’Modesty and good manners’ characterise the Canberra’s top project of 2012 at the AIA’s National Architecture Awards.

St Gregory’s Hall by Collins Caddaye Architects has been named recipient of the Canberra Medallion, the ACT’s most prestigious architecture prize, at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2012 Architecture Awards.

“This elegant and carefully crafted multi-purpose hall sits comfortably and confidently within the small grouping of the old Church and the primary classrooms at the north end of the school grounds,” said the jury.

“Internally, the planning is wonderfully simple and all parts of the spaces are finished with imagination and fine detail. It is a pleasing urban composition in all respects, demonstrating that modesty and good manners are no impediments to a successful and clear architectural statement.”

Potato Point House by Joanna Nelson Architect, a “delightful and unassuming coastal retreat” which “challenges conventional perceptions of what a house really is and can be”, took out the Malcolm Moir and Heather Sutherland Award.

The Award for Residential Architecture – Houses went to NMBW Architecture Studio for Aranda House, “an accomplished work of architecture” and a “memorable model of the individual house as a relaxed home.”

The Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing was awarded to Collins Caddaye Architects for Hampton Circuit Apartments & Townhouses, a “well-scaled fusion of housing types, compactly arranged on a tight site with a difficult geometry.”

Fender Katsalidis also took out an Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing for NewActon South, an integrated residential and commercial precinct on the western edge of Canberra City.

Fyshwick Markets, the restored open air market by Colin Stewart Architects received the John Andrews Award for Commercial Architecture.

The W Hayward Morris Award for Interior Architecture and the INLITE Light in Architecture Prize went to Cunningham Martyn Design for their refurbishment of the ground floor interior of the National Library of Australia.

The Education Prize went to Munns Sly Moore Architect for the “imaginatively designed and excellently constructed” Mother Teresa School.

BVN Architecture took out the Award for Small Project Architecture for the Survival at Sea Facility, The Waterfront HMAS Creswell.

“This project demonstrates skills in addressing many components of contemporary architecture – an imaginative resolution of sitting, planning and landscape, structural simplicity with a fair bit of style and confident but creative detailing in all its parts,” stated the jury.

BVN also took out the Award for Interior Architecture for Belconnen Police Station.

Australian Institute of Architecture
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