Bill Krotiris

2022 Victorian Architecture Awards

Foreword by Bill Krotiris FRAIA Victorian Chapter President

Our Exhibition of Entries was hosted in the atrium of Melbourne School of Design. This formed part of Melbourne Design Week, providing a wonderful opportunity for broader industry and public engagement. We extend our thanks to all involved for making this exhibition possible.

For the first time, this year we invited nominations from members and the public for the Enduring Architecture Award. Given to buildings in excess of 25 years of age, the award recognises achievement for outstanding merit for buildings which remain important as highquality works of architecture in a contemporary context. We thank Professor Philip Goad from the University of Melbourne and Heritage Council of Victoria for lending his expertise to the Awards committee in their deliberations this year. This year’s awards included 14 categories, 207 entries and 125 shortlisted projects competing for commendations, architecture awards and named awards. Victorian Architecture Medal

The Victorian Architecture Medal is awarded to Grampians Peaks Trail Stage 2 by Noxon Giffen Architects with McGregor Coxall. This is a truly restrained yet remarkable project. Its absolute immersion within an environment of significant terrain required an exquisite and sensitive design response and approach to the challenge.

“The project demonstrates an extraordinary level of sensitivity, commitment and collaboration between the client group, the design team, contractors, and the local Indigenous communities” (Jury citation). Emerging Architect Prize This year’s judging of the Emerging Architect Prize was indeed a formidable task. I was joined by Jacqui Alexander, Ben Sheridan and Hayden Federico on the judging panel. The talented nominations highlighted a significant breadth of work across our state, demonstrating contribution to architectural practice, education, design excellence and community involvement, which advances the profession’s role within the public arena. This year’s winner is Daniel Moore RAIA.

“The jury notes Daniel’s commitment to engaging with the wider community in critical issues confronting the built environment, not only through his media projects, but also through his architectural work at Open Creative Studio, where he has introduced a number of contractual innovations to incentivise high performance, biophilic and environmentally responsible design” (Jury citation). We wish Daniel all the best with his continued contribution to our industry and hope he remains as actively involved with the Institute. Gold Medal 2022 This year’s Gold Medal is awarded to Sean Godsell FRAIA. The Gold Medal is the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour. It recognises distinguished service by architects who have designed or executed buildings of high merit, produced work of great distinction resulting in the advancement of architecture, or endowed the profession of architecture in a distinguished manner. We congratulate Sean for this significant achievement. His relentless pursuit of design excellence and rigorous craftmanship, applications in the varying scale of his work is recognised nationally and internationally by his peers. “Godsell’s work has contributed significantly by expressing, on a global stage, an architectural response to Australia’s unique territorial landscape” (Jury citation). Acknowledgment of sponsors, juries and the Institute and our members We thank all our member entrants for their participation and contribution to the 2022 awards. Your continued enthusiasm for this event continues to promote our profession through completed built outcomes for our environment. Our awards program would not be possible without the generous sponsorship of our partners and supporters. We thank the collective of all sponsors for their generous support and look forward to their continuing involvement with this event.

Once again Rosemary Burne has undertaken the role of Chair of juries, providing strong guidance to all juries. Her continuity in this role is applauded. I congratulate Ingrid Bakker (Committee chair) for her tireless and ongoing commitment to the awards program, a longstanding contribution and truly appreciated by all at the Institute. Thank you to all the jurors including our graduate jurors and jury chairs for their deliberations and for their generosity in visiting all the shortlisted projects this year. In addition, thank you to Mel Bright, Matt Gibson, Simon Knott, Ann Lau who have all worked tirelessly on the Awards committee to make this event happen. The Institute staff have also engaged and provided all the necessary support to all the volunteers for this event. Thank you to Tim Leslie FRAIA, Victorian State Manager, Sanja Novakovic, Dylan Borg, Elisa Persico, Justine McMahon, Emma Adams, Mai Huynh and Abbey Czudek. Institute advocacy I am pleased to advise that the great work by the Victorian Chapter for the production of the Code of Novation over the last three years. This important piece by the Institute has been submitted to government as part of our ongoing submissions responding to building reform proposals. This has now been published nationally and we look forward to its greater traction within our broader industry. We have continued to engage with the Victorian Government on many advocacy issues this year. The outcomes of our submission and continued advocacy for Victoria’s Framework for Reform (FFR) stage 1 have been delayed due to the election year and we hope to engage with the FFR panel following our state election. As you may well be aware, the government’s decision to cut the funding of the Office of the Victorian Government Architect has come as a shock to the Institute. We have issued a media release advocating publicly on the ABC and have submitted a formal submission to government to reverse this decision. We will keep you informed as this matter transpires. This year we represented our membership at a formal parliamentary enquiry to improve the apartment design standards. This request by government was part of our submission that highlighted many areas for improvement. I was joined by Sarah Buckeridge and Jammes Legge in presenting to parliamentarians on this important issue. What followed was a full day of visiting apartments with the same parliamentarians, this proved to be a highly educational exercise that demonstrated the value of our Institute in advocating on behalf of our profession. On a personal note, I will be relinquishing my role as President of the Victorian Chapter of the Institute as I continue to undertake further involvement with the Institute at a national level. Following the Institute’s recent AGM, I am now sitting on the Institute Board as National President Elect for 2022-23. This is indeed a great honour, and I will strive to continue our advocacy work at a national level and loop back into the efforts by all volunteers and staff at the Victorian Chapter.