Three very different projects by Australian architects are among the 12 winners of the 2020 Dezeen architecture awards and another two have taken home prizes in the interiors categories. The winners include a powerful statement on Indigenous loss and perseverance, an ambitious gallery and performance space and a boutique hotel in Bali.
In 2020, the international architecture awards, organized by the popular design website, were dominated by projects from the Asia-Pacific, including two winners from Vietnam and three from China. A primary school in Iran also won an award, while just three projects from Europe were named winners in the architecture categories.
Phoenix Central Park by Durbach Block Jaggers Architects and John Wardle Architects won the Cultural Building of the Year. The Dezeen master jury said that “this is a building that exhibits and creates culture, wanting people to invest in buildings that celebrate performing arts.”
Phoenix Central Park by Durbach Block Jaggers Architects and John Wardle Architects.
The result of an open brief by philanthropist Judith Neilson, the arts and performance space Phoenix Central Park also won the public vote for the cultural building category, and at Australia’s National Architecture Awards it won the Harry Seidler Award for commercial architecture. Reviewing the project in Architecture Australia, Laura Harding described it as “a Corbusian boîte à miracles – a miracle box – an architectural vessel capable of holding everything you could desire.”
Winning the award for Small Building of the Year was In Absence by Edition Office and Yhonnie Scarce, the 2019 NGV Architecture Commission.
The cylindrical pavilion lined with hundreds of black glass yams explores the erasure of Indigenous knowledge and memory from Australia’s national story.
“The project is compelling as a gesture in terms of materiality, and also as a space which leads to reflection”, said the jury. “It’s a beacon of hope; powerful and visceral.” It also won a National Award for small project architecture.
The winner for Hospitality Building of the Year a 14-room boutique hotel on the northern coast of Bali, by Western Australia architect Nic Brunsdon. The concrete and bamboo hotel was constructed using traditional techniques due to its remote location. “This project has a strong connection with the immediate environment,” said the judges. “It lets the landscape be part of the design.”
In the interiors awards, Bismarck House by Andrew Burges Architects and David Harrison and Karen McCartney won House Interior of the Year and Museum Lab by the Australian Institute of Architects 2019 Gold Medal-winning practice Koning Eizenberg Architecture won best Civic and Cultural interior.
To see the full list of winners, head here.
