Reinvention of Aussie icon tops architecture awards
It’s been argued surfing is an Australian religion, and the nation’s surf clubs, dotted coast-to-coast around our vast watery perimeter, our cathedrals. If so, our iconic, much-loved, much-maligned secular church is on the move – riding a wave of architecture-led reformation.
Around the country, going and gone are the dark, internalised red-brick, toilet-block-inspired clubs of the past, replaced increasingly by sparkling, light-filled, community-minded spaces better reflecting our cultural identity.
Celebrated at last night’s NSW Architecture Awards in Sydney was one of the country’s newest – the ”quintessentially Australian” Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club on the state’s mid-north coast.
Designed by Neeson Murcutt Architects to replace a ”seriously dilapidated” old facility, and completed last year, the club was named NSW’s best new public building, receiving the prestigious Sulman Medal for Public Architecture.
Presenting the award, the jury described it as being “completely engaged with the environment and the culture of coastal NSW”, noting “there is something special about the smell of the salt spray and the sound of the surf harnessed through the architecture”.
In a simultaneous, very welcome and overdue reinvention of our coastal amenity blocks, the delightful Marks Park Amenities overlooking Tamarama Beach, designed by Sam Crawford Architects, received awards for both public architecture and small projects.
Both join a growing cohort of recent architect-designed surfs clubs and amenity buildings, including the award-winning North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, and facilities at Tamamara, Brighton, Cook Park, Avalon, Palm Beach and Whale Beach, among others.
Announcing other key winners, the jury presented the state’s most coveted housing award, the Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture, to a building “challenging preconceived notions of a home”.
The extraordinary ”Indigo Slam”, designed by Smart Design Studio for White Rabbit Gallery owner and arts patron Judith Neilson, functions as a home-cum-gallery-cum event space in a strikingly beautiful and unconventional form. ]
Designed by architect William Smart ”as a piece of sculpture to be lived in”, the jury said: “Externally an extravagant sculptural exercise, its real mastery lies inside, in the internal manipulation of light, scale and materials. The deft choreography of these elements creates an experience of calmness and serenity, an almost monastic quality.”
Indigo Slam forms part of Neilson’s participation in the reinvention of Chippendale as one of Sydney’s artistic and cultural hubs. The patron last year commissioned a $32 million gallery to be designed by John Wardle Architects and Durbach Block Jaggers, featuring a performance space, art gallery, central garden and two residential apartments for visiting artists.
Again, as in recent years, the state’s growing stock of highly resolved, well-designed tertiary, secondary and primary educational buildings, both public and private, were acknowledged and honoured.
A school building described as exhibiting excellence ”on may registers”, including sustainability credentials – the Abbotsleigh Multi-purpose Assembly and Sports Hall and Sports Field by Allen Jack+Cottier Architects – received the top William E Kemp Award for Educational Architecture, with six further awards and commendations presented.
Neeson Murcutt emerged as one of the year’s big winners, receiving four awards and commendations for recent work, including the new entry to the Australian Museum.
The NSW Premier’s Prize was presented to Candalepas Associates for a residential care facility, St Andrews House, and the City of Sydney Lord Mayor’s Prize to Liberty Place between Castlereagh and Pitt Streets by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp.
Some of the 2016 award winners:
Sulman Medal for Public Architecture: Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club by Neeson Murcutt Architects
Sir Arthur G Stephenson Award for Commercial Architecture: Novartis building by HDR | Rice Daubney
William E Kemp Award for Educational Architecture: Abbotsleigh Multi-purpose Assembly and Sports Hall and Sports Field by AJ+C
Greenway Award for Heritage Architecture: 5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD architects in collaboration
Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design: 5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD architects in collaboration
John Verge Award for Interior Architecture: Minter Ellison by BVN
Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture (New): Indigo Slam by Smart Design Studio
COLORBOND® AWARD FOR STEEL ARCHITECTURE: Crackenback Stables by Casey Brown Architecture