Function trumps form at the 2021 National Architecture Awards
At the virtually announced 2021 National Architecture Awards last night, two big-name architecture firms each took out two major commercial titles in different categories for projects that reveal a tilt towards pragmatic buildings that prioritise optimal functioning over fashion-driven form.
Hooray to that, because Smart Design Studios’ new Sydney practice digs, and Monash University’s new engineering and information technology hub genuinely are buildings made to work for their occupants and the environment.
In announcing the Australian Institute of Architects’ 40th annual peer-reviewed national awards, the jury highlighted how this year’s 30 winners – winnowed from the 87 sent to the shortlist via the state-based award system – throw a spotlight on “increasingly rare” examples of public architecture of great standing.
On a campus that, despite almost two years of student absences, continues to evolve a large-scale portfolio of inspired educational architecture, Monash University’s Woodside Building for Technology and Design now stands as the largest Passivhaus buildings in the Southern Hemisphere.
For the way it generates its own power, is thermally tight for both heat and cold, was structured to maximise interior spaciousness while minimising material wastage and embodies the very learnings students are seeking, the jury gave Grimshaw, in collaboration with Monash, the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture and the David Oppenheim Award for Sustainable Architecture.
The jurors said the Woodside building demonstrated “international leadership in learning environments and sustainability” and, despite an ostensible austerity, saw it as “a handsome and exemplary building”.
In the fast-changing Sydney suburb of Alexandria, Smart Design’s new office similarly leans toward the industrial. It was made to fit into an existing warehouse and an industrial streetscape, and also to be a rather beautiful galvanised sculpture.
For what is also a comfortable, bright and open office that Smart Design says is “purpose-built for who we are and how we work”, the studio similarly scored two of the major awards: the Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture and The Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture.
The jury announced that “as a commercial offering, and a contributing element to this burgeoning cultural community, this studio truly establishes an architectural legacy”. Smart Design has a habit of creating legacy projects.
The Heritage awards applaud the sensitive adaption of historic buildings. Cox Architecture with Neeson Murcutt + Neille won two different awards and nationwide publicity for the clear-cut revival of a monumental Sydney sandstone institution, the Australian Museum’s Project Discover.
In the heritage-heavy environs of Victoria’s gold-rush city of Bendigo, the 1871 Former Mining Exchange was, and has once again become, an important element.
For uncovering its antique glory and the deco style of the connected 1927 shopping arcade, which is part of the Beehive building, Williams Boag Architects’ long restoration won the important Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage.
Not the main name-award winner in the Educational Architecture category but without doubt stunningly original, McBride Charles Ryan’s new music annexe for Penleigh Essendon Grammar in suburban Melbourne won fans among the jury. They described its patterned, undulating and oscillating coloured-brick facade as “a frozen soundwave” and overall dubbed it “a project of sheer joy”.
Among the awards, one that is often overlooked is the International Award that considers projects built offshore.
This year the late Kerry Hill, who died in 2018, was recognised with the Jorn Utzon Award for International Architecture for his Malaysia-sited One & Only Desaru Coast resort.
In a long career Hill produced numerous beautiful buildings across Asia, and this 46-suite development that contemporises the pavilion form and references traditional materials – including the ubiquitous wooden tropical shutter – imparts, according to the jury, “a modest and elegant form that merges with the surrounding landscape”.
Hill had the knack of achieving such a “genius loci” quality in almost all of the projects he undertook.
NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 2021 COMMERCIAL WINNERS
COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture
BVN
Land 121 Facilities project, Lavarack Barracks
Commercial Architecture
The Harry Seidler Award for
Commercial Architecture
Smart Design Studio
Smart Design’s practice offices
National Award for
Commercial Architecture
BVN
Land 121 Facilities project, Lavarack Barracks
National Award for
Commercial Architecture
MAAArchitects
Wangaratta Street
Educational Architecture
The Daryl Jackson Award for
Educational Architecture
Neeson Murcutt + Neille
Barker College Rosewood Centre
National Award for Educational
Architecture
McBride Charles Ryan
Penleigh Essendon Grammar
School Music House
National Award for Educational
Architecture
John Wardle Architects
Geelong College Junior School
Enduring Architecture
The National Award for Enduring Architecture
Kevin Borland, John and
Phyllis Murphy and Peter
McIntyre, with engineer Bill
Irwin
Olympic Swimming Pool
Heritage
The Lachlan Macquarie Award
for Heritage
Williams Boag Architects
Bendigo Former Mining
Exchange
National Award for Heritage
Cox Architecture with
Neeson Murcutt + Neille
Australian Museum Project
Discover
Interior Architecture
The Emil Sodersten Award for
Interior Architecture
Smart Design Studio
Smart Design’s practice offices
National Commendation for
Interior Architecture
Jackson Clements Burrows
Divided House
International Architecture
The Jorn Utzon Award for
International Architecture
Kerry Hill Architects
One & Only Desaru Coast,
Malaysia
Public Architecture
The Sir Zelman Cowen Award for
Public Architecture
Grimshaw in collaboration
with Monash University
Monash Woodside Building for
Technology and Design
National Award for Public
Architecture
Cox Architecture with
Neeson Murcutt + Neille
Australian Museum Project
Discover
National Award for Public
Architecture
Andrew Burges Architects
and Grimshaw with TCL in
collaboration with the City
of Sydney
Gunyama Park Aquatic and
Recreation Centre
Small Project Architecture
National Commendation for Small
Project Architecture
Licht Architecture
Floating Sauna Derby
National Commendation for Small
Project Architecture
March Studio
Jackalope Pavilion
National Commendation for Small
Project Architecture
Raffaello Rosselli Architects
Plastic Palace
Sustainable Architecture
The David Oppenheim Award for
Sustainable Architecture
Grimshaw in collaboration
with Monash University
Monash Woodside Building for
Technology and Design
National Award for Sustainable
Architecture
Smart Design Studio
Smart Design’s practice offices
Urban Design
The Walter Burley Griffin Award
for Urban Design
lahznimmo architects and
Aspect Studios
Sub Base Platypus
National Commendation for Urban
Design
BVN
QUT Campus to Country
