Ravenswood School for Girls. Image courtesy BVN

BVN Architecture’s new addition to the Ravenswood School for Girls (Gordon) has taken top honours at this year’s NSW Architecture Awards, receiving the.

BVN becomes the first architecture practice to win seven times the Sir John Sulman Medal for Public Architecture since the award was first given eighty years ago in 1932.

The Mabel Fidler Building was awarded the state’s most prestigious architecture honour for its exemplar advances in the relationship between education environments and contemporary learning.

“In its elegant planning, the sheer delight of the library space, and strong sculptural presence - the Mabel Fidler Building expresses the aspirations of a community and is a fine model for a school of the future,” the jury noted.

The awards jury commended BVN’s work at the Ravenswood School including the introduction of a new language referring to the way the library is ‘suspended in the most translucent of structures’ with its daring cantilever over the school gardens.

The Medal (which this year celebrated its 80th anniversary) was presented at the Australian Institute of Architects 2012 NSW Architecture Awards, held at the iconic Sydney landmark Luna Park on Thursday 28 June, along with another 30 Awards, 7 Prizes and 9 Commendations recognising the best in New South Wales architecture.

173 entries were received this year from across the state - from Coffs Harbour to Wollongong. Winners of the Named Awards and Architecture Awards will now progress to the National Architecture Awards to be held in Perth on Friday 1 November.

BVN Architecture was also awarded the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design for their “intelligent and thoughtful approach’ to the new Taronga Zoo Upper Entry Precinct which ‘both respects and enriches the precinct and enhances the Zoo as an asset for the local community and Sydneysiders alike”.

1 Bligh Street, Sydney by architectus + ingenhoven architects was the other big winner on the night, awarded both the Sir Arthur G. Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture and the Milo Dunphy Award for Sustainable Architecture, along with an Architecture Award for Urban Design.

For the Commercial Architecture jury the achievement of 1 Bligh Street was exceptional: ‘It represents the intelligence of a well-conceived and thoughtful architecture; it is the promise of what a tall building might be in Sydney.”

The Sustainable Architecture jury noted the architects’ “attention to detail and architectural integration of sustainable features has provided Sydney with a world-class commercial building that is setting new standards in sustainable architecture for high rise buildings”.

Sydney landmark, icon of Australian architecture and winner of the 1967 Sir John Sulman Medal, Australia Square by Harry Seidler & Associates, took out the Award for Enduring Architecture with the jury noting that the iconic 50-storey tower and its associated public square, one of Sydney’s most loved and highly used public spaces, ‘more than any other single project shaped the redevelopment of Australian cities for the remainder of the 20th century”.

The continuity, subtlety in expression and thoughtfulness in environmental performance of the John Kaldor Family Gallery addition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales by PTW Architects saw it receive the John Verge Award for Interior Architecture, while ‘an example for other modest scale heritage projects’ Exeter Farm by Design 5 — Architects, in association with the Historic Houses Trust, was presented with theGreenway Award for Heritage.

The ‘luminous spectacle’ of Cliff Face House by Fergus Scott Architects with Peter Stutchbury Architecture, with its lantern of polycarbonate housing and inner face of sandstone cliff, impressed the jury with its range and control to take out the Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture.

Two residences by David Boyle Architect - Marrickville House 2 and Kellie Residence - received Architecture Awards in the same category, along with Bates Smart’s Inner House and Smee Schoff House by Sam Crawford Architects.

The pitched roof forms and offset floor levels of Mosman’s Bell Romero Houses by Chenchow Little Architects saw them receive the Aaron Bolot Award for Residential Architecture — Multiple Housing by offering ‘a compelling argument for the successful integration of contemporary architecture within a conservation area’.

The Multiple Housing category also saw SJB Architects take out two Architecture Awards for the Marina Apartments in Abbotsford Bay and the SÖHO Apartments in Alexandria; Stonecutters and Knox on Bowman - Jacksons Landing by Tzannes Associates was also recognised with an Architecture Award.

Tribe Studio’s House Kalafatas Challita, Red Lantern by Lacoste + Stevenson Architects with Frost* andBureau SRH Architecture’s ‘delightfully crafted small residence’ Little Napier House all took home Small Project Architecture Awards.

This year Fisher Design and Architecture in Association with Mackenzie Pronk Architects received thePremier’s Prize for Giidany Miirlarl Education Space in Coffs Harbour after being shortlisted by Government Architect Peter Poulet and chosen as the winner by the people of NSW through an online Sydney Morning Herald poll.

Milson Island Indoor Sports Stadium by Allen Jack+Cottier Architects on the Hawkesbury River received the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture, while the Blacket Prize for Regional Architecture went to new practice Silvester Fuller for the Dapto Anglican Church Auditorium near Wollongong.

Silvester Fuller’s ‘contemporary, confident, bare and unexpected’ architecture presented an ‘uncompromising approach that has been embraced by this regional community’ and one that was also recognised by the jury for Public Architecture, with the project receiving an Architecture Award in that category.

Penny Fuller of Silvester Fuller was also presented with this year’s Emerging Architect Prize for her local sensibility as well as her global perspective.

Other prize recipients on the night were: Professor James Weirick (from the University of New South Wales) recipient of the President’s Prize; Julie Cracknell of Cracknell & Lonergan Architects, recipient of the Marion Mahony Griffin Prize acknowledging a female architect for a distinctive body of architectural work; and David Neustein from Architectural Review Asia Pacific, recipient of the Adrian Ashton Prize for Architectural Journalism.

Architecture & Design Team

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