A crematorium in Kingaroy has taken out the top award at the Australian Institute of Architects’ annual Sunshine Coast Regional Architecture Awards.
Announcing this year’s winners, the 2011 Queensland Awards Jury Director Malcolm Middleton said the Kingaroy Crematorium by architectural practice JMA Architects Qld has received the 2011 Gabriel Poole Award for Building of the Year.
The Maleny Grove Live Life Village by architecture practice Riddel Architecture received the 2011 House of the Year.
Of the Kingaroy Crematorium, the jury said: “The architecture of death, farewell and contemplation is not often encountered in a new built form.”
Kingaroy Crematorium by JMA Architects Qld; photo by John Mainwaring
They jury added: “The Kingaroy Crematorium builds on the mature landscape in which it sits and is deliberately subservient to the cypress pines and eucalypts that establish a place of substance.
"The central space which caters for a wide range of service forms and size has a richness of material and a simplicity of detail that create a comfortable setting for the contemplative and socially important role that is conducted here.
"The project offers a feeling of support and engagement for a use that most members of the local community are likely to experience at some time.”
Twenty-four project entries from highly creative, tightly-budgeted school halls, to glamorous residential houses and multi-million dollar public buildings— located from Kingaroy to Sunshine Coast and Noosaville to Caloundra — were in the running for Regional Commendations — and qualification for the prestigious Queensland Architecture Awards in Brisbane on 24 June.
Maleny Grove Live Life Village, Riddel Architecture; photo Christopher Frederickson. House of the Year
House of the Year
Maleny Grove Live Life Village: Riddel Architecture
The jury commented:
“Overall site planning, orientation and built form is responsive to the rural town setting and the target market of retirees from larger properties by conveying spaciousness as well as a residential scale. Building forms are enhanced by well scaled, contemporary external treatments, materials and detailing.
"Clerestory roof treatments with scissor truss and raking ceilings admit light into the centre of each house allowing the spaces to present as generous single storey volumes.
"The selection of internal materials and sustainability principles evokes high quality whilst not being lavish. There is an overall feeling of comfortable community engagement for aging in place village residents.”
Of this year’s other Regional Commendation winners, the jury said:
Montessori International College Library and Double GLA: FutureSense
“This adventurous project uses building siting and forms that result in minimum disturbance to a heavily treed site already constrained by the existing buildings of an operating school campus. The buildings incorporate a purpose designed building system based upon a known need for buildings to be relocatable. Building orientation, form and roof design optimizes available solar penetration and promotes passive ventilation. The end product is a strongly expressed solution that has direct linkages to the ethos of the Montessori approach and creates a heightened awareness of place, function and materiality. When relocated the buildings will be capable of adaptation for new site conditions and will allow for formal responses to feedback from the post occupancy evaluation.”
Miller residence: Bud Brannigan Architects
“The building plan and form is cleverly zoned and climatically well reasoned. Household spaces have comfortable connections to exterior views and landscaping. Particular attention is given to the ‘zones’, aspect, privacy and optimization of views and the end result is a sophisticated series of spaces. The house feels light and well connected throughout and the employment and expression of structure assist with defining space and use. The selection and application of materials is well considered and understated, whilst offering an overlay of tactility and solid grounding.”
BER funded Montessori International College Library and Double GLA by FutureSense, photos by Phillip Jaffara
Marcus Beach House: Robinson Architects
“The future home for aging clients was the brief for this beach side residence. Single level access to all main living spaces with guest accommodation located on a lower level. The beach location is celebrated with multiple decks with flexible large scale openings to capture or control the breezes. Cantilevering upper floor elements combined with a bridge form breezeway threshold let the home float above the dunal vegetation and maximise the magnificent coastal views.”
Peregian Beach House: MODE DESIGN Corp. Pty Ltd
“The project design is deliberately stratified with teenage areas on the lower floor employing materials and treatments evoking simplicity as part of an overall slightly crude, beachhouse aesthetic in external presentation. The upper floor is a more highly finished parents area with larger volumes and expansive deck with good connectivity between internal and external spaces. Internal spaces are enhanced through the use of translucent sheeting and glazing affording light penetration and assisting passive cooling. The building has strong structural expression with exposed elements assisting to overcome a slightly exaggerated, lofty, entry space.”
Canopy House: PHORM Architecture + Design
“Hovering lightly above two pavilions, the floating canopy protecting the outdoor room creates the memorable space of this delightful house nestled amongst the trees. The internal spaces are almost subservient to this main living arena, with seamless transitions to both the kitchen and dining spaces, the entry landscape to the east and the tall open bushland to the west. The decision to utilise only external vertical circulation enhances the connection with the landscape and the autonomous sleeping places within a series of functional rooms, which are enclosed with robust materials, reminiscent of the classic beach shack. This project is a thoughtful investigation of a flexible living typology, which functions extremely well on all levels of programme, site sensitivity and climatic response.”
