A night out at the ACT Architecture Awards

There were plenty of sharp suits and elegant dresses as the architects of Canberra  put on their best threads for the 2012 ACT Architecture Awards held last night at the very swish Hyatt Hotel Canberra. The big winners on the night were Collins Caddaye Architects who took out the major prize of the night – The Canberra Medallion – with their St Gregory’s Hall project in Queanbeyan.

Failing to do their jobs

Yesterday, the Victorian State Government announced that the changes to Victoria’s planning laws that could sideline councils will be after the November election.

Choose your own speaker

Following rapidly after the recently completed Australian Institute of Architects National Conference extra/ordinary in Sydney came the announcement that Angelo Candalepas along with staffers, Andrew Scott and David Neustein would be the creative directors for next year’s conference to be held in Melbourne and entitled natural artifice.

There’s not much to see on their website at the moment apart from their request to help them choose their tenth international speaker. I’ll have to  think long and hard about this one although I already like the suggestion of German de Sol and Smiljan Radic both from Chile but that’s probably more to do with my latinophilic obsession than anything else.

Presentation inspiration

Every year I make sure I attend the Presentation to Juries for the Victoria Architecture Awards for the reason that it always provides me with inspiration and also reaffirms my faith in architecture.

So it was with much excitement I headed down to the Sidney Myer Asia Centre today to check out the latest offerings for this year’s awards. Usually with these presentations I just park myself in the Residential category for the afternoon and watch everything that is offer but this year I thought I would do things differently and check out a few different categories.

For the most part I was pretty impressed with what I chose to see being particularly inspired by the Lyon Housemuseum by Lyons and two projects by perennial idon’twearblack favourite McBride Charles Ryan, The Yardmasters Building and Fitzroy High School. Another project that I didn’t get to see but a reliable source said was the best they had seen so far that day was the March Studio by Brent Knoll.

One project that particularly surprising was the work by Cox Architects and Planners and their series of interventions and renovations throughout the University of Melbourne, one of which I only had stumbled on just before the presentation and took some photos, which I have included below. Coincidentally, seeing the presentation by Cox Architects was also a surprise as I walked into the room expecting another presentation.

Before I finish, no visit to the Presenation to Juries would be complete without seeing a presentation by Multiplicity. Not only do I enjoy most of their projects, but their presentations are always fun to watch with the banter between Tim and Sioux Clark being a particularly highlight.

Two state award domination

It was interesting to note that all but one of the award winners at last night’s Australian Institute of Awards came from either New South Wales or Victoria. The exception being the VS1/SA Water Head Office by Hassell which took out the National Award for Sustainable Architecture. To the surprise of many, the night’s host, the Melbourne Recital Centre, was pipped for the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture by the National Portrait Gallery by Johnson Pilton Walker in what many consider the major prize of the night. I haven’t visited either of them so I can’t really compare them. Although the Recital Centre did take out the Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture. In what I would class as a surprise, the Letterbox House by McBride Charles Ryan didn’t get a guernsey with the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture going to Chenchow Little Architects for their Freshwater House, with the National Awards for Residential Architecture went to Neeson Murcutt Architecture for the Whale Beach House in Sydney and Zac’s House at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. Also good to see some different names pick up awards this year, hopefully it continues next time around.

For a full list of winners, visit the AIA website.

60 seconds of architecture

The Architects’ Association of Denmark and the Australian Institute of Architects would like to encourage all architects, filmmakers and people in general who have an interest in their surroundings to participate in a collaborative film-making event. The film will to be launched in concordance with the World Day of Architecture.

60 Seconds of Architecture is an open international film project where anyone can contribute with a one minute film clip. Using Architects’ energy versus global crisis as a point of departure we urge everyone to produce a 60 second film that deals with this theme. All submissions will be accessible through the website www.60secondsofarchitecture.blogspot.com and all the participants are free to use and display these clips (or complete film) as they see fit. When the total number of films has been received, they will be edited into a feature length to be shown at a function on the World Day of Architecture.

The project seeks to uncover the relationship between, on the one hand, architects theories and practices, on the other hand, public perception of space and architecture. We would like to realize a crossover field where professionals along with everyday people enter a dialogue about the architecture of the future.

Submissions

Deadline for submission is 15 of September 2009. For further information please contact Hans Bærholm, Architect’s Association Denmark +45 3085 9008 or hb@aa-dk.dk.

Events

The film will be screened at a reception hosted by the local department of Architects’ Association Denmark and at Customs House in Sydney during the Sydney Architecture Festival. Other screenings will be posted on the website as they are confirmed.

(via Super Colossal)