MEDALS
ArchiTeam Cooperative’s Annual Awards program showcased the very best in architecture from Australia’s small, medium and emerging architects on Wednesday 17 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 2021 ArchiTeam Awards, in its fourteenth year, has been reimagined as an online celebration. Due to COVID restrictions, the awards have been announced electronically 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
- Bowerbird
- United Make
- Uro Publications (perfect source for Christmas gifts)
- Niche Media
Special thanks to the creative talents of Sonia Post and her team at Design Democracy.
ARCHITEAM MEDAL WINNER
ARCHITEAM MEDAL
All entries are eligible to win the ArchiTeam Medal and an award must be given in this category. This is the highest award and judges may award this to an entry of general excellence, or for something more specific, from any category.
Winner: Victorian Pride Centre, BAU+GAA (Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects
Judges Citation:
The Victorian Pride Centre, a new home to Victoria’s LGBTQI+ community is considered a long-awaited, integral project. Designed by a joint venture partnership of BAU+GAA (Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects), the project reflects the history of alternative popular culture of St Kilda while successfully integrating the iconic and dynamic fabric of the location through Moorish Architecture and enthusiastic use of curvilinear forms. The building itself creates a civic presence through its exciting façade, active edges and programmed spaces radiating from the ellipsoid atrium to activate the core. Further, each floor gathers related programs, visually and spatially linked via the atrium forming well resolved communal spaces. The focus on community, sustainability, connectivity and co-existence allows it to surpass stereotypical beauty to experience the sublime journey beyond cultural labels.
WATCH VIDEO
SUSTAINABILITY MEDAL WINNER
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: The Hutt 01 Passivhaus - A Beacon of Hope, Melbourne Design Studios (MDS)
Judges Citation:
Investing in the design, development and construction of their own home, Melbourne Design Studios (MDS) have provided an opportunity to demonstrate to the broader public and industry what a net zero carbon home might look like on a small inner-city site. Constructed in a CLT structure with passive house technology and integrating recycled and thermally efficient materials and landscaping throughout, this project demonstrates how good architectural design principles coupled with environmental technology and innovative construction techniques, can create a healthy, joyful and highly energy efficient home. Minimising embodied carbon in the build itself as well in the ongoing running of the building, this project innovatively promotes and advocates for more and better environmentally conscious and sustainable design.
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: Spencer's Slope, Cloud Dwellers
Judges Citation:
Spencer Slope is an intervention that elevates the existing building that it fronts and improves engagement with the street. This is a rare accomplishment for a car shelter. There is a generosity to Spencer Slope; the simple clarity of the form and terraced entry sequence involves a respect for context which the jury commends. The details are contemporary, robust and economical and are embedded with the same spirit of fun and delight that the original home exhibits. With this project, Cloud Dwellers demonstrate to the broader community an achievable and desirable way to give back to the street. The jury congratulates Cloud Dwellers on a project that is a very worthy recipient of Small Projects medal.
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: Thinking Paddock House, Open Creative Studio
Concept
Thinking Paddock House is an adaptable multi-generational dwelling that in a regional context on Tasmania's South-arm peninsula. While taking advantage of the incredible views, the aging clients wanted the house to fit in with the rural context and be thermally resilient as they age in place. They wanted their home to be as much about resilience for the future as their contemplative lifestyle requirements.
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: Mainview Boulevard, Canvas Projects
Judges Citation:
The Mainview Boulevard Family Learning Centre, located within the Wyndham City Council’s Truganina suburb, provides opportunities for reflection, respite and new beginnings to the influx of a majority immigrant population. These spaces designed to pause and reflect offer relief to the community from the demanding, fast-paced world. Architecturally expressed as a hollow drum; Unprogrammed, interstitial zones sandwich programs to provide communal gathering areas. This lightweight, transparent structure maximises natural light while beautifully contrasting the heavy, rustic three-dimensional brick composition on the ground floor façade, creating an exciting, pixilated pattern while further effectively providing the precinct with its civic identity. This illusion to the viewers, generated by a well-thought selection of material, texture and colours, effectively reflects and relates to the local environment. In addition, the programmed spaces congregating at the core reinforces the concept of social equality from all directions, backgrounds and cultures to attract and retain communities equitably.
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: PASSIVE HOUrglass, Aaron Cody of reserve.studio
Judges Citation:
The design of the HOUrglass trophy by Reserve Studio is embedded with Passive House principles in a manner that’s high-tech, gravity defying and fun. This approach and attitude, if taken to a macro scale could create buildings that the jury would love to see. Aaron Cody, the director of Reserve Studio, is a deserving winner of the scholarship and we wish him luck with his studies and seeing the influence it has on his future work.
Residential New
RESIDENTIAL NEW AWARD
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.
WINNER
Residential New - Up to $1Mil Watch Video
Corner House
Archier
Judges Citation:
The Corner House is worth spending time with. The more that the members of the jury learnt about the project; the greater their appreciation. Archier has created a home that serenely does unexpected things. The home is warm, generous, beautifully detailed and closely connected to the landscape. Further investigation reveals a home with a complex brief, that is sustainably responsible and which spirals up, in and out of the courtyard to carefully mediate between spaces. The jury congratulates Archier and encourages everyone to look further into what is a very special project.
COMMENDATION
Macdonald Road House Philip Stejskal Architecture
FINALISTS
Corner House
Archier
House for Eva
MRTN Architects
Macdonald Road House Philip Stejskal Architecture
The Hutt 01 Passivhaus - A Beacon of Hope
Melbourne Design Studios (MDS)
Judges Citation:
Built by the architects themselves, as owner builders, on a small irregular shaped and very challenging site, this project strongly advocates for a greater understanding by the broader public that net zero energy homes are the way of the future. The Hutt 01 demonstrates an exceptional level of ambition and dedication to promoting and showcasing the idea of “smaller but better” – working within a compact 78sqm over two and a half levels – clever spatial and architectural devices provide a sense of volume and light despite the tight plan. Passive solar design principles, a strong architectural form and planning strategy, considered material use and opportunities for connection with the street, have resulted in a playful, comfortable and enjoyable place to live that contributes positively both to its immediate neighbourhood as well as to the broader architectural landscape of single residential design.
COMMENDATION
Judo House
Nervegna Reed
FINALISTS
Coastal Court Flinders BOWER ARCHITECTURE
The Hutt 01 Passivhaus - A Beacon of Hope
Melbourne Design Studios (MDS)
Franklin
Ola Architecture Studio
Judo House
Nervegna Reed
Residential Alterations and Additions
RESIDENTIAL ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS AWARD (Sponsored by Architectural Window Systems)
As above, winners of this category have shown creativity an
d 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.
WINNER - Residential Alts & Adds up to $500k
Watch Video
Engawa House
Inbetween Architecture
Judges Citation:
This clever transformation of a 100-year-old English cottage in Melbourne challenges typical approaches to suburban house renovations. Rather than simply adding more rooms, the existing layout was rigorously recomposed, adding maximum functionality while negotiating the difficult project constraints imposed by site setback and budget.
The modifications synthesise the clients’ interest in Japanese culture, and the architect’s ongoing exploration of threshold spaces such as the engawa. A verandah-like corridor was added to reorder spatial flow and to strengthen connection to the leafy garden setting. Stretching the footprint by a mere1.3 metre, the charred timber-clad extension is sympathetic to existing building fabric, yet expressive of the “chapter added” approach.
Engawa House is a poetic interpretation of multiple pragmatic considerations. It demonstrates how small-scale architectural interventions can achieve exceptional social and ecological outcomes, while adding a new and personal chapter to a house’s life.
COMMENDATIONS
Norwood
Architecture architecture
South Yarra Apartment
Rosanna Ceravolo Design
Spencer's Slope
Cloud Dwellers
FINALISTS
Engawa House
Inbetween Architecture
Spencer's Slope
Cloud Dwellers
Norwood
Architecture architecture
South Yarra Apartment
Rosanna Ceravolo Design
WINNERS - Residential Alts & Adds $500k - $1m
Watch Video
Vivarium
Architecture architecture
Judges Citation:
On Warundjeri land, modest in scale and ambitious in its intent, Vivarium is a low slung extension to a cottage in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. Less a house set within a garden, and more a garden with living spaces, the new built form meanders through a condensed landscape, its curved timber and glass walls embracing the planting to create - like the name suggests - a new environment for living. By building no more than is necessary, Architecture Architecture has been able to gently merge the natural and the man made into a creative model for generous living within our urban environment.
Gantry House
OOF! architecture
Judges Citation:
The exposed steel structure gives the project a uniquely exploded expression of an industrial warehouse that is not commonly seen in a residential project. While the appearance relates to the site context, the locally recognised bricks from the surrounding warehouses has a brave colour, revealed structure, raw materials, exposed fixings and other fine construction details that gives the project its messy, informal and casual character while demonstrating the skills and celebrating the house as a source of enjoyment.
Commendations
Terrace House 1 DREAMER
Mosman Minka
Downie North Architects
Finalists
Gantry House
OOF! architecture
Vivarium
Architecture architecture
Mosman Minka
Downie North Architects
Terrace House 1 DREAMER
WINNER - Residential Alts & Adds $1m +
Watch Video
Arcadia
Architecture architecture
Judges Citation:
Design Intent
Arcadia by Architecture architecture, true to their principles, is designed to capture the client’s notions of home by transforming the site into a garden path with changes in materials, textures, shading, light and evolving views, sits comfortably in the inner-urban Melbourne. The design is an extraction of volumes under the existing roofline creating courtyard and garden spaces. The constraint of the site size is used as a potential to create an endless landscape by introducing four garden spaces that draw the eye through the house out into the scenery. Further, a loose arrangement of indoor and outdoor spaces to retreat, gather, study, eat and relax are connected via a generous central spine. The modest materials allow for textures and colours to give the design it’s character and are chosen specifically to age gracefully over time. These materials compliment the retained chimneys with a dark cement finish, reminiscent of burntout structures in a vast landscape.
Judges’ Comments
The new addition is beautifully spliced into the fabric of the old house. A well thought out plan breaks up the tradition floor plan into individual spaces by introducing landscaped courtyards, harmoniously connecting the indoors to the outdoors. The combination of material, texture and colour along with the delicate play of light & shade renders the house as an endlessly evolving dream home.
Commendation
Open Shut House
WALA
Finalists
Arcadia
Architecture architecture
South Yarra House
Pop Architecture
Deco House
Mihaly Slocombe
Open Shut House
WALA
COMMERCIAL, COMMUNITY & PUBLIC AWARD
COMMERCIAL, COMMUNITY & PUBLIC AWARD
Projects entered into this category can include multi-res (over $2m), offices, hospitality venues, retail shops, community centres, places of worship, showrooms, architectural studios, warehouses, industrial projects, temporary architectural installations and any architectural project that doesn’t fit the residential categories.
Past winners include a warehouse in an industrial estate, a bookstore and offices.
WINNERS
Quakers Stage 2
pH architects + Nervegna Reed Architects
Judges Citation:
Located at the intersection of Melbourne’s urban grids within a humble 1960s office building, the Quakers Centre is an outstanding example of an adaptive reuse project that thoughtfully traverses design scales from the urban gesture to the material detail.
A series of identifiable new architectural elements have been deployed to signal the current community use of this particular fragment of the city, whilst internally bringing to light the underlying qualities of the host building and ultimately creating a series of thoughtful, hardworking and experientially rich spaces that support the essential human act of gathering.
Victorian Pride Centre BAU+GAA
(Brearley Architects and Urbanists + Grant Amon Architects)
Judges Citation:
The Victorian Pride Centre by BAU+GAA (Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects) is an exemplar project that illustrates what’s possible when a large-scale architectural project responds deeply to its community and context to produce an exuberant and contemporary piece of architecture with immediate social impact.
Significantly, the process of this project (through competition and procurement) evolved in close consultation with the LGBTIQ+ community. The resulting project – formally, programmatically, and symbolically – speaks of pride and connection to place and creates a safe, social and welcoming home for Australia’s first purpose-built LGBTIQ+ Centre.
The seven-storey, concrete form of the building recalls the Moorish architecture of many of St Kilda’s historical buildings and draws on the principles of a beehive in the organisation of its program to enable a spirit of communication connection and collaborative, multi-layered spaces
COMENDATION
Narrandjeri House
Public Realm Lab
FINALISTS
Narrandjeri House
Public Realm Lab
Mainview Boulevard Canvas Projects
Quakers Stage 2
pH architects + Nervegna Reed Architects
Victorian Pride Centre BAU+GAA
(Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects)
UNBUILT AWARD
UNBUILT AWARD (Sponsored by Vectorworks)
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.
FINALISTS
Gas Stack
Simulaa
Lisieux
Topology Studio
INNOVATION & CONTRIBUTION AWARD
INNOVATION & CONTRIBUTION AWARD (Sponsored by Melbourne School of Design)
Projects entered into this category can include multi-res (over $2m), offices, hospitality venues, retail shops, community centres, places of worship, showrooms, architectural studios, warehouses, industrial projects, temporary architectural installations and any architectural project that doesn’t fit the residential categories.
Past winners include a warehouse in an industrial estate, a bookstore and offices.
WINNER
PLAN RAND
Regional Design Service
Judges Citation:
On Wiradjuri Country, Plan Rand is an innovative grass roots conversation between the Corowa -based architectural practice Regional Design Service and the people of the NSW Riverina town of Rand. More than just a masterplan, Plan Rand serves as both a record and a guide to the considered ongoing discussion of how to improve this engaged rural community, along the way instilling pride, purpose and focus into the way the town sets up its own future. Plan Rand is a creative, generous prototype for how our regional communities can re-vitalise themselves in a truly sustainable, creative manner.
COMMENDATIONS
The Cobargo Santa Project
Breathe
Jenny Edwards
Light House Architecture & Science
Mini Maddern
Public Realm Lab
FINALISTS
Jenny Edwards
Light House Architecture & Science
The Cobargo Santa Project
Breathe
Mini Maddern
Public Realm Lab
PLAN RAND
Regional Design Service
