Taking out top honours at the 2011 SA Architecture Awards were Tridente Architects for their Caritas College Junior School External Covered Area in Port Augusta.

The jury, headed by Danielle O’Dea, described the project as “a remarkable blend of the pragmatic and the poetic, meeting a practical need but also creating a new identity for the school and a striking new landmark for the town.”

“By day the shelter’s scale and form, coupled with a sophisticated play of colour, light and shadow, give it a powerful presence and a peculiarly appropriate sense of place in the vast landscape of the lower Flinders Ranges.

“At night, imaginative lighting invests it with luminous, ethereal qualities. Within the campus, its sheer size and arresting contemporary form establish it as the physical focus of the school, although careful attention has also been paid to integration with existing buildings.”

Tridente Architects also received a Public Architecture Award for the Sacred Heart College Marcellin Learning Centre, described by the jury as “a compelling example of value adding through design excellence.”

“In response to an unremarkable brief for 12 conventional classrooms, a tight budget, and a cramped site on a busy arterial road, the Architects have delivered a remarkable building.”

A Public Architecture Award also went to HASSELL & Cox for their Adelaide Oval Western Grandstand Development.

“Re-imagining an Adelaide icon for the 21st century is no mean task and the Architects deserve full credit for their skilful resolution of the many technical, aesthetic and cultural demands of the brief,” said the jury.

BB Architects received the John S Chappell Award for Residential Architecture, Houses, for 16R – a single-bedroom addition to a State Heritage-listed cottage.

The jury described the project as a “sort of experiment of ideas on how to integrate new architecture into an old setting.”

Winners of the 2011 Tasmanian Architecture Awards will be announced on Saturday 18 June – stay tuned to Indesignlive for the report.

Australian Institute of Architects
architecture.com.au