2012 ACT architecture awards

Roger Pegrum — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 01:00:00 +0000

At awards time, we get to see the best work by architects from Canberra and across the ACT. This year, the Canberra Medallion and the Romaldo Giurgola Award for Public Architecture went to a wonderful school hall in Queanbeyan by Collins Caddaye Architects. A produce market down by the railway by Colin Stewart Architects received the John Andrews Award for Commercial Architecture, and a modest fibro shack on the coast by Joanna Nelson Architect won the Malcolm Moir and Heather Sutherland Award, named for two of Canberra’s early architects. A light-filled junior school in a brand new town centre by Munns Sly Moore Architects was a worthy winner of the Education Prize. All these impressive projects were the work of small local offices and a local sole practitioner.

We were nevertheless grateful to see nominations for excellent projects by out-of-towners. The ACT Chapter award for interior architecture is named for W. Hayward Morris, who designed and decorated the famous Institute of Anatomy. This year that award went to Cunningham Martyn Design from Melbourne for their creative interventions at the heart of Walter Bunning’s National Library. Other architects from the big places on the coast to win awards were NMBW Architecture Studio, for Aranda House, a memorable suburban house; BVN Architecture in association with FMSA for Belconnen Police Station, a gutsy police station; and BVN Architecture for Gym HMAS Creswell, a very healthy gymnasium. It was a good year for Canberra and a good result for architecture.

ArchitectureAU – Roger Pegrum

2012 ACT architecture awards