Winners of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)’s 2011 Central Queensland Regional Architecture Awards have been announced, with Parkhurst State School by Arkhefield picking up the coveted J W Wilson Building of the Year Award.

Arkhefield re-imagined the previously low-key primary school with a simple but dramatic use of form and colour.

“The covered veranda reinterprets the climactically successful forms of the tropical north and carries this concept through to the enhanced internal spaces of the auditorium and resource centre,” said Queensland State Awards Jury Director Malcolm Middleton.

“Material selections are confident and simple and are enhanced by opposing skillion roof forms that come together to reinforce the entry points of the project.”

Parkhurst State School was completed under the Federal Government’s $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution (BER) program, which aimed to modernise schools and, in doing so, support local jobs and encourage investment.

Out of 12 projects competing for honours at the Central Queensland Regional Architecture Awards, 5 were awarded regional commendations.

Solis by Renato D’Ettorre Architects won House of the Year, recognised by the jury for being a “modernist highly crafted living environment with inbuilt climactic flexibility and a slowly unfolding richness of space, place material and detail.”

dm2architecture was commended for its Heron Island Research Centre, a rebuild and expansion of a cluster of amenities that had been completed just 4 years earlier and destroyed by fire.

Rockhampton School of Arts received a mention for Riddel Architecture’s careful stabilisation and adaptation of an existing space on the verge of potential destruction.

Thomson Adsett + Studio 39 got a nod for their Yaamba Road Pedestrian Overpass, described by the jury as a project demonstrating the importance of “early project involvement of architects allowing the form and urban integration of a traditionally engineering led structure to evolve into a piece of resolved built form,” resulting in a visually appealing experience for both pedestrians and highway users.

The next instalment in the AIA’s National Architecture Awards 2011 will be the winners for the Darling Downs region, and competition is looking fierce.

Stay tuned to Indesignlive for the announcement.

Australian Institute of Architects
architecture.com.au