Above: Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club by Neeson Murcutt Architects. Photo by Brett Boardman.

The winners of the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2016 NSW Architecture Awards were announced in Sydney last week. The state’s longest standing honour, the Sulman Medal which was introduced in 1932, is given to a public building of exceptional merit and this year was awarded to the “quintessentially Australian” Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club by Neeson Murcutt Architects. “This project is completely engaged with the environment and the culture of coastal NSW. The execution and detailing is beautifully refined and resolved, but still tough and robust to suit the extreme, corrosive environment and the demands of a “club” client,” the jury noted.

Interior of Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club by Neeson Murcutt Architects. Photo by Brett Boardman

Major inner-city works that balance the demands of commercial, public and urban interests were lauded by the jury for their contributions to the city landscape. 5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD Architects in collaboration, won the Commercial Architecture, Heritage: Greenway Award and Urban Design: Lloyd Rees Award categories, was described as a “masterful example of strategic, design-led planning.”

5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD Architects

Liberty Place by francis-jones morehen thorp received honours for Commercial, Sustainable and Urban Design along with the City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize for the creation of a new public space for the city and a revitalised precinct for workers and visitors between ANZ Tower and Legion House.

The Northern Beaches Christian School by WMK Architecture won the Sustainable Architecture: Milo Dunphy Award.

“The heritage listed Legion House has been refurbished as a fully zero carbon building, an Australian first for a refurbished building, creating its own renewable electricity generation,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore noted in awarding the prize.

A house that adds to the reinvention of Chippendale as one of Sydney’s artistic and cultural hubs through an “extravagant sculptural exercise,” has been awarded the Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New). Built for an art collector, the mastery of Indigo Slam by Smart Design Studio lies within, through the internal manipulation of light, scale and materials in a “deft choreography that creates an experience of calmness and serenity, an almost monastic quality,” the jury said.

Indigo Slam by Smart Design Studio. Photo by Sharrin Rees.

 

The Commercial Architecture: Sir Arthur G Stephenson Award was presented to HDR for its work on the Novartis building, while AJ+C received the Educational Architecture: William E Kemp Award for the Abbotsleigh Multi-purpose Assembly and Sports Hall.

Novartis building, by HDR. Photo by Tyrone Branigan.

 

SJB took out multiple awards, including the Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing: Aaron Bolot Award for 10 Wylde Street, as well as the Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing Award and the City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize Commendation for No 17 Danks.

10 Wylde Street by SJB. Photo by Brett Boardman.