2019 ArchiTeam Awards winners

ArchiTeam Cooperative’s Annual Awards program showcased the very best in architecture from Australia’s small, medium and emerging architects on Wednesday 13 November.

ArchiTeam made some dramatic changes to how the awards fortnight exhibited over 140 entries, by collaborating with partner Big Plans Melbourne, the exhibition was a spectacular and certainly a larger than life emersion of the best architecture from small practice architects from around Australia. Coupled with 1:1 floor plans at your feet, this opening night was not only reflective of ArchiTeam Cooperative’s desire to reduce its carbon footprint on the world, but also create a more dynamic exhibition experience.

Winners of the main medals saw Lovell Burton’s Springhill House take out the coveted ArchiTeam Medal because the judges agreed it demonstrated excellence in response to context and brief. The Sustainability Medal was won by Owl Woods Passive House by Ballarat-based Talina Edwards Architect. This project is in line to be only the fifth Passivhaus single-detached home in Victoria. Judges agreed it is a project that demonstrates that the stringent requirements to achieve this certification can work in harmony with good design.

The Small Project Medal was awarded to Torquay Compartment Apartment by Winter Architecture. Judges agreed that never was a project so aptly named, and that it was an ingenious reimagining of a tiny footprint, a 45-square-metre space is a home for a family of four, which is also light, bright and utterly welcoming.

Recently added sponsored awards, Brickworks Materiality Award was awarded to Kalora Park Sports Club, WOWOWA Architecture due to how the masonry grounds this otherwise lightweight structure with brick pixels deployed as a graphic tool that emphasises the architectural language and the club’s identity.

The Emerging Architect Award sponsored by Vectorworks, was awarded to Ben Callery of Ben Callery Architects, who the judges agreed their work, we can see a glimpse of the future of architecture – easily combining design and sustainability into strong and clear architectural forms – and a practice that is gathering pace.

The Residential New Award sponsored by Australian Window Systems (AWS) was awarded jointly to House at Otago Bay by Topology and Springhill House by Lovell Burton. Judges described the site-specific House at Otago succeeding in offering the occupants a heightened reading of the setting as they move through and beyond the house, choreographing poetic moments of shelter and prospect. Springhill House, described as refreshing take on an iconic Australian typology, but a reductive and accomplished work of architecture, at once familiar and entirely fresh. Commendations were awarded to Blade House by Takt Studio, Clifton Hill Terraces by Field Office Architecture and CLT by EM Architects.

The Commercial Award – sponsored by The Built Environment Channel (BEC) was won by Olaver Architecture with their project Future Future. Judges said that Olaver Architecture had delivered a fresh and innovative iteration of a well-loved architectural genre – the restaurant in a Victorian shop/dwelling. The Drawing Room, Takt Studio received a commendation.

With a finalist list of 21 – the most finalists in the history of the Awards – it should be of no surprise that the Residential Alterations and Additions Award sponsored by Living Fire was jointly awarded to House N by Joyce Architects and Limerick House by Solomon Troup, with the judges highlighting how both projects provide exemplary outcomes to alterations and additions of existing buildings that required vision and conviction from the designers. New Modern by Bower Architecture and Interiors received the commendation.

The Unbuilt Award was awarded to Förföra by Tessellate a+d with commendations to Nightingale WOW by WOWOWA Architecture and drop leaf table by tsai Design.

The overall winner of the Community Award was Kalora Park Sports Club, WOWOWA Architecture. In the judge’s citation it was unanimous that this building expresses the full gamut of what an architect can do beyond straight-up professional services – imagination, inspiration, community engagement, leadership, even activism. A commendation was awarded to Western Desert Clinics by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture.

This year’s Contribution Award (sponsored by Melbourne School of Design) was awarded to EBD Journal by EBD Architects. The judges agreed that this was highly valuable, detailed work which researched over 200 projects and many journal articles. EBD have broken down the fundamentals of health care buildings with a particular emphasis on dementia. A commendation was awarded to Architecture and Alterity by Anthony Clarke.

Congratulations to all ArchiTeam members who were finalists, and to those who received commendations and awards. You can listen to some of the finalists speak about their projects on Friday 15 November, more information on our website and socials

• ArchiTeam Finalist Present… Friday 15 November
• NAM 31 (New Architects Melbourne Present… ) Wed 20 November
• The exhibition of all entries is open until Thursday 21 November.

Entries: architeam.awardsplatform.com

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
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.

PRIZE: AWS will be offering a photography package to the value of $2,500 for each winner

Winner (joint)
– House at Otago Bay, Topology
– Springhill House, Lovell Burton

Commendations –
– Blade House, Takt Studio
– Clifton Hill Terraces, Field Office Architecture
– CLT, EM Architects

Judges Citation:
House at Otago Bay, Topology
House at Otago Bay is located on an evocative site descending to the Derwent River. Topology Studio’s strategy was for a design that is born of, and belongs to the site. The jury was impressed by the balance between architectural strategies demonstrating clarity and restraint, and the dramatic, project specific outcome that have been achieved. Constraints such as privacy, bushfire management, and climate responsiveness are discretely solved. The subtle curved geometries resonate well with the topographical setting and mountain views. Topology’s design has succeeded in offering the occupants a heightened reading of the setting as they move through and beyond the house, choreographing poetic moments of shelter and prospect.

Springhill House, Lovell Burton
Lovell Burton’s Springhill House is a refreshing take on an iconic Australian typology – the rural house on the hill. It contributes to this lineage with quiet confidence, settling gently into its site beneath a sheltered skillion roof. In its conception and construction, Springhill House displays great craft and care. The plan is deliberately modest, with a rational logic that is efficient and yet flexible. The building’s materials are meticulously assembled to maximise utility and minimise waste and fuss. As such, Lovell Burton’s Springhill House is a reductive and accomplished work of architecture, at once familiar and entirely fresh.

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
COMMERCIAL AWARD (Sponsored by the Built Environment Channel)
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.

PRIZE: BEC will be gifting a Serif 2019 43″ QLED 4K HDR Smart TV

Winner
– Future Future, Olaver Architecture

Commendations
– The Drawing Room, Takt Studio

Judges Citation:
Olaver Architecture have delivered a fresh and innovative iteration of a well-loved architectural genre – the restaurant in a Victorian shop/dwelling. The jury were impressed by a heterogeneous quality of the interior spaces where the complexity of the original spatial arrangement is elevated through variety in intensity and volume. The result is a compelling narrative achieved with modest means and a sophisticated and nuanced approach to materiality.

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
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
– Kalora Park Sports Club, WOWOWA Architecture

Commendation
– Western Desert Clinics, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture
Judges Citation:
This joyous project thoroughly deserves an award for architecture. It is rigorous and thoughtful and finesses each of its parts with expertise. The thrift required to realise what is surely a suburban dream, is never apparent. Rather, the building expresses the full gamut of what an Architect can do beyond straight-up professional services – imagination, inspiration, community engagement, leadership, even activism. Go Pies!

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
RESIDENTIAL ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS AWARD (Sponsored by Living Fire)
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.
PRIZE: Living Fire will offering Dinner at IL Solito Posto and $1,000 towards 1 x Paul Agnew design product for each winner

Winner (joint)
– House N, Joyce Architects
– Limerick House, Solomon Troup

Commendations
– New Modern, Bower Architecture and Interiors

Judges Citation:
House N, Joyce Architects
Ugly duckling to swan; the stripping of generic decoration and a considered sleek refinement of the existing building exterior has resulted in a striking transformation of this home from the outside-in. Tightly planned, the carefully curated reconfiguration of existing spaces endorses a flexibility essential to family-living in small spaces.
Exemplary outcomes to alterations and additions of existing buildings require vision and conviction from the designer; often challenging of clients’ preconceived notions of how they could live within an existing space. Focused on experience and liveability, the resulting clever planning and volume-play within the original building envelope are coupled with sophisticated detailing and careful material placement, resulting in a stunning minimalist home.

Limerick House, Solomon Troup
Limerick House is a beautifully considered and appropriately modest response to the brief and the site. Making the most of the glorious hillside views, the project opens up the original home, with a sensitive and simple addition that is timeless in its detailing, while showing understanding and appreciation for place with its referencing of the ageing shearing sheds in the vicinity.

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
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
– Förföra, Tessellate a+d

Commendation
– Nightingale WOW, WOWOWA Architecture
– drop leaf table, tsai Design

Judges Citation:
All architects leave some of their best work on the drawing board, and do so with a heavy heart. Hopefully this work is the incubator of ideas that live on in other projects. Forfora by Tessellate a+d must surely feel like this is one of those projects.

As our cities age architects grapple with the cultural sensitivity of heritage balanced against the need for buildings to have a continued life lest they suffer demolition by neglect we find Tessellate a+d doing just that. Here they are inspired by the existing forms and rhythms of the architecture they inherited to create a playful and intriguing architectural response. Warm evocative renders excite the imagination of what new life an old building could have. A life that is not private, but more public because of its retail ambitions.

These are the reasons that drew the jury to Forfora, with a longing that this work lives on; somewhere.

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION
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.
PRIZE: Melbourne School of Design (MSD) Pack; including a signed publication, notebook, brooch and scarf

Winner
– EBD Journal by EBD Architects

Commendation
– Architecture and Alterity, Anthony Clarke

Judges Citation:
As their name suggests EBD found their work on what is known, what has worked and what has gone before. This is highly valuable, detailed work which researched of over 200 projects and many journal articles, EBD have broken down the fundamentals of health care buildings with a particular emphasis on dementia. This work allows architects to fast track their working knowledge, and avoid the wasted time of design dead-ends to start on the better-known paths.

This foundational work also explores the diversification of practice and specialist knowledge that is required in the age of disruption. The jury were highly impressed by EBD’s work and acknowledged it accordingly.

ARCHITEAM AWARD CATEGORY INFORMATION (Sponsored)
BRICKWORKS MATERIALITY AWARD (NEW)
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.

PRIZE: Brickworks will be generously providing a prize worth $5,000.

Winner
– Kalora Park Sports Club, WOWOWA Architecture

Judges Citation:
Kalora Park Sports Pavilion is both a utilitarian community facility and a riotous edifice demonstrating imagination and inspiration. Masonry grounds this otherwise lightweight structure with brick pixels deployed as a graphic tool that emphasises the Architectural language and the club’s identity. The economic material palette of this suburban dream has been embraced to create a facility that transcends it intended purpose.

EMERGING ARCHITECT AWARD (NEW) (Sponsored by Vectorworks)
The Emerging Architect Award, is to acknowledge an up and coming ArchiTeam member/s and/or groups or members who are excelling in architecture, and recognizing excellence in their overall body of work with no restriction of scale, program, budget or location.
Note: Entrants must be under the age of 45 on 1 October 2019
This award is proudly sponsored by Vectorworks who are committed to supporting emerging architects and architecture in Australia.

PRIZE: Vectorworks will be gifting a 12 mth Vectorworks subscription to the winner.

Winner
– Ben Callery, Ben Callery Architects

Judges Citation:
Ben Callery Architects is an architectural practice committed to pursuing sustainable and creative architecture. In their work, we can see a glimpse of the future of architecture – one that appears to easily combine design and sustainability into strong and clear architectural forms. Underpinned by passive solar design, off-grid living and natural ventilation Ben Callery Architects’ works explore the relationship between form and well-being. The studio is gathering pace and we are sure we will see a lot more of their very fine work at future awards programs.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD (Sponsored by Navi)
This category awards the best overall architecture as decided by the ArchiTeam membership and the public.
PRIZE: TBC

This year’s winner is Existenzminimum by WHDA

ARCHITEAM MEDAL CATEGORY INFORMATION
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: Torquay Compartment Apartment, Winter Architecture

Judges Citation:
Never was a project so aptly named as Winter Architecture’s Torquay Compartment Apartment. In an ingenious reimagining of a tiny footprint, a 45-square metre space is a home for a family of four, which is also light, bright and utterly welcoming. In a project brimming with clever design ideas and brilliant touches, the reconfiguration of the children’s bedroom is particularly well resolved.

ARCHITEAM MEDAL CATEGORY INFORMATION
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:
Owl Woods Passive House, Talina Edwards Architect

Judges Citation:
The Owl Woods Passive House, by Talina Edwards Architecture, in Trentham raises the bar for what is achievable in Sustainable Architecture and home building. This project is in line to be only the 5th Passivhaus single-detached home in Victoria. It is a project that demonstrates that the stringent requirements to achieve this certification can work in harmony with good design. The Owl Woods Passive House pavilions reach into the landscape and contain beautiful spaces that achieve a level of energy efficiency that all Architects should aspire to in their work.

ARCHITEAM MEDAL CATEGORY INFORMATION
ARCHITEAM MEDAL
All entries are eligible to win the ArchiTeam Medal and an award must be given in this category. The judges may award this to an entry of general excellence, or for something more specific, from any category.

Winner: Springhill House, Lovell Burton

Judges Citation:
Springhill House, by Lovell Burton, was selected as the recipient of the ArchiTeam Medal as a project that demonstrates excellence in response to context and brief.

While providing a strong and inviting sense of protected enclosure, the home is connected to and elevates the experience of the site. Through the respect paid to the local vernacular, this project is linked to the Macedon Ranges and broader Australian context. The siting and utilitarian material palette reference local hay sheds with detailing that is highly skilled. The approach to sustainability and efficiency in the deployment of materials and planning is commendable.

Springhill House is immaculately crafted. With a spare and deceptively simple presentation; this project provides a multitude of ways to occupy and enjoy the home and property.