The new State Library of Queensland has received the state’s architecture award at the 2007 Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Queensland Architecture Awards.
Peter Skinner, Queensland Awards jury chair and associate professor, said the building by Donovan Hill/Peddle Thorp was an “extraordinary project” that opened up the facility to a “new generation of users”. He says, “Cultural institutions, if not vigilant, can easily retreat behind institutional cultures. By imbedding thousands of settings for planned and spontaneous, personal and collective engagement with this building, this project can never be [anything] other than truly public architecture.”
Donovan Hill received four awards and two commendations across three of the 12 awards categories, also winning the residential award for individual houses and multi-residential architecture. Other winners include:
- Sustainable Architecture: SQIT Block B, Toowoomba by Project Services (Queensland Government)
- Art and Architecture: QUT Human Movement Pavilion by m3architecture and artist Dirk Yates
- Interior Architecture: MurphySchmidt Solicitors by Deicke Richards
- Small Project Architecture: QUT Human Movement Pavilion by m3architecture
- Heritage Architecture: MurphySchmidt Solicitors by Deicke Richards
- Commercial Architecture: Ferry Road Market by Cox Rayner Architects & Planners
- Multiple Housing: W4 Apartments by Donovan Hill
- Individual Houses: H House by Donovan Hill
- Steel Architecture: Riverway Arts Centre & Lagoon, Thuringowa, by Cox Rayner Architects & Planners
All 2007 architecture award recipients are now short-listed for the RAIA 2007 National Architecture Awards, which will be presented in Alice Springs on October 25, 2007.
