The big winner at the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)’s Victorian Architecture Awards on 24 June were Cox Architects for their AAMI Park.

Cox Architects were awarded the Victorian Architecture Medal, the Melbourne Prize, the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture and the new William Wardell Award for Public Architecture.

“AAMI Park is a worthy winner of the 2011 Victorian Architecture Medal due to the convincing architectural integration of program complexity, cultural engagement, structural innovation and environmental performance,” said the jury, headed up by James Staughton.

NH Architecture took out the Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for Commercial Architecture for their Myer Bourke Street redevelopment, with its striking gold roof, harlequin façade and “raking atrium culminating in what must now be [Melbourne’s] premier contemporary retail space.”

The Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design and an award for Commercial Architecture went to John Wardle Architects for their 500 Bourke Street Podium redevelopment, described by the judges as “an example of a commercial tower re-engaging with the city.”

The Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award, the state’s top residential award, went to NMBW for Sorrento House – a “sensitive development of a sensitive coastal site.”

The Public Architecture Award and Marion Mahony Interior Architecture Award were taken out by Kerstin Thompson Architects for the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), described by the jury as “confident in its restraint.”

Other notable winners on the night include Elenberg Fraser’s A’Beckett Tower, which took out the Best Overend Award for Multiple Residential Architecture; Studio505’s Pixel building, awarded the Sustainable Architecture Award. Another award in the Sustainable category went to Hill Plains House by Wolveridge Architects.

Stay tuned next week as we bring you the winners of the NSW Architecture Awards.

Australian Institute of Architects
architecture.com.au