After being credited with changing the landscape of suburban housing in Australia, Graeme Gunn has been presented the nation’s top annual architecture award — the 2011 Gold Medal for Architecture.

At an awards ceremony in Perth last night, Gunn was also praised for reinvigorating architectural university studies in Victoria, and and mentoring decades of leading architects.

The Melbourne-based architect is best known as ‘being a fighter for better housing for all Australians’ and for working consistently to enhance our quality of life by ‘improving our housing and urban environments’ throughout his 50 year career to date.

He is also known for his current role as principal architect for VicUrban, as foundation dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Building at RMIT, and for his early innovative housing work, particularly for Merchant Builders in Melbourne.

Australian Institute of Architects national president Karl Fender presented the award at the second Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards (AAAA) ceremony in Perth.

Fender said the Gold Medal jury firmly believed: “At a time when we face enormous challenges around the built environment, Graeme Gunn provides an inspirational example of the engaged architect. He has steadfastly pursued his ambition to demonstrate innovative architecture, while at the same time devoting himself to improving the quality of how we live as well as projecting architecture to a broader group of people than would normally afford it.”

The jury citation noted: “Graeme Gunn has made an outstanding contribution to architecture in a career spanning more than five decades, one distinguished by three distinct forms of engagement. In each of these he has had a transformative impact. Beginning with his early work in housing, particularly for Merchant Builders; continuing as an innovative educator heading the department and subsequently as foundation dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Building at RMIT; and in his present role as principal architect for VicUrban, Graeme Gunn is an enduring and inspirational advocate for architecture’s contributory role in improving our housing and urban environments.

Architecturally, he is best known for his work in Melbourne, but has established a body of work across rural and regional Victorian, the south coast of NSW, Sydney, and Dilli in East Timor. His most recognisable projects are the iconic Plumbers and Gasfitters Union Building in Victoria Street, Melbourne and the Melbourne City Baths; his project housing with Merchant Builders and the Bower House; urban design projects including Melbourne’s Prahran Market; cluster housing projects Winter Park in Melbourne’s Doncaster and VicUrban at Heathmont. Well known single residences include the Shoebridge House in Doncaster East, the Yencken House in Tathra on the NSW south coast, and the Scroggie/Claire House in South Yarra.

The jury noted: “Graeme’s housing at Winter Park with the innovative developers David Yencken and John Ridge is an outstanding example of careful design extended into a consideration of the importance of landscape and open space and, ultimately, the presence and feel of a place. It is also one of the best examples of the manner in which Gunn and Merchant Builders “educated and articulated new ideas to the public”.

“Like many of his generation, Graeme is an advocate of architecture’s social mission — he brought a unique authority to this message through his architectural mastery. He demonstrated this in outstanding buildings, including the Richardson House, the Molesworth Street townhouses, the suite of houses for Winter Park and the spectacular Plumbers and Gasfitters Building, with Len Hayball in early recycling projects including the Prahran Market and City Baths, and in recent projects including his deftly handled Carlton Courtyard House.

“As a builder’s son, Graeme has always been an advocate for the built exemplar over theoretical proposition. Graeme’s most recent public role has been as principal architect with VicUrban and, prior to that, as principal design advisor to the Docklands Authority. In his work with VicUrban, he provides strategic design guidance and mentors junior colleagues. As he did with Merchant Builders many years previously, Graeme continues at VicUrban to advocate for strategies that will allow experimental projects to be built and that translate and test ideas in built form.

Born in 1933 in Hamilton in rural Victoria, Graeme studied at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, leaving to work with legendary architectural practice Grounds Romberg and Boyd from 1960. He established his own practice in 1962, developing a range of innovative residential designs, including the medal-winning Richardson House in Essendon in 1963.

This award sparked an invitation from the Merchant Builders to design a founding range of project houses. With Ellis Stone’s bush landscaping, Graeme’s brick seconds, stained timbers, and open plans revolutionised the Melbourne speculative house market and enriched the residential language of the time. He went on to design a range of cluster housing developments with the group. All projects were renowned for being both sustainable and integrated into the Australian landscape. His non-residential projects were equally significant, with the Plumbers and Gasfitters Union Building receiving the Victorian Architecture Awards 25 Year Award for Enduring Architecture in 2007. Graeme’s consistent design prowess has seen him awarded 14 major architecture awards during his career.

From 1972-1982, Graeme changed the course of architecture at RMIT, setting the foundation for the university’s now-internationally recognised architectural school. In his role as Dean, he transformed the school’s technically based environment to a wider and more socially oriented school. The school became the Faculty of Architecture and Building, with a new breed of design teachers brought into the architectural education system. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Architecture in 1996, and continues as an adjunct professor.

In 2000, Graeme was appointed Principal Design Advisor with the Docklands Authority, which then evolved into his current position as Principle Architect and design advisor to VicUrban. In this capacity, he continues to demonstrate his ongoing commitment to the implementation of the highest standards of urban design. He continues to work as Director of Gunn Dyring Architects, specialising in high quality residential design.

Architecture & Design Team

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