A highly evocative scheme that suggests new, flexible and relevant ways of living and building together has won the 2024 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work.
“Between There and Now” by Nathan Arceri experiments with a new approach to developing and constructing cooperative housing. With housing affordability an ongoing concern, Arceri’s timely concept considers an alternative way to enter the housing market.
The proposal is “an intriguing model for shared housing in a context where new models that break with traditional practices, prejudices and expectations are sorely needed,” the jury commented. “With a focus on a younger demographic struggling to enter the traditional housing market, the scheme proposes a mix of share-housing types and ways of living through a simple, two-level typology.”
Each of the winning and mentioned unbuilt works in the 2024 prize were united by a shared, altruistic thread, the jury said: a responsibility to the earth’s climate and the social needs of communities. Among the recognized projects were three concepts that critiqued the human relationship to the natural environment by testing new ways to develop our cities, as well as one project that creatively investigated how architecture could embrace water as a habitable space.
The 2024 jury comprised Nigel Bertram (Director, NMBW Architecture Studio), Leah Lang (Queensland Government Architect, Office of the Queensland Government Architect), Jennie Officer (Director, Officer Woods Architects), Peter Tonkin (Director, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer) and Georgia Birks (jury chair and Associate Editor, Architecture Media).
The winning and mentioned proposals are:
Winner
Between There and Now – Nathan Arceri
Honourable mention
Neo-Gaya – Rui Shen Chong, University of Tasmania
Baugruppen at White Gum Valley – Spaceagency
Gardens on Oxford – Lily Cannon, Chloe Jin and Sarah-Jane Wilson
Special mention
What We Know, Is What We Remember – Taylor and Hinds Architects with Dr Lois Peeler AM
For a good time, not a long time – Yuchen Gao
The AA Prize for Unbuilt Work is organized by Architecture Media, publisher of ArchitectureAU.com, and supported by presenting partner Monash University.
