Public Architecture

Projects in this category must be predominantly of a public or institutional nature generally falling within BCA Class 9. However, this category does not include projects falling within the definition

Jury chair report

It has been an impressive year for Victorian public architecture. In 2023 there were 28 entries of immense diversity and typology. The jury feels privileged to have gained access to and intimate knowledge of an array of community centres, healthcare facilities, libraries, and cultural tourism, rail, aged care, court and museum projects.

The key themes which underscored excellence included transformative and positive social impact on communities, depth of First Nations engagement, resolution of complex briefs and programs, low-carbon 100% electric buildings with intelligent sustainability embedded throughout, clarity of concept and execution, civic generosity, sensitive interface and connection with context, and economic sustainability including local makers and material content.

Many of these projects have been delivered through challenging pandemic conditions. They required quick turn-around of Educational Architecture or any BCA Class 9b building used primarily for educational purposes. times, working under pressure to deliver to deadlines and budget with high-quality outcomes and success which the jury commends. Many have also required years of hard work to nurture client, stakeholder and community relationships with highly successful and meaningful outcomes. The jury congratulates all entrants for their tireless effort and genuine commitment to public architecture.

It was difficult for the jury to arrive at a shortlist of 11 projects given the large number and high calibre of project entries. We then had the deliberation and challenge of the winners list. After much enjoyable discussion and debate, we were assisted by the core evaluation criteria to delve deep and assess the merits of each project and decide the most outstanding in the field.

In a strong field, the Public Architecture Jury applauds the awarded and commended projects for delivering thoughtful and courageous designs to create meaningful contributions and change to Victorian communities.

Colours available in Australia through

The William Wardell Award for Public Architecture

Bendigo Law Courts by Wardle

Dja Dja Wurrung Country

Wardle have wrestled a complex brief and program, dealing with challenging societal issues, and carefully shaping the new Bendigo Law Courts into a beautiful gift to the city and the people it serves.

The building shifts and moves to respond elegantly to its surrounding built context, to find the right scale for the street and to capture moments and frame curated vignettes and views for the occupants within. The interiors offer equity, empathy, and a softness and kindness to people who may be exposed to levels of vulnerability and stress.

Deep engagement with the Dja Dja Wurrung Traditional Owners has led to a project that responds to both its pre- and post-colonial history and its context with meaning, richness, and pride.

Delivering on a bold environmental sustainability agenda, the building is 100% electric powered by 100% renewables, ready for Net Zero Carbon operation. A lifecycle assessment was employed to reduce the whole-of-life carbon by an incredible 55%. The building achieves the utmost care to procure materials locally, from local trades and to solve an innovative facade system that reduces material usage and works as a beacon to reconciliation and longevity.

Practice team: John Wardle (Design Architect), Meaghan Dwyer (Design Architect), Kah-Fai Lee (Project Architect), Megan Darbyshire (Project Architect), William Rogers (Project Architect), James Loder (Project Architect), Sharon Crabb (Interior Designer), David Churcher (Graduate of Architecture), Barry Hayes (Facade Specialist), Allan Burrows (Project Architect), Jeff Arnold (Interior Designer), Ariani Anwar (Project Architect), Patrick Bullen (Project Architect), Michael McMahon (Graduate of Architecture), Alan Ting (Design Architect), Kristina Levenko (Design Architect), Stefan Mee (Design Architect), Adam Kolsrud (Structural Lead), Stuart Mann (Documentor), Nicola Bowman (Project Architect), Stephanie Pahnis (Project Architect), Maya Borjesson (Project Architect), Anna Caish (Project Architect)

Consultant / Construction team: WSP (Structural Engineer), WSP (Civil Consultant), Introba (Services Consultant), Aspect Studios (Landscape Consultant), Marshall Day (Acoustic Consultant), RBA (Heritage Consultant), Urbis (Planning), Meinhardt Bonacci (Façade), Morris Goding (Access Consultant), Buro North (Wayfinding), Andrew Long & Associates (Archaeological & Indigenous Consultant), PLP (Building Surveyor), WSP (Traffic & Pedestrian Modelling), Bower Architects (Peer Review), Arup (Threat Analysis)

Builder: Kane Nicholson Joint Venture (KNJV)

Photographer: Tim Griffith

Award for Public Architecture

Dianella Community Centre by Canvas Projects

Bunurong Country

Dianella Community Centre is an integrated hub that delivers programmed services while simultaneously providing informal spaces that support community building.

An unassuming form and setback prioritises recreation and gathering spaces on its corner site. Simple and clever, youths are enticed into the centre in their own time. On approach, the deep fascia and expressive timber soffit are a welcoming human-scaled gesture. Inside, the timber ceiling grid extends to give warmth to the central community area and programmed spaces. The heart of the interior is the community’s living room. The reception desk is not prominent, so visitors enter from multiple entrances without feeling overlooked. The life of this flexible linear space is even more meritorious for the absence of physical separation between the unprogrammed spaces and the childcare service at each end.

Environmental initiatives include north-facing clerestory windows with overhangs for winter light, rainwater harvesting and 100% electricity. It also delivers meaningful social sustainability outcomes through the support of education programs, local makers markets, art showcase units and an amphitheatre hosting performance and movie nights. In a strong field, this modest project stands tall as a model for community centres, delivering considered and humble architecture to the Tarneit community.

Consultant / Construction team: OPS Engineers (Structural Engineer), Simpson Kotzman (Services Consultant), Outlines (Landscape Architect)

Builder: Melbcon

Photographer: Tom Blachford

Award for Public Architecture

Warrnambool Library and Learning Centre by Kosloff Architecture

Eastern Maar Country

Kosloff Architecture’s vision is attentive, generous and transformative, combining the adaptive reuse of the heritage Orderly Room with a three-storey addition to enhance facilities for the local community and TAFE campus at the heart of Warrnambool.

An inventive threshold connects both buildings via a study stage, bridge and internal light-filled laneway, which creates a rich urban connection to unify the centre with the campus and city. It offers the community an exceptional level of accessibility, inclusivity and exchange for learning, activities and ideas.

An ambitious sustainability agenda ensures a 100% electric facility with substantial retained and local material content. The care given to the Orderly Room Collection is immediately evident; a sublime space of grand proportions is articulated by tactile surfaces, natural timbers and soft furnishings which offers a comfort of human scale for the enduring enjoyment of civic life.

The Learning and Library addition is compelling and beautifully detailed, mediating its context with a thoughtful scale and palette. The structural solution is clever, the concrete curves of the facade appear weightless in contrast to the heavy heritage context. Wall to window ratios provide an efficient thermal envelope, allowing for intimate occupation within the facade depth between framed views and regulated daylight.

Practice team: Julian Kosloff (Design Architect), Stephanie Bullock (Design Architect), Lance van Maanen (Project Architect)

Consultant / Construction team: TSA Management (Project Manager), Kosloff Architecture (Interior Designer), GLAS Urban (Landscape Consultant), Bryce Raworth (Heritage Consultant), SY Structures (Structural Engineer), SY

Structures (Civil Consultant), Umow Lai (AV Consultant), Umow Lai (Fire Engineering), Umow Lai (ESD Consultant), Resonate (Acoustic Consultant), Studio Semaphore (Signage and Wayfinding), Quantum Traffic (Traffic Consultant), Philip Chun (Building Surveyor), Philip Chun (DDA)

Builder: Nicholson Construction

Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Award for Public Architecture

Melbourne Holocaust Museum by Kerstin Thompson Architects Bunurong Country

The realisation of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum is simultaneously sensitive and powerfully symbolic. Imbued with an ongoing mission to provide a memorial and learning centre, it promotes human dignity with the aim to combat racism and prejudice.

A humane architectural language and materiality define the museum’s centralised circulation. The museum heart thoughtfully envelops visitors in tactile timbers and soft light. Moments of vertical connection evoke reverence and the clever manipulation of natural light through openings and reflective surfaces provide relief from the museum’s exhibits, as well as facilitating opportunities for contemplation and contextualisation. The museum is successful in its balance of the pragmatic, poetic and sustainable. The intricate clay- and glass-brick facade celebrates notions of resilience, identity and connection to community while responding to complex security and programmatic requirements. The building achieves an efficient thermal envelope and is 100% electric. The facade reclaims the heritage building as an artefact, grounding the museum to its unique history and public memory.

The subdued reimaging of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum elevates its contents and sensitively mediates connection between visitors, exhibits and programs, and the immediate context. It renews its civic role in educating the public and influencing the milieu of contemporary Melbourne.

Practice team: Kerstin Thompson (Design Architect), Kelley Mackay (Director of Projects), Claire Humphreys (Principal Associate), Tobias Pond (Principal), Anne-Claire Deville (Project Lead), Martin Allen (Associate), Hilary Sleigh (Architect), Jasmine Placentino (Architect), Tamsin O’Reilly (Visualisation), Sophie Nicholaou (Architect), Karina Piper (Architect), Ben Pakulsky (Architect), Scott Diener (Architect), Lauren Garner (Architect), Paul Lau (Visualisation), Thomas Huntingford (Graduate of Architecture), Leonard Meister (Student of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: DPPS Projects (Project Manager), Adams Engineers (Civil & Structural Engineers), Cundall (Services Consultant), PLP (Building Surveyor), Hellier McFarland (Land Surveyor), Tract (Landscape Consultant), One Mile Grid (Traffic Consultant), Bryce Raworth Conservation (Heritage Consultant), Cundall (Acoustic Consultant), SJB Planning (Town Planner), Focused Fire (Fire Engineer), Napier Blakely (Quality Surveyor), Leigh Consulting (Waste Management), Inhabit (Façade Engineer), Before Compliance (DDA Consultant), Pop & Pac (Wayfinding/Signage Consultant), Thylacine (Exhibition Designer), Jolson Architecture & Interiors (Memorial Designer), M.I.P. Security (Security Consultants - Israel), Michelson Protech Security & CSG Security (Security Consultants)

Builder: McCorkell Constructions

Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Commendation for Public Architecture

Country: Wurundjeri

This project not only provides lasting amenity at the new civic-scaled Moreland Station and the contextually rich and engaging Coburg Station, but also resolves a clear and cohesive design language at each station which bookend two kilometers of linear park including generous public amenity, increased greening, recreation, walking and cycling paths by Tract.

Wood Marsh Architecture has taken a technically complex infrastructure project and delivered it with elegance, playfulness, and rigour.

Builder: John Holland Group

Photographer: Peter Clarke

Berengarra Aged Care by Lyons

Commendation for Public Architecture

Queenscliff Ferry Terminal by F2 Architecture

Country: Wurundjeri

On a restricted site, interconnected buildings and pocket gardens descale this institutional facility to the adjacent residential neighbourhood. A sense of comfort and practicality is expressed through design detailing and furniture selection. Balancing the clinical care demands with attention to domestic familiarity inside and out, this is compassionate and dignified architecture.

Builder: Icon

Photographer: Dianna Snape