2017 National Architecture Awards Announced

The Australian Institute of Architects have announced the national winners of the 2017 Architecture Awards.

This year’s jury awarded projects from the largest field of entries received in the almost four decades since the national awards program began, with a total of 983 entries received and 72 shortlisted for national honours.

In total, the national jury presented 35 awards and 13 commendations across the 14 categories.

Jury chair and past president Ken Maher said the Awards play a significant role in illuminating the value architects bring to our clients and community, as well as stimulating debate and defining values within the profession.

"The jury gave preference to projects demonstrating the contribution architecture can make to the public good; projects that were inventive in their responses to context, site and program; and those that celebrated an understanding of materials and making."

[Related reading: Shortlist Revealed For Australia’s National Architecture Awards]

Fjmt Architects walked away with the national award for commercial design, with their submission of the The EY Centre in New South Wales.

Officer Woods, a WA-based practice won the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for public architecture. The jury described it as a “masterstroke building-within-a-building concept” that “enabled a group of remote Indigenous artists to make a substantial and tangible contribution to a town centre, thereby exemplifying reconciliation in this country.”

Amanemu by Kerry Hill Architects

Located on the south-east coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu, Amanemu by Kerry Hill Architects won the International Architecture: Jørn Utzon Award.

Captain Kelly’s Cottage by John Wardle Architects

Perched on a remote site on Tasmania’s Bruny Island, the historic 1830s Captain Kelly’s Cottage by John Wardle Architects won the Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award for Residential Architecture – and a National Commendation for Heritage in what the jury described as "a labour of love and passion" to bring the residence "from an advanced state of decay to a rebirth where old and new lend each other fresh beauty."

Cox Architecture received a national commercial architecture award for Willinga Park and BVN won the 2017 interior architecture prize for the refurbishment of TC Beirne School of Law. The prize for enduring architecture was awarded to 17 Wylde Street by Aaron M. Bolot

The Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture – arguably Australia's most prestigious houses award – was won by Durbach Block Jaggers Architects for Tamarama House with what the jury described as sublime detailing and beautifully sculpted spaces, "The architecture is masterly, demonstrating, as Louis Kahn reminded us, that 'architecture begins with the room'."

You can find a full list of nominees and winners over at the Australian Institute of Architects website.

Tamarama House (NSW) by Durbach Block Jaggers Architects      

Main image: Tamarama House by Durbach Block Jaggers Architects. Photo: John Gollings