A sunken building to house MPs wins three national architecture gongs
The members' annexe of the Victorian parliament. Photo: John Gollings

Victorian Parliament's members' annexe picks up three gongs at the Australian Institute of Architects' National Architecture Awards

For some recent Australian architectural projects recognised by the peak adjudicators of the profession as having the “it and a bit” factor, prizes came in multiples at the Australian Insitute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards, held in Brisbane on Thursday night.

In the 14 categories, ranging in scale from looming residential towers to modest small projects, 35 awards and 12 commendations were handed out.

And of those, seven projects claimed two awards each while one, the new semi-subterranean members’ annexe to Melbourne’s parliament building, took home three awards for Peter Elliot Architecture + Urban Design.

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The members' annexe gives MPs and their staff comfortable offices for the first time in a century. Photo: John Gollings

The $40 million building designed to be subservient to the columned legislature at the top of Bourke Street, by being set around a sunken garden, gives members and their staffers comfortable digs for the first time in more than a century.

It was named as the national award winner in both urban design, public architecture, and won the David Oppenheim Award for sustainable architecture.

Having filtered up through the state award process as category winners earlier in the year (in the Victorian competition the annexe won four separate awards), the whittled lists were further refined by the juries of peers who debate their attributes hard and long.

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A sitting room in the Premier Mill Hotel, in Katanning, WA. Photo: Barry Williams

And what emerged for them as the best, most original, most technologically daring or, as being dutifully deferential to historic fabric, was a diverse and inspiring lot.

Across the board, they are confident projects from an Australian cohort now well recognised as being world-class if not world-leading. All projects are manifestations of excellent conceptual ideas and material applications that have been bought through to outstanding completion.

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The art repository Dangrove, designed by Tzannes architects for Judith Neilson. Photo: Ben Guthrie

Yet, one of the strong themes that became apparent in several different categories is the new focus on the thoughtful retention in situ of the actual and use-worn elements of historic buildings.

The readapted Premier Flour Mill in Katanning, in inland southern Western Australia, that spaceagency architects made over to operate as a 22-room hotel, and that won the Lachlan Macquarie Heritage Award, kept a great deal of Victorian industrial equipment within what are now hotel bedrooms and public spaces.

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The Paramount House Hotel in Sydney. Photo: Tom Ross

The jury decided the Premier Mill was a great example of repurposing that went beyond “historical absolutism”, and that it is “respectful but not museum-like”.

Also an industrial-to-hospitality adaption, Breathe Architecture’s Paramount House Hotel in Sydney’s Surry Hills – one of the double-award winners – made a 29-room hip hotel out of 1930s bricks and mortar, and a new upper-level addition with a chevron-marked metal façade.

The jury saw it as “a bold yet sensitive addition”. It won a national award for commercial architecture and a national award for heritage.

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The Fish River Ranger Accommodation, in the Northern Territory. Photo: Joti Weijers-Coghlan

On another plane altogether and another dual winner is Alec Tzannes’ Dangrove in Alexandria, Sydney, which took out the dual titles of the Harry Seidler Award for commercial architecture, and a national award for interior architecture.

A building made to be a workshop, museum storage and erstwhile performance space for philanthropist Judith Neilson’s vast private art collection, is a journey through contrasting spatiality and materiality.

From concrete lower levels to the diaphanous polycarbonate lightbox of the upper-level great hall, the jury saw it as “complex and sublime in equal measure”.

Another dual winning project and one that is drawing international attention is the brilliant realisation of a big, multi-faceted communal meeting place that employs a lot of different spaces, sensations and experiences to link Perth’s CBD and the Swan River to the entertainment precinct of WA’s capital.

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Yagan Square, in Perth's CBD. Photo: Peter Bennetts

Yagan Square, which won the COLORBOND Award for steel architecture and a national award for urban design, relied on the talents of a big creative cast led by Lyons in association with Iredale Pedersen Hook and landscapers ASPECT Studios.

Small project architecture always culls out intriguing little structures, and this year an Aboriginal ranger’s permanent camp on the Fish River Station in the Northern Territory only earned a commendation for the students of University of South Australia’s School of Art, Architecture and Design. But the juries recognised how apt was a “simple” steel-framed tent to its tropical conditions.

In residential awards this year, Victorian architects were well recognised with more than half of the 13 awards and commendations. Melbourne’s Edition Office won two different awards: A national award for residential new, and the people’s choice for an apparently weighty concrete house made to look like it could hover above the ground.

WINNERS 2019 AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS’ NATIONAL AWARDS 

COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE
The Harry Seidler Award | Dangrove | Tzannes | NSW
National Award | Paramount House Hotel | Breathe Architecture | NSW
National Award | Private Women’s Club | Kerstin Thompson Architects | Victoria

EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
The Daryl Jackson Award | Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School | BVN | NSW
National Award | Braemar College Stage 1, Middle School | Hayball | Victoria

National Commendation | Adelaide Botanic High School | Cox Architecture and Design Inc | SA
National Commendation | QUT Creative Industries Precinct 2 | KIRK and HASSELL (Architects in Association) | Queensland

ENDURING ARCHITECTURE
National Award | Sails in the Desert | Cox Architecture | NT

HERITAGE
The Lachlan Macquarie Award | Premier Mill Hotel | spaceagency architects | WA
National Award | Paramount House Hotel | Breathe Architecture | NSW
National Commendation | Flinders Street Station Facade Strengthening & Conservation | Lovell Chen | Victoria
National Commendation | Sacred Heart Building Abbotsford Convent Foundation | Kerstin Thompson Architects | Victoria

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
The Emil Sodersten Award | Denton Corker Marshall Studio | Denton Corker Marshall | Victoria
National Award | Dangrove | Tzannes | NSW
National Award | The University of South Australia Cancer Research Institute | Swanbury Penglase with BVN | SA
National Award | #TheBaeTAS | workbylizandalex | Tasmania

INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
The Jørn Utzon Award | Somewhere Other | John Wardle Architects | Italy and Australia

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
The Sir Zelman Cowen Award | Green Square Library and Plaza | Studio Hollenstein with Stewart Architecture | NSW
National Award | Parliament of Victoria Members’ Annexe | Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design | Victoria
National Award | HOTA Outdoor Stage | ARM Architecture | Queensland
National Award | Maitland Riverlink | CHROFI with McGregor Coxall | NSW
National Commendation | Port of Sale | fjmt | Victoria

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS)
The Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award | Terrarium House | John Ellway | Queensland
National Award | Powell Street House | Robert Simeoni Architects | Victoria
National Award | Caroline House | Kennedy Nolan | Victoria
National Commendation | Empire | Austin Maynard Architects | ACT
National Commendation | Teneriffe House | Vokes and Peters | Queensland
National Commendation | Five Gardens House | David Boyle Architect | NSW

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (NEW)

The Robin Boyd Award | Daylesford Longhouse | Partners Hill | Victoria
National Award | House in the Hills | Sean Godsell Architects | Victoria
National Award | Cloister House | MORQ | WA
National Award | Hawthorn House | Edition Office | Victoria
National Commendation | North Melbourne House | NMBW Architecture Studio | Victoria

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING
The Frederick Romberg Award | Mermaid Multihouse | Partners Hill with Hogg & Lamb | Queensland
National Award | Whitlam Place | Freadman White in collaboration with Anon Studio | Victoria

SMALL PROJECT ARCHITECTURE
The Nicholas Murcutt Award | Jock Comini Reserve Amenities | Kerstin Thompson Architects | Victoria
National Award | Doubleground | MUIR + OPENWORK | Victoria
National Commendation | Fish River Ranger Accommodation | Design Construct, School of Art Architecture and Design, University of South Australia | NT

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE
The David Oppenheim Award | Parliament of Victoria Members’ Annexe | Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design | Victoria
National Award | Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School | BVN | NSW
National Commendation | 25 King | Bates Smart | Queensland
National Commendation | The University of South Australia Cancer Research Institute | Swanbury Penglase with BVN | SA

URBAN DESIGN
The Walter Burley Griffin Award | Maitland Riverlink | CHROFI with McGregor Coxall | NSW
National Award | Parliament of Victoria Members’ Annexe | Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design | Victoria
National Award | Yagan Square | Lyons in association with Iredale Pedersen Hook and landscape architects ASPECT Studios | WA
National Award | Green Square Library and Plaza | Studio Hollenstein with Stewart Architecture and HASSELL | NSW

COLORBOND® AWARD FOR STEEL ARCHITECTURE
National Award | Yagan Square | Lyons in association with Iredale Pedersen Hook and landscape architects ASPECT Studios | WA

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Winner | Hawthorn House | Edition Office | Victoria

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