Australian Institute of Architects: The Latest Architecture and News

At this year’s International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Australian Institute of Architects will present Unsettling Queenstown. Tackling themes of decolonization, the exhibition is a multi-faceted and multi-sensory installation. Creative directors Anthony Coupe, Julian Worrall, Emily Paech, Ali Gumillya Baker, and Sarah Rhode have curated this exhibition as a response to the overarching theme of the Biennale – "The Laboratory of the Future." Moreover, Unsettling Queenstown will encourage audiences to imagine the future and its possibilities.

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Titled "Inbetween", the Australian pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale Di Venezia demonstrates architecture's "capacity to strengthen cultural connections and understanding between non-indigenous and first nations people". Curated by creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, with Jordyn Milliken, Aaron Puls, Elizabeth Grant, and Ash Parsons, the pavilion will be on physical and digital display at the Giardini from May 22nd until November 21st, 2021.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of the 2020 NSW Architecture Awards. Celebrating the best of the state's architecture across 13 different categories, a total of 41 awards and 32 commendations have been given this year. Held on the evening of Friday, July 3rd, the NSW Chapter live-streamed the awards presentation, allowing the public to freely join what is normally a members-only event.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced John Wardle as the winner of the 2020 Gold Medal. Wardle was recognized for his iterative design process and attention to craft, as well as his collaborations with artists and craftspeople. His firm's portfolio of work includes both national and international projects, as well as his contribution to the 16th International Biennale Architettura in Venice.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced it will no longer participate in the 2020 Venice Biennale. Last month, organizers postponed the event's opening until August in light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Australia’s exhibition, titled In Between, was to be curated by creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, and it aimed to explore connections between indigenous cultures across Australia and the South Pacific.

The Future Homes Project has announced a new residential design competition with a $500,000 prize pool. Organized by the Victorian government, the competition aims to produce better apartment designs that are sustainable and promote livability. The projects should demonstrate how great design can improve the quality of new homes and successfully integrate with existing neighborhoods.

The Australian Institute of Architects have awarded the 2019 Gold Medal to Santa Monica-based Australian expatriates Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg Architecture. As the Institute’s highest honour, the Gold Medal was awarded to acknowledge the firm's commitment to affordable housing, education and civic projects, and to tirelessly fighting to improve the situation of underprivileged communities.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of their 2018 International Chapter Awards. Recognizing projects from beyond Australia, but designed by members of the Australian Institute of Architects, the jury has honored six projects from a shortlist of 17.

The projects span commercial, interior, public, residential, and small architecture, with winners hailing from across Asia and the Pacific, including three in Singapore.

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The Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal recognizes exemplary work by architects who have designed buildings of high value and great distinction, resulting in the advancement of the architecture profession.

This year, Jury Chair Richard Kirk presented Australian practitioner and Emeritus professor Alec Tzannes with the ceremony’s highest honor.

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Following an open competition, the Australian Institute of Architects have announced "repair" as the theme of the Australian Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Baracco+Wright Architects, collaborating with artist Linda Tegg, will oversee the cultivation of "thousands of temperate grassland species" within the pavilion, alongside "large-scale architectural projections." According to the AIA, "visitors will enter a physical dialogue between architecture and endangered plant community, reminding us what is at stake when we occupy land."

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of its 2016 SA Architecture Awards, which honor projects undertaken by architects in South Australia that “[respond] to the challenges of today and needs of tomorrow.”

Winners have been sorted into 16 categories, such as Public Architecture, Commercial Architecture, and Sustainable Architecture.

The 2016 Winners of the SA Architecture Awards Are:

The Australian Institute of Architects’ International Chapter has announced the winners of its 2015 International Architecture Awards, which honors projects by Australian architects abroad.

Out of 26 entries, the jury, chaired by Grant Marani, awarded five projects, and commended four more in the interior, public, residential, and small project architecture categories.

Awarded projects are now also in the running for the 2015 Jørn Utzon Award for International Architecture, to be announced at the National Architecture Awards in November.

Read on for the full list of awards and commendations, after the break.

The 2015 Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards have been allocated by the Australian Institute of Architects in Melbourne. The prestigious awards honor emerging and seasoned architects, students, and academics whose interdisciplinary designs have excelled in embracing the possibilities of the profession. Granting 14 awards in 9 categories, the recipients’ work spans a wide range of subject matter and addresses various aspects of architecture’s inherent influences both locally and globally.

The highest award, the Gold Medal, was awarded to Peter Stutchbury, whose lifelong commitment to architecture has spanned education, professional practice, and involvement in organizations. His international work consistently speaks to its specific cultural and site conditions, while adhering to sustainable design principles.

See all the 2015 award winners, after the break.

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of the 2014 National Architecture Awards. A total of 43 awards and commendations were given to 36 projects across the 12 national categories. "Projects honored include a housing project with an emphasis on communal spaces, a mental health facility with a welcoming domestic feel, a primary school that provides a sanctuary for the culturally diverse local population and a pro bono surf club that celebrates the coastal features and protects an adjacent fairy penguin habitat." View them all, after the break.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the 61 projects making it to this year's 2014 Australian National Awards. Selected from a pool of 153 regional winners across 13 categories, the jury have visited all the shortlisted projects (except the international shortlist) in preparation for the announcement of the National winners at a ceremony in Darwin on November 6th.

Commenting on the shortlist, jury chair Paul Berkemeier said: "As a jury and as members of the profession, we were inspired by the number of projects that had informed clients working closely with the architects to achieve better outcomes. In many instances, this relationship allowed the project to go well and truly above and beyond the original brief."

Read on after the break for the full shortlist

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The Australian Institute of Architects' International Area Committee Jury has announced the recipients of its 2014 international awards, given to projects completed by Australian architects overseas. The biggest winners on the night were Denton Corker Marshall, who in addition to winning the Award for Public Architecture with their Stonehenge Visitor Centre also received commendations for public architecture and commercial architecture.

BVN Donovan Hill dominated in the field of interior architecture, scooping both the award and a commendation in the category. Kerry Hill Architects also achieved the same result in the residential category. Read on after the break for the full list of awards and commendations.

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The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the winners of its 2014 South Australia Awards. This year, the star of the show was the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) by Woods Bagot, which won a total of five awards: COLORBOND® Award for Steel Architecture, the Keith Neighbour Award for Commercial Architecture, the Robert Dickson Award for Interior Architecture, Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture, and the Derrick Kendrick Award for Sustainable Architecture.

The jury commended Woods Bagot's project, saying that it "operates as a catalyst on multiple levels – a catalyst for the urban regeneration of the precinct; a catalyst and new exemplar for the city; and a catalyst for the state, evidencing step change in attitudes to both design and research."

Read on after the break to see all the winners

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