and ventilated dual facades. Workplace health and wellbeing is fundamental to the planning approach. Landscaped balconies to the north and south facades extend from the work place areas to provide staff with naturally day lit breakout spaces.

Innovative approaches to public interaction are central to this development, with business halls and research centre being publicly accessible to foster creative collaboration through shared facilities and exhibitions. The incorporation of landscaped courtyards to the podium building structure and roofed recreational break out spaces for the staff allow year round use.

The project achieves the nation’s highest 3 star green energy rating, through its environmental initiatives whilst maintaining tight budget controls, through local material selection and control of construction quality.

Award For Commercial Architecture – The Lalu Hotel, Qingdao by Kerry Hill Architects

A simple pencil sketch by the architect at the start of this project demonstrated a clear and powerful response to the brief for a 162 room hotel, 40 seaside villas, a retail mall, chapel and jetty.

The site is a granite peninsula connected to the low cliffs of the mainland and located near the famous port and resort city of Qingdao in China.

The Hotel became the organising element and fulcrum on the site. Cleverly merged below the cliffs in a strong stone base are all the public functions; arrival, retail, restaurants, spa, banqueting hall and club protected from the harsh north westerlies and open to panoramic views towards the water and the southern sun.

Seen however from the coastal road the building appears as low rise with open courtyards and avenues that offer vistas of the ocean and Qingdao beyond.

The blocks of guest rooms have been organised into large copper clad boxes sitting atop the stone base recalling the scale and texture of the former container terminals in the area.

40 villas stretch out over the granite peninsula connected via a central avenue symbolically linking the Hotel to the Chapel, the corporeal to the spiritual.

The villas are positioned to enjoy the uninterrupted sea views, to absorb the morning and evening sunlight and are reminiscent of a coastal village braced against the elements and facing out to the sun.

Perforated masonry walls separate the Villas providing privacy and wind protection and creating a play of light throughout the day and over the changing seasons.

A landscape of natural sea grasses and local trees combined with retained natural rock pools used for summer bathing complete the development.

From the first conceptual sketch, to the organisation of form, to the final details, this project demonstrates a consistent and refined architectural discipline and a deep understanding of its place in the cultural and physical milieu of Qingdao.

Award for Interior Architecture – The Lalu Hotel, Qingdao (Interior) by Kerry Hill Architects

The complete and rapid transformation of this gritty port city will be marked in time by the arrival of this extraordinarily beautiful Lalu Hotel.

In the main hotel building on the upper entry level, a suite of public spaces has been designed around a large central courtyard to open to each other in a choreographed spatial sequence that provides vistas through the entire project and out to sea.

A large entry lobby, lounges, a French restaurant, wine room and bar are linked vertically by a grand stair creating an axial organising connector to the lower level separate retail building, hotel rooms, a large all day dining restaurant with open kitchen, a Chinese restaurant, tea pavilion, Japanese restaurant and spa.

A palette of common materials such as limestone flooring, timber panelling, and a common design thread running through the loose furniture has been washed with an almost art gallery-like light to create a framework for a special collection of art works and traditional artefacts.

The large guest suites are timber panelled with private terraces with panoramic ocean views.

A series of internal sliding panels permits the bathroom and dressing areas to open directly onto the main space, emphasising the spatial luxury for the Hotel guest.

The bathrooms have a window to a small bamboo planted courtyard backed by white glass giving privacy from the access corridor and creating a lovely moving silhouettes for the full length of the building.

The Lalu Hotel in Qingdao demonstrates an understanding of the planning principles of a Baroque Palace, the lighting and spatial feel of an art gallery and, the myriad requirements of a contemporary hotel, bound by an understated and restrained Chinese influence.

This masterful project oozes with skill and sophistication in every detail.

Award for Public Architecture – National Gallery Singapore by studioMilou Singapore with CPG Consultants

An almost impossibly complicated project uniting the former Supreme Court building and City Hall buildings to create South East Asia’s largest modern art institution has been achieved with calmness and clarity due to a series of bold and inventive architectural interventions.

A sweeping public concourse accessible from both sides of the gallery by monumental staircases has been inserted under the two existing buildings allowing the new galleries above to be understood and easily accessed.

An environmentally sophisticated floating veil of glass and steel roof supported by steel tree-like structures drapes across the two buildings. This new roof symbolises from above and below the marriage of these powerful buildings.

The spaces enclosed by this roof facilitate a coherent journey through the main gallery spaces and provide abundant filtered natural light deep into the buildings. Visitors can now, in a single journey, visit virtually all of the exhibition areas without retracing their steps.

A section of this new roof drapes down between the two existing buildings creating a subtle yet very powerful new entry statement. A second basement provides an exhibit reception and preparation zone that forms a new backbone for the highly technical services required above.

These masterful interventions allow the elegant and powerful original colonial spaces to have a new and sophisticated life whilst still preserving their historical character.

Commendation for Public Architecture – World Maritime University, Tornhuset by Terroir & Kim Utzon Architecture

The relocated World Maritime University, figured as hinge at the junction of docklands and city centre, is heralded by the architects’ visually intense addition to the historic Tornhuset building.

If extensions to heritage buildings can be located at some point on a spectrum of being more or less like the original then this design is perhaps in the middle. There is a continuity of sorts in colour choice between the new zinc and the existing brickwork, and the addition’s geometry, somewhat exhausting externally, draws upon the original gable roof. Certainly it establishes a compelling interior landscape – described by the architects as a third space between the administration program in the old wing and the teaching and research spaces in the new. A delightful interstitial space that coexists alongside and in tension with the articulated and textured mass of the original building, the sculptural play of the white and timber planes, interspersed with shards of light, complement through difference the weight and darkness of the original. Within the nooks and crannies yielded from this folded space between old and new are informal meeting areas replete with built in seats and extending into the auditorium. These supplement the more formal and enclosed rooms adjacent.

Inevitably in projects that combine two architectural moments there are likely to be clashes of intent, especially at points of physical connection and the roof is perhaps one of these. But this same juxtaposition also enables a vital framing of precious aspects of the old such as the exquisite copper turrets and ceramic tiled roof forms- enabling a renewed appreciation for the past and its contribution to the formation of a city’s future.

DEADLINE EXTENDED – 2016 International Chapter Architecture Awards

The deadline for submissions to the 2016 International Chapter Architecture Awards has been extended to 20 March 2016. Please submit all entries via the Awards website, noting that its important to first read and familiarise yourself with the Awards Entry Handbook. No extension will be granted beyond this date. Please direct all inquiries to international@architecture.com.au

Jorn Utzon Award + Award for Public Architecture – Pico Branch Library by Koning Eizenberg Architecture

2015192937_6_PicoBranchLibrary_Eric Staudenmaier

The Pico Branch Library offers not only a meaningful aesthetic presence nestled in the Virginia Avenue Park of Santa Monica, but a paradigm shift to community collaboration and education. Consideration of the existing context and community assets and needs underline this project’s development process, challenging traditional methods of design and redefining the concept of what a library could be in the 21st Century. A design process that encouraged public participation through a series of workshops, and a thoughtful preservation of existing green space and repurposing of underutilised areas, has succeeded in reinvigorating the Park, fostering a reconnection with institutional resources and overall community empowerment. The Library’s direct engagement with and facilitation of community events has earned it the affectionate title as the ‘community living room’. External expression incorporates a subtle material palette, accentuated by variations in material tactility and bright colours. A playful and distinctive roof profile with unreserved overhangs hovers amongst existing greenery, delicately forging the Library’s architectural identity. Internally, spaces offer an environment that inspires learning, contemplation and creativity. Beautifully folding ceiling planes, carved to reveal sunlight through a succession of skylights, underpin the spatial experience. Expanses of glazing evoke a pavilion-like openness to interior spaces, with careful control of natural light ensuring glare and heat gain are avoided. A thoughtful and elegant approach embodies all elements of the projects architectural expression. Its deeply-rooted community consideration, finely crafted spaces and an honest response to context makes the Pico Branch Library a piece of public architecture the community of Santa Monica can be proud of.

Award for Residential Architecture – Vulkanen: Aarhus Student Housing by Terroir

Restrictive budgets and thin margins have often been the generic architect’s defence of a less than desirable result for a project, where budget and speed are favoured over quality. Described as ‘unashamedly lean’ the Vulkanen Student housing in Aarhus, Denmark, by Terroir and CUBO Arkitekter in association, has successfully formed an opportunity to create an architectural assemblage exploring prefabricated elements, rapid construction and a collaborative process in a consortium led by the contractor. Described by Terroir as an enjoyable process and typically Danish, this is a project where design and construction decisions were made communally. ‘Lean’ means a pared down planning that forces a precise, stacked together, but nonetheless resolved collection of student living quarters. An atrium as the core of the building defines the circulation, both a reflection of the local climate and referencing a typical Nordic vernacular. Communal spaces are expressed architecturally by three ‘cuts’, all with a different orientation given the need to maximise light in the local Scandinavian climate at different times of the day. Self-finishing materials, precast concrete, an assemblage of prefabricated parts, and an architectural expression generated from the interplay between repeated elements, punctuated by brightly coloured cuts, resonate with the decommissioned container terminal adjacent the site. The brief required that the design achieve the Danish Low Energy Class (LEK) 2015, however the design team elected to work towards the LEK 2020, achieving a near zero energy standard as defined by the EU.

Award for Residential Architecture – Seven Palms Sentosa Cove by Kerry Hill Architects

Kerry Hill remarked in a 2012 WAF interview, that ”Luxury today and I think in the future is not to do with materiality as much as the spatial and environmental qualities of living…. in other words, luxury doesn’t require gold taps and marble floors, luxury is about space and environmental comfort in today’s increasingly dense and chaotic world”. Seven Palms Sentosa Cove by Kerry Hill Architects is a bespoke low rise apartment development in the tropical Singapore climate. This luxury spoken about is expressed through the spatial and environmental qualities of the living spaces. The interior planning of the apartments incorporates wide sliding doors and operable partitions defined by Kerry Hill as ‘enfilade’, a term or spatial quality used in grand baroque palaces, providing a vista through an entire suite of rooms. The façades are designed as a variable composition of panelled sliding perforated screens, layered with operable aluminium aerofoil louvres facing the primary views towards the ocean. This tempers the tropical heat gain and shields apartments during the driving monsoon seasons. Timber pivoting fins are used at the rear of apartments allowing residents to control their environment and manage their privacy. Cross ventilation is planned in all apartments, reducing the need for air conditioning. As Singapore has a lot of dull and gloomy days, the trick in the tropics is not to exclude the sun, but to invite it in through a series of filters. Reflective dappled light from private swimming pools and solar light tubes are used to draw natural daylight into the apartments; and panelled and perforated sliding screens on the facade are used to filter the sun.

Award for Interior Architecture – Aman Tokyo by Kerry Hill Architects

photo by Lighting Planners Associates Inc & Toshio Kaneko

Exquisitely designed and detailed the Aman Hotel was by far the most sophisticated submission for this category. Occupying the top six-storeys of the KPF designed Otemachi Tower in the center of Tokyo’s Financial District, the hotel comprises 40 guest rooms and 40 suites above two floors of public spaces ringing the central top-lit lobby. The six-storey ‘Washi Lantern’ lobby which the architects “envisaged as a contemporary Japanese garden, centered on a water feature and a seasonal ikebana arrangement” is the focus of the design. The lobby connects to an enfilade of public spaces on the periphery of the building taking advantage of views of the Tokyo skyline and the adjacent Imperial Palace. As the architects stated in their submission “References to the strong design culture of Japan are made throughout the interior.” This restrained design sensibility is evident from the lantern lobby (reminiscent of the wonderful lobby of the nearby Hotel Okura) and the surrounding public spaces and pool, to the residential simplicity and calm of the hotel rooms themselves. The Jury was in immediate agreement that the design holds true to their goal of interpreting Japanese architectural traditions of making space, materials and details in a way that seemed fresh, clear and uncompromised in this beautiful interior.

Commendation for Public Architecture – MIT Manukau Transport Interchange by Warren and Mahoney Architects Ltd.

Located in South Auckland, the MIT Manukau and Transport Interchange boldly redefines the concept of public transport and education architecture. Addressing the challenge of promoting tertiary education, the design offers a seamless integration of education and transport facilities, interwoven together to strengthen exposure to and accessibility by the culturally diverse community. The architectural expression of the building embodies MIT’s values and aspirations. The design is successful in challenging preconceptions towards academic institutions and provides flexible, open and inviting learning spaces. Described as incorporating a ‘coathanger’ design framework, students and general community members are encouraged to ‘hang the cloak’ of individual and community expression, strengthening the concept of public ownership of and engagement with the building. The internal material palette consists of carefully detailed timber panelling and vibrant colours to create warm and inviting environments. Through collaboration with artists and local representatives a comprehensive way-finding and artwork strategy was developed that recognises the Mana Whenua culture while including a reference to the wide range of ethnicities within the community. Externally, the building is defined by raking diamond brace columns, transverse external steel beam lines and horizontal sun shades. The sharp and repetitive façade patterns distinguish the MIT Manukau and Transport Interchange as an important land mark in its setting. The consideration of existing community challenges, incorporation of sustainable building services and design principles, as well as the project’s powerful architectural expression are commended and encouraged. The MIT Manukau and Transport Interchange stands as an honest, robust and challenging reinterpretation of the connection and responsibility public architecture has to the community.

Commendation for Interior Architecture – Stella Maris Church by Denton Corker Marshall Jakarta

An oval plan and complex section makes this otherwise conventional 1,600 seat nave and side aisle church quite compelling in form. Liturgically traditional in configuration, the interior has a very contemporary spatial reading. The striking, simple palette of two local materials: (farmed) Javanese teak and Andesite Stone complement the spatial reading/form. The teak pews and stone floor provide a solid base for the light and airy teak wood slats that give form to the curvaceous layers of light and airy volume of the nave. The slats filter the harsh tropical light to provide a soft illumination during the day and at night provide equally soft warm reflected light from the perimeter cove. The Jury was impressed by the restraint and simplicity of the material selection and detailing to reveal the full dynamic qualities of the plan and section while the monochromatic interior offers an appropriate backdrop for the church’s liturgical needs.

Commendation for Small Project Architecture – The Waratah Studio by Studio 505

The studio pavilion is a striking sculptural structure as part of the awarded “Australian Garden” built at the Chelsea Flower Show in London. It sits in and above a larger rock cliff, waterfall and rain-forest installation. The studio structure is an intriguing complex organic form made disarmingly simply from interlocking ply petals, aluminium framing and clear acrylic infill panels. It is fabricated almost exclusively from off-cut materials including re-purposed plywood CAM cut with minimum wastage. The frame is made from off-cut aluminium sections from a boat building workshop. The design resolves extremely complex geometries into modular components that come together to create a rich, organically varied form that perfectly mirrors the natural world it sits amongst and extols.

Commendation for Interior Architecture – Ibis Styles Ipoh by Schin Architects

The Jury complimented the playful quality of the interior of this 100 room low-budget boutique hotel in Ipoh. The use of vibrant primary colors and bold lighting in the hotel’s public spaces provided architectural definition for each space as well as overall visual variety. The design of the guest rooms offered a counterpoint by incorporating a quieter, less-dynamic color palette. The plan of the main public level is carefully organised around a monochromatic (white) courtyard containing a reflecting pool and terrace: the focal point of the public spaces.

Award for Small Project Architecture – Gloucestershire Garden Room by Robert Grace Architecture

The striking Garden Room at Woodchester House, a Georgian Mansion built in 1746, solves a 350 year problem: the owner wished to have more contact with the Arboretum surrounding the house. The solution is an extraordinary glass, wood and concrete garden room. It provides a place of contemplation and repose adjacent to, but not touching, the house. You can now look at both the garden and the heritage listed house simultaneously. Glass is employed in dramatic and challenging ways with glazing over 5.5 metres tall along with a glass gallery roof supported on glass beams. In some places the pavilion dissolves into the landscape; in others the off form concrete columns and cantilevered concrete ceiling hover in space. While the huge glass panels seem to defy enclosure, they do not do so at the expense of sustainability. Triple glazing along with solar panels and heating upgrading have managed to almost halve the energy consumption for the whole house. Beautifully detailed throughout, in very many ways, this is a remarkable piece of architecture.