MEDALS
ArchiTeam Cooperative’s Annual Awards program showcased the very best in architecture from Australia’s small, medium and emerging architects on Wednesday 11 November. Congratulations to all ArchiTeam members who were finalists, and to those who received commendations and awards.
To view the Awards Book, please click here
The 2020 ArchiTeam Awards, in its thirteenth year, has been reimagined as an online celebration. Virtual exhibition spaces have been designed by a selection of ArchiTeam members who have created volumes liberated from everyday constraints. Visitors are free to explore projects from meadows, abstracted vases, fortune cookies and other schemes that skew towards the surreal. Prior to the announcement of winners, all entries are exhibited and can be clicked for further photos and details. Projects that are finalists and recipients of commendations, and awards will all announced and celebrated in animated video shorts.
ArchiTeam would like to thank all the members who entered this year’s awards, judges who assisted us. and the following sponsors.
- Architectural Window Systems
- Australian Passive House Association
- Brickworks
- Built Environment Channel
- Bowerbird
- United Make
- Uro Publications (perfect source for Christmas gifts)
- Niche Media
ARCHITEAM MEDAL
Winner: Davison Street, Archier
Judges Citation:
This highly ambitious compact row-house demonstrates the value of the ‘designer as developer’, with a group of friends electing to eliminate profit and build together in pursuit of a highly sustainable, prototypic infill project. While modest in scale, it achieves surprising density at 80 dwellings per hectare, and demonstrates what a ‘stealth’ form of density might look like for our suburbs. The project’s carefully detailed recycled brick skin is articulated with a roofline that morphs from gable to sawtooth, with an industrial palette of galvanized steel, precast sills, bluestone stoeps and projecting juliette balconies speaking to the familiar laneway typologies of Brunswick. The plan is compact and well configured with generous connections to northern courtyards, with vehicle parking eliminated in favour of additional living space and the celebration of bike and pram storage
SUSTAINABILITY MEDAL
SUSTAINABILITY MEDAL
All entries are eligible to win this Medal and an award must be given in this category. This medal is to be judged on the above criteria as well as showing sensitivity to sustainability principles. This can be quite general – from innovative re-use of an existing structure through to a more complex response to sustainability.
Winner: Australian Architects Declare
Judges Citation:
The work of the founding signatories in establishing Architects Declare in Australia, has resulted in the engagement of hundreds of members to act on a climate and biodiversity emergency. In raising awareness, advocating for faster changes within the industry and in the sharing of information, ADA has been the catalyst for change. In a bottoms-up approach, the movements aim is to shift the behaviour of the construction industry as a whole. We commend the work of the signatories and members in their collaborative effort.
SMALL PROJECT MEDAL
SMALL PROJECT MEDAL
All entries under the size of under 80sqm and/or $150,000 are eligible to win this Medal and an award must be given in this category. This award is to be judged on the general criteria as well as showing innovation within the constraints of space and possibly budget by developing a complexity and inventiveness in small design.
Winner: Small Grand Apartment, tsai Design
Judges Citation:
The Small Grand Apartment represents what the jury understands the winning qualities of ‘small’ architecture to be; It is small in size at 50m2 (within the compact footprint of what used to be a hotel room) and juxtaposes both restraint and ingenuity making this project truly commendable. The mirrored fold down bed deftly turns a spacious dressing area into a bedroom, and an elevated, winding cabinetry design turns corners to avoid the wasted space that comes with ‘ends’. It is these (and many other) tiny moves that represent the architect’s skill and understanding of the unique challenges faced when living a compact life and the jury commends the architect on the execution of this immaculately detailed and delightfully compact home.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
All entries were eligible to win the People’s Choice Award. This Award is unique in that it is open to family, friends and the general public to vote on their favourite project!
Winner: Colour Shingle, Krisna Cheung Architects
This new project, which we’ve whimsically named ‘Colour Shingle’, has the fascinating distinction of being right next door to the Studio Garage, a result of a neighbour’s covetous glances, evidence of the viral power of an idea given form. (Incidentally, the neighbour on the other side of the Studio Garage has also requested one.) It is not the only other backyard commercial project we have completed – we have been exploring and evolving this typology on narrow residential sites across North Melbourne, including our own home office – but it is unique in being right next to a previous one.
The challenge of this particular project then was how to evolve an already successful design so that you don’t simply create a carbon copy, while still coming up with something that complemented the adjacent original design. To that end then, we’ve made the same key design choice to turn the external wall into a non-structural, semi-transluscent façade by employing Perspex shingles, with the stairwell placed between the false wall. The pastel coloured Perspex shingles creating a playful polychromic ambiance inside the studio during the day and it glows like a lantern at night.
BRICKWORKS MATERIALITY AWARD
(Sponsored by Brickworks)
The Brickworks Materiality Award is open to all entries of the ArchiTeam Awards whereby the entry has used Brickworks products which showcase excellence in design, innovation and sustainability. This award will be judged by the ArchiTeam Awards Judges and a representative from Brickworks.
Winner: Merri Creek, WOWOWA Architecture
Judges Citation:
The Merri Creek house is full to the brim with artful, innovative use of brickwork utilised by WOWOWA to deliver an awe-inspiring family home. The project showcases excellence in design, through the careful planning of zones and spaces and through its impressive palette of materials. The form of the home is the result of a shared obsession between the architects and the clients for monumental turrets, geometric farm relics and a tall brick water structures. The architects worked closely with Brickworks on the project to select a textured carbon neutral brick because of its aesthetic appeal, sustainability and enduring strength and they have expressed those qualities in a unique interpretation of the suburban family home – both seemingly familiar and explosively imaginative all at the same time.
PASSIVE HOUSE SCHOLARSHIP
(sponsored by The Austrailan Passive House Association)
The Passive House Scholarship will be awarded to the ArchiTeam member who designs the 2020 ArchiTeam Passive House Scholarship trophy. The trophy can be anything you think it should be - images or video of drawings, models, 3D printed objects, photos, haiku or another creative medium.
Winner: The Passive House Trophy, Qutaibah Al-Atafi (Wolveridge Architects) in collaboration with local textile artist Inneka Moorhouse
Judges Citation:
The winning winner’s trophy is a celebration of tactile, handmade design that is elevated by the sustainable principals that drove the form and execution. Each element of this poetic response is loaded with meaning and rigor; a beautiful way to champion both Passive House and ArchiTeam. The jury feels confident that Qutaibah will be a fierce advocate for sustainable architecture. We wish Qutaibah luck with his studies and look forward to seeing his Passive House design work come to life.
Residential New
RESIDENTIAL NEW AWARD (Sponsored by Architectural Window Systems)
Winners of this category have shown creativity and innovation, as well as working with the unique aspects of their site and budget. Past winners and commended entries have ranged from million-dollar new builds to modest buildings tackling challenging site constraints.
Residential projects nurture families through different stages of life and create the backdrop for many enduring memories. Great design turn houses into homes and provide inhabitants with an adaptable, functional and inspiring space to call their own.
WINNERS
Two Sheds
DREAMER
Judges Citation:
Two Sheds by DREAMER is project that skilfully combines a simple, agricultural vernacular that responds to the unique challenges faced by regional architecture while delivering an immaculately detailed architectural form and interior.
The practical design response resonates through the siting and form of each ‘shed’ providing protection from the elements via a veranda and the gutterless roof design and materials respond to danger from ember attack. Both internally and externally, the project expresses a sense of design rigour and a commitment to craftsmanship. The builder, the architects, and the clients (one who is an architect themselves) working together have produced a sustainable, unique and refined residence that is highly commended by the jury.
The Good Life House
MRTN Architect
Judges Citation:
With a client brief that challenged the orthodoxy of the open plan, Good Life House accommodates a family of individuals that live together-but apart. Through clever compartmentalised spatial planning and management of levels, this compact home both allows the family to come together, but also co-exist in adjacent spaces, with a higher degree of privacy - a strategy that proved its value in the context of a pandemic. A deep setback from the street gives over landscape to the unfenced public realm boundary, with a blade wall that screens a loggia, which subverts vehicle parking requirements to offer a covered outdoor space. Antony and his team have again shown their skill producing a building that is highly responsive to specific client needs through experimentation and play in plan, section and detail.
COMMENDATIONS
Davison Street
Archier
Edgars Creek House
Breathe Architecture
Kensington House
Fowler and Ward
FINALISTS
Davison Street
Archier
Kensington House
Fowler and Ward
Edgars Creek House
Breathe Architecture
Two Sheds
DREAMER
The Good Life House
MRTN Architects
Residential Alteration and Additions
RESIDENTIAL ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS AWARD (Sponsored by Architectural Window Systems)
As above, winners of this category have shown creativity and innovation, as well as working with the unique aspects of their site and budget. Past winners and commended entries have included extensions to existing houses, renovations to a studio apartment and an attic conversion.
A project with a broader budget may not outweigh a smaller addition that has excelled against the odds of budget or site constraints.
WINNERS
Brunswick Lean-to
Blair Smith Architecture
Judges Citation:
For most architects, especially when they are starting their journey, saying less but brilliantly, is tricky. This project is a delight of understatement, order and restraint. It is based on the simplest of plans but suggests heroic order – Palladian and Guilford Bell come to mind - and all in a tiny backyard package.
By retaining the integrity of the existing four-roomed house, and adding this pavilion, the architects have described a voyage from what is - to what will be - which respects both conditions. It’s just a tiny piece of a great city, but the architectural celebration outweighs that domestic scale.
COMMENDATION
Hampden Road House
Archier
Warehouse Greenhouse
Breathe Architecture
FINALISTS
Bourke Street Apartment
Fowler and Ward
Small Grand Apartment tsai Design
Brunswick Lean-to
Blair Smith Architecture
Warehouse Greenhouse
Breathe Architecture
Hampden Road House
Archier
COMMERCIAL AWARD
COMMERCIAL AWARD
Commercial projects entered into the ArchiTeam Awards can include offices, restaurants and cafes, retail shops, architectural studios, as well as warehouses and industrial projects. Projects can be new builds, fit outs or temporary structures such as pop-up shops.
Past winners of the commercial category have included members’ own work studio, restaurants, retail, product showroom, and a brewery canteen. The architectural design of a commercial project has the potential to set the business apart from its competitors, add to the business branding and provide a highly desirable working environment for staff and visitors alike.
WINNER
Parks Victoria
Archier +
Harrison & White
Judges Citation:
This extraordinary project eschews the tendency to the mute depot in a park, instead pursuing a compact double level courtyard plan with storage and servicing below, enabling generous office with expansive vistas from the upper level. The building contributes a generous public edge of precast bench seats which break to highlight a prominent tactile, timber lined arcade entry, with a pocket of ‘dislocated’ temperate rainforest connecting with the Parks Victoria ethos. The innovative use of mass timber construction expressed internally, robust exterior shell, shallow courtyard planning and extensive on-structure planning contribute to an ambitious environmental program, which is signified in its increasing colonisation by creeping vegetation.
COMENDATION
Uro Bookshop
Architecture architecture
Where House?
EMArchitects
FINALISTS
NAR Showroom
Fowler and Ward
Parks Victoria
Archier +
Harrison and White
South Terrace Mezzanine
Philip Stejskal Architecture
Uro Bookshop
Architecture architecture
Where House?
EMArchitects
COMMUNITY AWARD
COMMUNITY AWARD
A diverse range of projects fit within the Community category, but they can all be defined as being available for public use. Community projects may also include projects that are more abstract but for the service of a community or the broader public.
Examples of past ArchiTeam Community Award winners and commendations have been places of worship, a cubby within a child care centre, a school library and a temporary architectural installation in a public space.
The Community category celebrates architecture that help shape neighbourhoods and support our communities.
WINNER
Yarra Pools
WOWOWA Architecture
Judges Citation:
Yarra Pools provides a timely model for how architects can enable community-led initiatives to activate our cities. The project proposes to transform a section of the unloved north bank of the Yarra River (Birrarung) through the introduction of water-based recreation facilities for central city workers, residents and visitors. The jury was drawn to the design skill demonstrated by WOWOWA in working with the existing rail infrastructure, but also the sophisticated and extensive engagement with politicians, public servants, business and community stakeholders to publicise and build momentum for the initiative. As a speculative proposal, the jury encourages the City of Melbourne and Victorian Government to bring this community vision into reality.
COMMENDATION
Arkadia
Breathe Architecture
FINALISTS
Yarra Pools
WOWOWA Architecture
Arkadia
Breathe Architecture
UNBUILT AWARD
UNBUILT AWARD
Entries in the Unbuilt category can reflect unrestrained conceptual ideas, not-yet-realised architectural projects, or designs in other mediums based on architectural principles. These projects can be drawn from an unrealised ‘real world’ client brief, or a purely hypothetical project exploring issues of interest to you. They can also be architectural competition entries, such as a single house, a mixed-use development, a public building or even master planning for a better community.
Past winners in this category have included projects that have gone on to be built, projects that were never meant to be built, competition entries as well as flat pack furniture.
WINNER
St Andrews Square
Moloney Architects
Judges Citation:
As an example of architectural activism, the design by Moloney Architects to transform a cathedral in Ballarat into a place of worship for all, is visionary. Sold to developers in 2013, St Andrews Kirk has sat empty ever since. The design addresses the desperate need for a public space in the city, opening up both literally and figuratively to the community. It imagines a secular cathedral, interior voids created for trees and light, a place for picnics and celebrations, with a large parcel of land to the north retained for the developers. In its efforts to bridge both public and private interests, St Andrews Square is a captivating proposal.
COMMENDATIONS
Yarra Pools
WOWOWA Architecture
Dead End House
Kuzman Architecture
FINALISTS
Barkly Street
DREAMER + Breathe Architecture
Dead End House
Kuzman Architecture
Melbourne Recovery Centre
Breathe Architecture
St Andrews Square
Moloney Architects
Yarra Pools
WOWOWA Architecture
CONTRIBUTION AWARD
CONTRIBUTION AWARD (Sponsored by Melbourne School of Design)
This Award is to recognise contribution and/or innovation to architecture beyond the design and production of buildings. An entry is eligible to win this Award if it contributes to the industry discourse be it in a written form via a blog, publication, or organised tour or broadcast – either by a member, or by a group that includes a member; or alternately a member may nominate a special initiative that is outside the ArchiTeam co-operative for special recognition.
Additionally, a member can be awarded within this category if they have been outstanding in contributing to the Architecture industry through their actions in promoting and advocating. An architectural building may be awarded in this category only if it exemplifies a high contribution to the industry and promotes the profession of Architecture through provoking discussion or public interest.
Note: ArchiTeam member to nominate and prepare the application for any non-member group.
WINNER
Talina Edwards Architect
Judges Citation:
Talina is a passionate and highly effective advocate for sustainable design and through her actions, is raising the bar for the way Australian Architects practice. She actively participates as a volunteer in multiple organisations including a position on ArchiTeam’s Advocacy Committee and a leading role with Australian Architects Declare (winner of the ArchiTeam Sustainability Medal 2020). Her ambitious sustainability ethos is reflected in her studio’s Architecture with her Passive House projects demonstrating sustainability and performance best practice. The jury looks forward to seeing where Talina leads our profession next.
COMMENDATION
Australian Architects Declare
Judges Citation:
The work of the founding signatories in establishing Architects Declare in Australia, has resulted in the engagement of hundreds of members to act on a climate and biodiversity emergency. In raising awareness, advocating for faster changes within the industry and in the sharing of information, ADA has been the catalyst for change. In a bottoms-up approach the movements aim is to shift the behaviour of the construction industry as a whole. We commend the work of the signatories and members in their collaborative effort.