Community focused projects take first place at NSW Architecture Awards

A youth centre in Waterloo, an upgrade to the Art Gallery of New South Wales forecourt, an intergalactic inner-city centre for storytelling and the city’s biggest and brightest new urban precinct are just some of the community focused projects which have won major honours at this year’s Australian Institute of Architects’ NSW Architecture Awards.

Held at the historic Jones Bay Wharf on Thursday 27 June, a total of twenty-seven awards, eight prizes and fourteen commendations were presented in recognition of the best in architecture across the state.

Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp’s (fjmt) Darling Quarter, an urban and commercial project, led the field of winners taking out several major awards: the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design, the Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture, the Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture and the inaugural City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize.

Darling Quarter by Francis Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt) with ASPECT Studios and Lend Lease. Image by Florian Groehn.

While primarily home to offices of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the Urban Design jury noted that Darling Quarter is also a major urban revitalisation project for Daring Harbour. For the jury, the project sets ‘a new benchmark in intelligent place making’ by transforming the public domain through delivering a series of defined public spaces including a pedestrian linkage from the city, a generous public promenade and parkland, and a dynamic playground for the young and old alike.

In presenting the Milo Dunphy Award, the Sustainable Architecture jury said ‘while its sustainability credentials as a commercial building are strong in isolation; as a precinct, it is transformative’. In addition, the Commercial Architecture jury noted that ‘Darling Quarter precinct represents the potential for change in the behaviour of how people work’.

In awarding her inaugural prize, City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the project ‘revives the quarter with urbanity, flair and credibility, and provides an exemplary integration of work and recreation spaces’.

The Institute’s most prestigious honour, the Sulman Medal for Public Architecture, went to Collins and Turner (with City of Sydney) for the Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre – home to WEAVE (Working to Educate, Advocate, Voice and Empower), a local association supporting Waterloo’s youth. In awarding the medal, the jury said they had chosen the centre for its ‘exemplary convergence of public leadership, community initiative and design talent’. The project also received an Architecture Award for Sustainable Architecture.

Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre by Collins and Turner (with City of Sydney). Image by Richard Glover.

The ‘remarkable and understated’ Art Gallery of New South Wales Forecourt Upgrade by Johnson Pilton Walker was chosen by the Small Project Architecture jury to receive the Robert Woodward Award for its combination of ‘discrete landscape adjustments with a sculptural ramp to resolve the longstanding problem of providing equitable access’ to the Gallery.

The NSW Premier’s Prize went to Martian Embassy by LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) – the new home for not-for-profit creative writing centre, the Sydney Story Factory – for demonstrating ‘how it is possible to create more with less’ while still providing a space that inspires and engages ‘the next generation of creative writers and thinkers’.

BVN Donovan Hill received the John Verge Award for Interior Architecture for the The Kinghorn Cancer Centre – ‘a work of remarkable control’ which ‘has brought warmth and a sense of humanity into a research environment’; while the Gowings and State Theatre Buildings Restoration and Hotel Conversion by Woodhead and Graham Brooks and Associates, Sydney – ‘a remarkable achievement in conservation, refurbishment and adaptive reuse’ – was presented with the Greenway Award for Heritage.

Noted by the jury as ‘a jewel within the city skyline’, the AMP Building Sydney Cove by PTW Architects was recognised as a ‘remarkable building, a valuable piece of city making, and an exceptional and generous gift to the character of the city’ with its presentation of the Award for Enduring Architecture.

Candalepas Associates’ beachside apartments at 29-35 Prince Street Cronulla saw them receive the Aaron Bolot Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing for an ‘incredible project that pays careful attention to its context, is well planned and exquisitely detailed’.

Tír na nÓg by Drew Heath Architects. Image by Brett Boardman.

The other worldliness of Drew Heath Architects’ Tír na nÓg, with its ‘multiple levels, overlapping spaces and lush vegetation’ made it a unanimous choice by the jury for the Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture. The jury noting that ‘its excellence resides in its eccentricity as much as in its cohesion. Boundaries are blurred; inside to outside, public to private, old to new, grown to made – an Otherworld’.

An appropriation of an existing shell of an old urban cowshed in Sydney’s inner-west, Cowshed House by Carterwilliamson Architects also won an Architecture Award in the Residential Architecture – Houses category as well as Sustainable Architecture Award and a commendation under the COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture category.

This year’s COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture went to Iglu Central by Bates Smart – a multiple housing complex for students in inner-city Sydney which was also presented with an Architecture Award in the Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing category.

BVN Donovan Hill received the Blacket Prize for Regional Architecture for Charles Sturt University National Life Sciences Hub – a new teaching and research facility at Wagga Wagga which the jury commended for creating ‘a model in planning, design and environmental performance for rural Australian campuses’.

Sydney-based architect Andrew Burns was named the recipient of this year’s Emerging Architect Prize with the jury recognising his role as ‘an excellent ambassador for the advancement of the architectural profession within the public arena both locally and internationally’.

Other prize recipients this year were: Sean O’Toole from UrbanGrowth NSW – recipient of the NSW President’s Prize; Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority’s Helen Lochhead – recipient of the Marion Mahony Griffin Prize which acknowledges a female architect for a distinctive body of architectural work; architectural critic Laura Harding – recipient of the Adrian Ashton Prize for Writing and Criticism; and Nathan Etherington of Scale Architecture and the University of Sydney – recipient of the inaugural David Lindner Prize which aims to encourage new research on architecture in the public realm.

This year, over 170 entries were received from across New South Wales, with the named award and architecture award winners now progressing to the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards to be announced on Thursday 7 November 2013 at the Sydney Opera House.

Full list of winners:

Public Architecture

Sulman Medal
Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre – Collins and Turner with City of Sydney

Commendation
Museum of Contemporary Art Redevelopment – Architect Marshall in association with the
Government Architect’s Office

Urban Design

Lloyd Rees Award
Darling Quarter – Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt) with Aspect Studios and Lend Lease

Architecture Award
Pitt Street Mall Public Domain Upgrade – Tony Caro Architecture

Commercial Architecture

Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award
Darling Quarter – Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt)

Interior Architecture

John Verge Award
The Kinghorn Cancer Centre – BVN Donovan Hill

Architecture Award
Lilyfield Warehouse– Virginia Kerridge Architect

Commendations
85 Castlereagh St Sky Lobby & Entry – John Wardle Architects and Westfield Design and Construction
Woods Bagot Sydney Studio – Woods Bagot

Sustainable Architecture

Milo Dunphy Award
Darling Quarter –Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt) with Aspect Studios, Lend Lease, E.G.O. Group and Davenport Campbell

Sustainable Architecture cont…
Architecture Awards
Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre –Collins and Turner with City of Sydney
Cowshed House – Carterwilliamson Architects

Residential Architecture – Houses

Wilkinson Award
Tír na nÓg – Drew Heath Architects
(Alterations & Additions)

ALTERATIONS & ADDITIONS

Architecture Awards
Cowshed House– Carterwilliamson Architects
Balmain House – Fox Johnston

Commendations
Bellevue Hill Residence – Tzannes Associates
Lavender Bay Boatshed – Stephen Collier Architects

NEW

Architecture Awards
St Albans House – Rory Brooks Architects
Flipped House – Marsh Cashman Koolloos Architects
Stewart House – Chenchow Little Architects
Gordons Bay Residence – Madeleine Blanchfield Architects

Commendation
Angophora House – Richard Cole Architecture

Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing

Aaron Bolot Award
29–35 Prince Street Cronulla –Candalepas Associates

Architecture Awards
Iglu Central – Bates Smart
Silk Apartments – Tony Caro Architecture
Telopea Social Housing – Turner

Commendations
Little Bay – Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt)
The Majestic – Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects

Small Project Architecture

Robert Woodward Award
Art Gallery of NSW Forecourt Upgrade – Johnson Pilton Walker

Architecture Award
Yurong Public Amenities – Government Architect’s Office

Small Project Architecture cont…

Commendations
Cook Park Amenities – Fox Johnston
Martian Embassy – LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture)
Crescent House – Andrew Burns Architect

Heritage

Greenway Award
Gowings and State Theatre Buildings Restoration and Hotel Conversion – Woodhead and Graham Brooks and Associates, Sydney
(Creative Adaptation)

CREATIVE ADAPTATION

Commendations
The Majestic – Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects
Lavender Bay Boatshed – Stephen Collier Architects

CONSERVATION

Architecture Awards
Hyde Park Barracks – Reconstruction of Gate Lodge Domes –Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners
Conservation of the Convict Superintendent’s House Cockatoo Island –Sydney Harbour Federation Trust

Award For Enduring Architecture

The AMP Building Sydney Cove – PTW Architects

COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture

Iglu Central –Bates Smart

Commendation
Cowshed House –Carterwilliamson Architects

Blacket Prize

Charles Sturt University National Life Sciences Hub– BVN Donovan Hill

NSW Premier’s Prize

Martian Embassy – LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture)

City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize

Darling Quarter –Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt) with Aspect Studios and Lend Lease

NSW President’s Prize

Sean O’Toole – UrbanGrowth NSW

Emerging Architect Prize

Andrew Burns – Andrew Burns Architect

News & Media

Community focused projects take first place at NSW Architecture Awards