AIA Awards Darling Downs

March 23rd, 2011

The Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)’s National Architecture Awards have highlighted some standout projects this year. We’ve been seeing some great work recognised in Central and North Queensland, with the Darling Downs region next to be recognised.

Taking out the top honour on Friday 18 March was Toowoomba’s Cobb & Co Museum by Project Services.

Winner of the William Hodgen Award for Building of the Year, the Cobb & Co Museum was commended by Queensland State Awards Jury Director Malcolm Middleton for the “carefully established relaxed but engaging spaces and places within this active complex.”

“Community outreach and engagement are embedded into the built form,” said Middleton, “as is the careful blend of historic reference and context acknowledgement that is developed for the site, which includes the neighbouring TAFE complex.”

Photography: Richard Stringer

4 other projects received a commendation, including the University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science by Architectus with S2F, praised by the jury for “[acknowledging] the architectural history that surrounds it and [building] further the sense of purpose that enables these teaching spaces to engage with the outside world.”

Photography: John Gollings

In another boost for UQ, the University’s Gatton Lecture Theatre 106 by Ceccato Hall + Associates Architects was recognised, described by the jury as “a sophisticated reworking of a degraded but well conceived original lecture space that skilfully presents the space as a welcoming and contemporary facility.”

Photography: Scott Burrows

The Toowoomba Hospital Birthing Suite by Project Services was commended for being a “politically sensitive and innovative project” that has “used design interaction as the vehicle to deliver a paradigm shift for birthing practice.”

Photography: G Weiss

The jury also praised Fulton Trotter Architects’ Our Lady of the Southern Cross College Library and Hall, “a unification project that delivers a new front door for a school that has emerged from parallel campuses” characterised by an “energetic use of colour” and “successful use of space by 2 formerly divergent streams.”