The National Portrait gallery in Canberra by Johnson Pilton Walker took out the top Award at the 2009 AIA ACT Chapter Architecture Awards on Sunday.

The building, situated near the High Court and National Gallery, took out a trio of awards with the 2009 Canberra Medallion, the Romaldo Giurgola Award for Public Architecture and the Light in Architecture Prize.

In presenting the awards Bronwen Jones, Jury Chair, praised the design for its “great strength and modesty”, describing it as an “outstanding work of architectural excellence”.

“The building is at once substantial in its overall presence and personal, sometimes even intimate, in the way it engages with the visitor or the passer-by,” Jones said.

“Just as for the portraits it displays, the architecture noticeably draws from human scale and proportion in all of its parts.”

The awards also recongised Bates Smart, who received the John’s Andrews Award for Commercial Architecture for the NSW Government Service Centre in Queanbeyan.

While the Malcolm Moir and Heather Sutherland Award for Residential Architecture – Houses went to the Forrest Residence by Collins Caddaye Architects.

See the full list of winners here.

Hero image: Brett Boardman

architecture.com.au/act