Entries for The Good Design Awards (GDA) 2014 are now online for public viewing with a host of Australia’s leading architects and designers represented in the Architecture and Interior design category.

Entries across 15 categories, which include Architecture and Interior design, Commercial and Industrial and Hardware and Building, have been displayed online before they are shortlisted by judges into the Good Design Selection.

The Avantra iCommunity apartment building complex in Mascot, Sydney is in the running for the Architecture and Interior design award.

The project was the brainchild of an all Australian design team including MD+A Architects, Archer + Wright Interior Design and 360 degrees Landscape Architects.

Below: The roof-top pool will be a place for the Avantra community to gather.

A key feature of the project is the atrium-like light voids in each tower complex. The full-height light voids run from the roof top to ground and through every level allowing 100 per cent cross ventilation through the building, to each apartment and across the open end corridors on every level.

The Avantra design team suggest that underpinning the project design was the concept of creating a setting for community. It’s “Streets in the Sky”, “Green Sanctuary”, roof-top garden and integrated communication technology concepts are the manifestations of this philosophy.

Above: Community spaces are a key design feature of the Avantra complex.

“Our philosophy was to create a setting for community, for people to have chance interactions and spaces for privacy,” said landscape architect Daniel Baffsky.

“People are very self-contained in this building they don’t actually need to venture out of the building to engage with each other,” explained architect Brent Marvin.

The Prince Alfred Park and Pool redevelopment by Neeson Murcutt Architects and Sue Barnsley Design is also in the running for the Architecture and Design Award. Located at the edge of central Sydney, the park is used by local workers and for recreational means. The design ambition was to reinvigorate the park and upgrade the tired public pool without erasing the Victorian roots of the area.

Above and Below: The Prince Alfred Park and Pool redevelopment by Neeson Murcutt Architects and Sue Barnsley Design

The pool and surrounding parkland received a complete overhaul and now include an integrated landscape, an activity emphasised facility and a new urban ecology.

These are just two of the projects from the online entries which encompass a wide variety of categories—15 in total.

The GDAs are one of the few remaining design programs to physically test the entries for assessment and regard their evaluation practice as the international benchmark

The Good Design Award recipients and the Good Design Award of the Year will be announced at a gala night on May 28 at the White Bay Cruise Terminal.

View the full list of categories and the 2014 entries at gooddesignaustralia.com/awards.

All Images: Good Design Website

Nathan Johnson

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