RMIT architects excel at the Victorian Architecture Awards

The annual Victorian Architecture Awards is run by the Australian Institute of Architects and this year the awards combed through 223 individual project entries.

RMIT’s architecture community featured prominently across the 58 awards and 16 categories, receiving a number of key and prestigious awards.

RMIT’s Deputy Dean and discipline leader of Architecture and Urban Design, Professor Vivian Mitsogianni said the awards highlighted the “outstanding achievements of the university’s extended architecture community recognising their excellence and innovative work in the field of architecture.”

“We are very proud that projects by our continuing and industry staff, adjunct professors, graduates and students received this outstanding recognition from their peers.”

“This recognition acknowledges RMIT architecture’s very direct connection with industry.”

M@ STUDIO Architect’s work the 2016 NGV Architecture Commission: Haven’t you always wanted…? was awarded the AIA Melbourne Prize.

For the first time the Melbourne Prize was presented equally with John Wardle Architects and NADAAA’s Tanderrum Bridge.

Haven’t you always wanted…? came from a series of research initiatives by M@ STUDIO Architects, the research-led practice of RMIT’s Professor Vivian Mitsogianni and Dean Boothroyd, design tutor and NH design director, working with Professor Mark Jacques, Professor of Architecture Urbanism – Industry Fellow, Cameron Newnham, RMIT Associate Lecturer – Industry Fellow, Karla Martinez and RMIT Masters of Architecture alumni, Thomas Sheeham, Kerry Kounapis, Leona Dusanovic and Luke Tuckman.

The project was a built result of a series of two long standing research projects developed at RMIT.

The six month installation at the National Gallery of Victoria also won a Small Project Architecture Commendation.

Professor Mitsogianni said that RMIT’s wins at the Victorian Architecture Awards reflected the university’s impact on the profession as well as for shaping new possibilities for our cities.

“RMIT Architecture and Urban Design champions ideas-led, venturous design experimentation and exploration that aspires to contribute to the future of the discipline and an increasingly complex world.” she said.

In the Residential Architecture category, Baracco+Wright Architects were acknowledged for the Rose House.

Baracco+Wright Architects, comprised of Architecture Associate Professor Mauro Baracco and RMIT alumna Louise Wright, won the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award, which is the highest accolade in the Residential Architecture-Houses (New) Category.

The Rose House explored simple geometries and the connection between the interior and exterior by combining two residencies in one.

The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) by the STHDI and MCR consortium (Silver Thomas Hanley, DesignInc and McBride Charles Ryan) won this year’s highest honour: the coveted AIA Victorian Architectural Medal and the William Wardell Award for Public Architecture.

RMIT Architecture Adjunct Professor Robert McBride is the Director of MCR and the fourth RMIT Adjunct Professor in a row to lead prestigious Victorian Medal-winning projects.

Judges praised the design’s ability to draw world-renowned researchers and physicians to the centre and compete with other internationally recognised medical institutions.

Award highlights featuring RMIT architects also include the Regional Prize Award and Public Architecture Award won by Workshop Architecture; the Public Architecture Award won by Lyons Architects; and in Perth, the Commercial Architecture Award and Commendation in Interior Architecture was won by Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects.

Dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design and Founding Director of Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects, Professor Martyn Hook said RMIT placed an emphasis on “venturous ideas and innovative techniques” which fostered ambition that benefitted both staff and graduates.

Professor Mitsogianni added that RMIT Architecture valued the realisation of bringing experimentation into reality.

“We are interested in innovation, but we are also interested in how our brave and forward-looking experimentation can translate into real-world propositions.”

With this ideology coming second nature to staff and alumni, Professor Hook said he was proud of how RMIT architects embody this idea and carry it into the industry.

“The recognition at the awards shows how RMIT architecture is shaping a confident community of design leaders who have the ability to influence the future of design both locally and globally,” he said. 

See all the RMIT winners and their work here.

Story: Jennifer Park