2012 Victorian Architecture Awards

Celebrating the finest achievements across the state

The 2012 Victorian state awards program has seen a dramatic rise in the number of entries from previous years. The years 2010 and 2011 saw about a 1 percent growth, yet this year there was a 21 percent increase — we received a total of 235 entries. Significant jumps in the categories of Heritage, Residential Alterations and Additions, Residential Multiple and Urban Design were somewhat countered by lowered numbers in Commercial and New Public Architecture — a sign of the times perhaps. 

Despite economic uncertainty, however, Victorian architects are continuing to deliver outstanding work. Together, the fifty-seven awards and commendations hint, through their breadth and exceptional quality, at the enormous scope of architecture’s contribution to Victorian society and culture. Each entry, from the smallest private intervention to the larger civic projects, reveals the generosity of spirit, innovation and tenacity that underpin excellent architecture. 

All of the architects who entered projects, who put their work under the glare of peer evaluation and thereby gave us all a glimpse of the great things underway in Victorian architecture, are sincerely thanked. I also thank the jurors, who have contributed substantially to this year’s awards through their time and rigorous consideration — a contribution that is essential to the credibility and distinction that characterize the Institute’s awards programs.
 
Shelley Penn 
National President, 
Australian Institute Of Architects
Chair Of Juries 2012, Victoria

Urban Design

Urban Design is often misunderstood, even by architects, and yet critical when it comes to ensuring the liveability within our cities and regional towns. Urban Design is more than just a well-designed building. It may include spaces between buildings, infrastructure, landscape elements, plazas or streetscape  elements. Quality urban design is delivered when architects think beyond their building or site and are sensitive to how it responds to context, streetscape and the public realm.

The standout was the William Buckley Bridge, Barwon Heads by Peter Elliott Architecture and Urban Design. Its generous width allows for pedestrians and cyclists to safely co-exist whilst a raised platform on its ocean side is designed for fishing, with inserts for fishing rods and an angled timber handrail that doubles as a board for preparing bait.  More than a bridge, this piece of civic architecture is fully considered and skilfully resolved.  It demonstrates that the role of design can significantly enhance all parts of the built environment, including infrastructure. 

The other awards in this category were given to the Boatbuilders Yard by Six Degrees Architects and the RMIT University Lawn Precinct by Peter Elliott, Architecture and Urban Design. 
David Islip
Jury member

Public New
 
The category of new Public buildings presented a diverse array of 34 projects – diverse in scale, in complexity of use, and their locations across Victoria. As a jury we were interested in how effectively each building performed its function, but more importantly for us, how imaginatively it engaged with the wider public realm. Several projects emerged as having particularly strong ideas leading to three Commendations, four Architecture Awards and the overall William Wardell Award for Public Architecture.

Commendations: Fitzroy Community School: Creative Spaces, by Baracco + Wright Architects and Richard Stampton Architects; Keast Park Community Pavilion by Jackson Clements Burrows and PEGS Junior Boys new classroom building by McBride Charles Ryan.

Awards: Melbourne Brain Centre, by Lyons; Edithvale Seafird Wetlands Discovery Centre by Minifie van Schaik; St Mary’s Primary School Hall, by tUG workshop/Tim Hall and Associates in association and Narbethong Community Hall by BVN Architecture.

In creating a new home for award winning Royal Children’s Hospital, Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart also created a comprehensive response to the evidence that good design supports better patient outcomes. It is a remarkable building with the complexity of a small city, treated with organisational clarity and consistency of expression. It brings the majority of patients close to a recuperative view of the landscape of Royal Park and themes of nature permeate the hospital in its detail and colour. It is a worthy winner of the overall William Wardell Award for Public Architecture.

Stefan Mee
John Wardle Architects
Jury Chair
 
 
SUSTAINABLE CATEGORY

The calibre of entrants for the 2012  Sustainability Award proved the value of a separate sustainability category, to champion the innovative and courageous work being undertaken by many Victorian architects. Without a sustainability category, this work would probably be overshadowed by more glamorous projects featuring elsewhere in the awards. 

The category winner of the Heller Street Park and Residences, by Six Degrees, inventively pooled external private spaces, to create a new undulating and publicly accessible park, making front yard become backyard. 

Commendations: Zen House by Zen Architects; Southwood Home by Zen Architects; Kangan Institute Automotive Centre of Excellence Stage 2 by Gray Puksand and Creeds Farm Living and Learning Centre by Tandem Design Studio.
 
Mark O’Dwyer
H2o
Jury Chair
 
 
MELBOURNE PRIZE

This year’s Melbourne Prize is for recognition of projects that have made a significant contribution to central Melbourne. All entries in the 2012 Awards, located within a 3km radius of the Melbourne GPO, were eligible.
One project stood out, exhibiting a level of significance, innovation and expression that will contribute to Melbourne’s cultural, civic and communal realms for decades to come.

Marking a new gateway for Melbourne and to the Parkville health and research precinct, The Royal Children’s Hospital, designed by Bates Smart & Billard Leece Partnership, makes a breathtaking contribution to Melbourne’s civic and communal realms, to its health and research aspirations and to its innovative and progressive architectural traditions.

Melbourne’s gastronomic ambition has been elevated to new heights with the relocation of Vue De Monde to the top floor of the Rialto Tower. The experience of dining with spectacular panoramic views of greater Melbourne, takes on a regional significance. Elenberg Fraser’s elegant spatial manouvres, surface dalliances and artisan tableaus enrich the visitor experience and contribute to a new understanding of the local landscape.
NMBW Architecture Studio introduced a new residential typology into the urban landscape that draws on European prototypes, adapting them to broaden our housing diversity.
 
The revitalisation of Melbourne’s laneways and left over spaces has continued to sustain the City’s ongoing pedestrianisation. The recent completion of RMIT University’s University Lawn Precinct by Peter Elliott adds to this network with a masterful linkage of disparate levels and celebration of intimate scale. 

The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute has been enlarged and recalibrated by Denton Corker Marshall to imbue the research facility with a second life, realigning its aims and aspirations. Wrapped in a silver metallic skin, this landmark building’s vibrant entry, new transparency and programmatic clarity result in an assured expression of architecture that confidently straddles the public and private realm.

The Melbourne Brain Centre by Lyons is a major new research centre on the Melbourne University campus. The design strategy mirrors the bi-hemispherical division of our brain and is reflected in a plan which cleverly separates public and private functions. The architecture is playfully unrestrained and celebrates neurological research with an illusion-filled rigor. The informality of its design palette lends a humility to this important centre, encouraging staff interaction and public participation in an extended programme that addresses the whole of Melbourne.

MAGGIE EDMOND
Edmond & Corrigan
JURY CHAIRPERSON

REGIONAL PRIZE

The sadness that still fills the valleys of the fire damaged hills of our northern neighbours has been slightly relieved by the Flowerdale Community centre; a collaborative design by Antarctica group that has the architect quietly driving the hopes and dreams of a community being rebuilt.

A bridge spanning the Barwon River designed by Peter Elliott had that community tying itself in knots. 
In Warrnambool we found a real gem. A new reason to turn to religion. The New Hammond Fellowship Centre by Harmer Architecture is a sculptured annexe to the landmark Anglican Christ Church. Weddings, parties and just about anything else, are what this new building is all about. More importantly, it shows us all what can be achieved when the courage and convictions of a country community provoke the care and concern of city slicker architects!

Clinton Murray
SKM – S2F
Jury Chair
 
 
Public Architecture Alterations and Extensions

The Public Architecture Alterations and Extensions category often take a backseat to New Public buildings, but it is a sign of our ‘recycle’ conscious times that this year’s field of entrants were extremely good, with the awarded projects exemplifying the creative resolution of complex and difficult problems involved in changing or extending an existing building. 

These projects are often highly transformative, renewing clapped out and dysfunctional buildings by opening them up and inviting new forms of inhabitation. The Ormond College Academic Centre by McGlashan Everist is a great example; a beautifully crafted alteration to a Romberg & Boyd building that renews the old library below a sky-lit roof lantern. Some projects extend important heritage building with both sensitivity and creativity. The Melbourne University Boatclub by Lovell Chen extends the old boatshed with a respectful but highly contemporary timber clad gable form, a proud addition to Yarra rivers edge. Some projects are extraordinary additions, engaging and complex buildings that challenge conventional notions of what constitute a public building. The new Annexe at the Art Gallery of Ballarat by Searle and Waldron, is a magnificently light room which can be opened to the public square to extend the possibility of its value as a performative space for the local community. 

Neil Appleton
Lyons
Jury Chair, Public Architecture – Alterations and Additions
 
 
2012 Victorian Architecture Award Winners
 
VICTORIAN ARCHITECTURE MEDAL
• The Royal Children’s Hospital - Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart
 
PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE - NEW
William Wardell Award
• The Royal Children’s Hospital - Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart
Architecture Awards (4)
• Melbourne Brain Centre - Lyons
• St Mary’s Primary School Hall - tUG workshop/Tim Hall and Associates in association
• Narbethong Community Hall -
BVN Architecture
• Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre -
Minifie van Schaik Architects
 
PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE Alterations & Additions
Architecture Awards (3)
• Melbourne Uni Boat Club – Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants
• Ormond College Academic Centre – McGlashan Everist
• Annexe – Art Gallery of Ballarat -
Searle x Waldron Architecture
 
COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE
Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award
• Saltwater Coast Lifestyle Centre -
NH Architecture
Architecture Awards (2)
• Dandenong Government Services Offices - HASSELL
• Medhurst Winery -
Folk Architects
 
HERITAGE
John George Knight Award 
• Ormond College Academic Centre  - McGlashan Everist
Commendations (3)
• MacGeorge Estate, Ballangeich  - Peter Crone Architects
• The New Hammond Centre, Christ Church, Warrnambool – Harmer Architecture
• Bastow Centre of Educational Leadership  - Maddison Architects
 
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Marion Mahony Award
• Ormond College Academic Centre -
McGlashan Everist
Architecture Award (1)
• Flinders House - Wood Marsh Architecture
Commendations (3)
• The Royal Children’s Hospital -
Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart
• Bridge Hotel -
Techne Architects
• The National Hotel -
Breathe Architecture
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE 
Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award
• Queensberry Street House – Robert Simeoni Architects
 
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE -  NEW Architecture Awards (4)
• Flinders House -
Wood/Marsh Pty Ltd Architecture 
• Rose House - Baracco + Wright Architects
• Harold St Residence - Jackson Clements Burrows 
• Big Hill - Kerstin Thompson Architects 
 
RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE - 
Alterations & Additions
Architecture Awards (2)
• Wattle Avenue House – Minifie van Schaik Architects 
• Hill House – Andrew Maynard Architects
 
MULTIPLE RESIDENTIAL
Best Overend Award
• Heller Street Park and Residences - Six Degrees Architects
Architecture Awards (1)
• BVN Architecture – Monash University Student Housing, Clayton
 
AWARD FOR SMALL PROJECT ARCHITECTURE
Award for Small Project Architecture
• Garage + Deck + Landscape -
Baracco + Wright Architects
Architecture Award (1)
• Hi-pod - BKK Architects and Peter Elliott Architects
AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
• Heller Street Park and Residences -
Six Degrees
 
URBAN DESIGN
Joseph Reed Award
• William Buckley Bridge, Barwon Heads –
Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design
Architecture Awards (2)
• The Boatbuilder’s Yard –
Six Degrees Architects  
• University Lawn Precinct RMIT –
Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design
COLORBOND AWARD
FOR STEEL ARCHITECTURE
• Annexe – Art Gallery of Ballarat - Searle x Waldron Architecture
 
MELBOURNE PRIZE (1)
• The Royal Children’s Hospital - Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart
 
REGIONAL PRIZE (1)
• New Hammond Fellowship Centre –
Christ Church Warrnambool
 
ENDURING ARCHITECTURE
AWARD (1)
• National Gallery of Victoria 1962-67 –
Roy Grounds