University of Tasmania’s Sam Hodgens took home The Graduate award at INDE.Awards this year. His winning entry addresses an area that is on everyone’s mind: the environment.

Winner of The Graduate 2023 (right) Sam Hodgens with Jan Henderson, INDE.Awards program director (left).
September 8th, 2023
The winner of The Graduate at the 2023 INDE.Awards has been named as Sam Hodgens from the University of Tasmania, Australia. With a diverse group of entrants from across the Indo-Pacific region and entries that addressed multiple issues that face the architecture community, the jury recognised Hodgen’s project as a stand out.
COLORBOND® is the partner of The Graduate category and has shown that supporting the next generation of architects helps to make a better future for design and for people. With sustainability at the heart of Hodgen’s winning entry, COLORBOND® is continuing its support for a better environment and also helping architecture students realise potential at the beginning of their professional journeys.
Related: Catch up on the highlights at the INDE.Awards Gala 2023

The 2023 INDE.Awards jury commented on Hodgens project, “Architecture undoing and redoing as a way forward. This research looks, questions and looks again before prompting better workings within the landscapes we share.”
Hodgen’s project is based on two overarching concepts that are extracted from the 18th International Architecture Exhibition: The Laboratory of the Future, the “DE” and “RE” concepts. The “DE” concepts signify efforts to undo, reverse and dismantle, while the “RE” concepts are an effort to recover something that is past or has been lost, to maintain the currency and relevance of something from an older time.

The project delves deep into the relationship between people and nature and focuses on collaborative knowledge production, ecological and interdisciplinary research, and pre-colonial understandings of agricultural practices.
The program seeks to deconstruct conventional educational structures by providing common spaces for inclusive and participatory learning that will explore more sustainable behaviours towards land use and critical responses to a post-climate world.

.
Congratulations to Sam Hodgens for his outstanding work and we will watch his architectural journey with great interest.

Missed the INDE.Awards gala or just want to relive the highlights? Simply follow this link and sit back and enjoy the only regional celebration of architecture and design excellence.
Scroll through the INDE.Awards Gala photo highlights here
INDESIGN is on instagram
Follow @indesignlive
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
In a tightly held heritage pocket of Woollahra, a reworked Neo-Georgian house reveals the power of restraint. Designed by Tobias Partners, this compact home demonstrates how a reduced material palette, thoughtful appliance selection and enduring craftsmanship can create a space designed for generations to come.
Sydney’s newest design concept store, HOW WE LIVE, explores the overlap between home and workplace – with a Surry Hills pop-up from Friday 28th November.
As 2026 gathers pace, Davenport Campbell Principal Neill Johanson argues that the people-place-process nexus in workplace design just won’t cut it any longer.
An event at Qtopia Sydney explored the past, present and future of Taylor Square, highlighting its role in LGBTQI+ community life.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
Founder of Enter Projects Asia, Patrick Keane shares the thinking behind his Best of the Best-winning airport interiors, where natural materials and sustainability drive design at scale.
Designed for two distinct contemporary planes, DuO Too and CoALL find common ground in their purposeful, considered articulations, profoundly rooted in the dynamics between humans and the spaces they interact with.