Sustainability was once considered a fringe issue in Australia’s design and building industry, yet the turnout and celebration of the 10th annual Sustainability Awards has shown that this is no longer the case, not by a long shot. The uncompromising efforts of Australia’s best architects, builders and designers to curb the environmental footprint of the nation’s construction sector were on show in mid October as many waited to see what would take out the top prizes.

The top award of the night, the Best of the Best, went to the sustainable 88 Angel Street residences (pictured above), a multi-residential project in Sydney’s inner west. Designed by Steele Associates Architects, the commendation continued a trend for the program set three years ago, by being the third multi-residential project to take out the Best of the Best in as many years.

“Never before has sustainable housing been more important to our cities as it is today,” said the jury, “We’re urbanising on an unprecedented scale and we need comfortable, playful, socially enriching and environmentally friendly housing options if we want to accommodate our population in a humane and sustainable manner.”

“88 Angel Street, in all of its meticulous commitment to best practice sustainable building and material procurement, is certainly one of those options, and we hope that this award will encourage many more inner city developments just like it.”

While 88 Angel Street took home the top award of the night, all winners celebrated environmentally sustainable design in many forms. ‘Comfortable’, ‘playful’, ‘socially enriching’ and ‘environmentally friendly’ were common themes across the winning projects and products for the ten year anniversary awards night.

To mark the historic decade anniversary of the Sustainability Awards, a Best Newcomer and Lifetime Achievement award were added to the program, which went to Alexander Symes of Alexander Symes Architect, and Professor Ken Maher, Hassell fellow and current President of the Australian Institute of Architects, respectively.

A total of 14 awards were handed out on the evening, the full list of which can be seen at the Sustainability Awards’ website.