MEDALS
ArchiTeam Cooperative’s Annual Awards program showcased the very best in architecture from Australia’s small, medium and emerging architects on Thursday 21 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 ArchiTeam 2024 Awards, was celebrated as part of the 17th Annual Awards Announcement night.
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 (AWS)
- Australian Design Review (Niche Media)
- Australian Passivhaus Association
- Bookshop by Uro (the perfect source for Christmas gifts)
- Colorbond
- Creffields Digital Print
- Eli Kemp (Trophies)
- EssJay Consulting Engineers
- James Hardie
- No.1 Roofing & Building Supplies
- Premium Screen
- Resene
- Southern Impact
Special thanks to the creative talents of Sonia Post and her team at Design Democracy for the graphics.
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: Wangun Amphitheatre // Equity Office
Judges Citation:
Designed as a new cultural hub for the Gunaikurnai community, the Wangun Amphitheatre strikes a beautiful balance between the natural environment, community needs and cultural heritage.
The project evokes an immediate sense of calm, groundedness and deep connection to place.
The use of natural and locally sourced materials creates a restrained palette that mingles the structure within its context, with steel columns echoing the tall eucalyptus trees that form a dense backdrop.
Representing the shields of the five Gunaikurnai tribes, the soft PTFE canopies provide shelter and playfully capture the movement of the filtered light through the trees.
The Wangun Amphitheatre demonstrates a considered response to the site integrating architecture and landscape, allowing access for all. The strength of the design lies in its collaborative design process, extensive research and deep community engagement. The outcome of years of effort, this humble project is an extraordinary example of cultural sustainability, where architecture becomes part of the story telling. The jury unanimously recognised the Wangun Amphitheatre, the design team and its community of collaborators, a deserving recipient of this year’s ArchiTeam Medal.
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: Life Cycle // Steffen Welsch Architects
Judges Citation:
"Life Cycle" is a joyful small-footprint renovation that transforms a traditional suburban weatherboard into a resource-conscious family home. Every design choice prioritizes reducing upfront carbon, minimizing energy use, and ensuring comfort, achieving a 79% reduction in life cycle emissions, compared to the benchmark.
The flexible layout is enhanced by carefully placed openings that balance natural light, ventilation, and connection to nature. Delightful sustainable features include a thermal chimney with a netted void above the dining area, edible gardens, and natural cooling from external shading and a fishpond next to the lounge.
Biodiversity is supported through responsible timber sourcing, indigenous plant selections, and minimal hardscaping-, which improves water infiltration and reduces radiant heat.
This project demonstrates how existing buildings can become resilient, climate-responsive sanctuaries that provide safe, comfortable, and healthy living. "Life Cycle" is an inspiring model for how cradle-to-cradle design thinking can positively shape the construction industry and our future communities.
SMALL PROJECT MEDAL
SMALL PROJECT MEDAL (sponsored by Resene)
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: Mackellar Primary School, Accessible Playground // Architecture architecture
Judges Citation
Playground design is, surprisingly, an area of design that often finds itself wanting. Unsurprisingly, the key factor standing in the way of playgrounds as sites for magical thinking and multi-sensory experiences grounded in the educational concepts of encounter and discovery that they could be is a limited budget.
Architecture Architecture’s design for The Mackellar Primary School Accessible Playground accepts these constraints, reframing them as an opportunity for design-led exploration which demonstrates that exceptional, delightful design is achievable despite a limited budget.
Readily available storm water drains are transformed into tunnels; steel reinforcing bars become an archway for both children and plants to climb. Each structural element is embedded consciously into the landscape, creating a holistic, multi-sensory and universally accessible playground that responds thoughtfully to the varying needs of students who have different levels of mobility and physical ability.
In eschewing quotidian playground apparatus, this playground offers limitless opportunities for social inclusion, passive and active play, and imaginations to soar. It is everything it needs to be and nothing more.
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: Heritage Streetscape Primary School // Jacinda Sadler Architects
Concept
The alterations, additions and refurbishment building works, recently completed at Heritage Streetscape Primary School are in direct response to the Local Planning Scheme’s identification of the site as ‘a significant place’ together with topographical site constraints and client programmatic requirements.
Our brief was to unify and connect the school buildings including a new signifying Entry, staff administration areas, and student learning areas.
The work required solving complex disconnections between the school buildings, (including 3.5 floor level changes), maintaining clear divisions between visitor, administration and student areas on the constrained inner-city site. We sought to inject spaces that would provide stimulation for the senses within the competing agenda of Heritage Controls
PASSIVHAUS SCHOLARSHIP
(sponsored by Australian Passivhaus Association)
The Passivhaus Scholarship will be awarded to the ArchiTeam member who designs the 2024 ArchiTeam Passivhaus 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 Keep Cup of Opportunities // Shauna Trengrove, Linden Thorley Architects
Judges Citation:
The ‘keep cup of opportunity’ simply explains how functional, durable, and often beautifully designed the humble reusable coffee cup is, compared to a flimsy single-use cup. – It makes you wonder why we don’t apply the same principles (of an airtight and highly insulated envelope with minimal thermal bridges, resilient to outdoor temperature fluctuations) to all the buildings we occupy! It begs the question, why do we treat our coffee to better vessels than we build for ourselves to inhabit?
The judges were impressed by Shauna’s beautifully hand sketched and watercoloured comic strip that communicates the concept of the trophy simply, while also in a fun and engaging way!
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.
WINNER
Residential New - Up to $1.2M
Mount Macedon House//Ben Lance Architects
Judges Citation:
The Mount Macedon House deploys a profoundly elegant use of minimal means, both in terms of the costs to build and in the deep efficiency of design strategies required to create a remarkable home for a mother and her visiting family.
Two paths of entry and movement are made available, one public, bringing guests directly in into the shared, social heart of the home through the cross section. A second private entry for the house’s owner begins a procession along the 50m length of its rhythmic glazed façade, passing by the sleeping spaces and gently cascades down a sequence of small steps into the open planned and shared end of the house. Each step offers a spatial expansion, dignifying the importance of generosity in the spaces in which we share with and host others, while also simply pairing the house to the gently fall of the site outside and culminating with a concrete seated threshold allowing a place to sit in the sun upon the house’s edge.
This combination of a highly rational sectional profile, stretched to encompass and to give shape to the required program, is positioned to the south of its site and open to the north, providing both prospect and refuge. This is all that is done, and all that is required to provide a truly exceptional home.
COMMENDATIONS
Little More House
MEGA
Architects
Life Down a Lane
Tom Robertson Architects
Forest Road House
Wiesebrock
Architecture
FINALISTS
Little Brick House
Ben Callery Architects
Little More House
MEGA
Architects
Mount Macedon House
Ben Lance Architects
Life Down a Lane
Tom Robertson Architects
Inverloch Beach House // Birthisel Wittingslow Architects
Forest Road House
Wiesebrock
Architecture
WINNERS
Residential New - Over $1.2M
COMMENDATION
Tea House
Krisna Cheung Architects
Gable Park
Weaver + Co Architects
FINALISTS
Gable Park
Weaver + Co Architects
Dennis House
Olaver Architecture
Tea House
Krisna Cheung Architects
Residential Alterations and Additions
RESIDENTIAL ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS AWARD (Sponsored by James Hardie)
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.
WINNER - Residential Alts & Adds up to $700K
Little Brick Cottage
Perversi-Brooks Architects
Judges Citation:
Little Brick Cottage, crafted by Perversi-Brooks Architects, exemplifies how thoughtful and imaginative design can flourish within modest constraints of scale and budget. This project demonstrates an exceptional ability to harmonise with its heritage context while actively contributing to the evolving narrative of the area. Notably, the inverted triangulated roof pays homage to the iconic Mount Wellington, creating a striking silhouette.
The meticulous choice of materials and detailing in both the new additions and the renovated interiors showcases a refined aesthetic that elevates the overall experience. Excellent solar orientation introduces a dynamic range of lighting conditions, enriching the living environment.
The innovative boundary fence serves as a meaningful urban gesture, skillfully blending form, pattern, view and light, while cleverly incorporating a billboard. This design not only enhances the streetscape but also stands as a contemporary bookend, offering a progressive vision for South Hobart.
In the face of the housing affordability crisis, Little Brick Cottage emerges as a beacon of adaptive reuse and intelligent spatial planning, signalling a new era for residential design. Its civic gesture to the adjacent high street further underscores its commitment to community engagement, making it a noteworthy contribution to the architectural landscape.
COMMENDATIONS
Bob’s Bungalow
Blair Smith
Architecture
Brunswick West House
NARDEL Architects
Park Street House
Michael Ong Design Office
FINALISTS
Austin House
Fowler and Ward
Heartbeat House
Mihaly Slocombe Architects
Little Brick Cottage
Perversi-Brooks Architects
Brunswick West House
NARDEL Architects
Kirribilli Downsize Apartment
Tsai Design
WINNER - Residential Alts & Adds $700K - $1.2M
Hale Street
Philip Stejskal Architecture
Judges Citation:
The jury was deeply impressed by the strategic and experiential skill of the Hale Street Alterations and Additions. A desire to accommodate aging in place and mobility disadvantaged friends became a way to liberate the plan for everyone - organising living around a ramped spiral that curls around a garden courtyard, culminating in an elevated living room and deck.
The material palette of the building is humble, engaging and smart. Hempcrete walls offer humidity control, indoor air quality, thermal insulation and carbon sequestration. Double glazed windows ensure a regulated environment is available for older people. Threshold spaces surround this core and hold ramps and verandas for protected outdoor living. This layer is fashioned from timber and tin, with cyclone mesh screening and simple battens for security and subtle separation.
The ensemble is a relaxed, compact and comfortable arrangement that offers multiple, rich choices for retreat or engagement with its surrounding context.
COMMENDATION
Marianne House
Victoria Merrett Architecture
FINALISTS
Life Cycle
Steffen Welsch
Architects
Marianne House
Victoria Merrett Architecture
Silhouette House
Inbetween
Architecture
Hale Street
Philip Stejskal Architecture
Residential Alts & Adds $1.2M +
COMMENDATION
Skygarden
Architecture architecture
FINALISTS
Fringe Dweller // Mihaly Slocombe Architects
Skygarden
Architecture architecture
COMMERCIAL, COMMUNITY & PUBLIC AWARD
COMMERCIAL, COMMUNITY & PUBLIC AWARD (Sponsored by Colorbond)
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
Wangun Amphitheatre
Equity Office
Judges Citation:
Wangun Amphitheatre is an exemplar of culturally responsive co-creation. The project deftly creates an accessible, all-weather facility for the community to come together and is the first self-determined cultural venue for Gunaikurnai communities.
It shows a deeply considered response to both brief and site, delivering a captivating and thoughtful architectural solution where the
whole is so much more than the sum of its parts.
The PTFE canopies which collectively define the amphitheatre, and symbolise the five Gunaikurnai clan shields, are delicate, elegant and playful; never quite touching each other whilst providing protection from the elements. What could easily have been a perfunctory structural solution manages to be both sculptural and functional conveying an effortless intuition.
The project demonstrates the reward for an investment in extensive and deep community engagement, creating a place of both beauty and purpose.
COMMENDATIONS
Mackellar Primary School, Accessible Playground
Architecture architecture
Milanote Headquarters
Fowler and Ward
FINALISTS
Tiny Tails
Retreat
MET
Architecture
Brandon Park
Primary School
Architecture
architecture
Olivine Community Pavilion
Canvas
Projects
Wangun Amphitheatre
Equity Office
Mackellar Primary School, Accessible Playground
Architecture architecture
Centred
Sarah Lake Architects
Milanote Headquarters
Fowler and Ward
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.
FINALISTS
Conditions of Comfort
Jack May (OCTA)
Greens Beach Retreat Field Office Architecture
Future Proof House
Sarah Lake Architects
INNOVATION & CONTRIBUTION AWARD
INNOVATION & CONTRIBUTION 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.
_
“This year, there were no winners or commendations in the Innovation & Contribution category as the only entry, while commendable, did not sufficiently demonstrate a contribution to industry discourse beyond the design and production of buildings. The jury sought work that sparked broader conversations and influenced the wider architectural landscape. We strongly encourage members to nominate either a member, or a group that includes a member; or a special initiative that is outside the ArchiTeam for special recognition next year!”