Melbourne's AAMI Park by Cox Architecture won three of the top Australian Institute of Architects’ 2011 Victorian Architecture Awards on Friday.

The stadium was awarded the Victorian Architecture Medal, The Melbourne Prize and the William Wardell Award for Public Architecture (New). The project was also awarded the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture.

AAMI Park by Cox Architects. Image: Peter Glenane

In the award citation, Chair of the Victorian Architecture Medal Jury, James Staughton, wrote: “AAMI Park is a worthy winner of the 2011 Victorian Architectural Medal due to the convincing architectural integration of program complexity, cultural engagement, structural innovation and environmental performance.”

The Sir Osborn McCutcheon Award for Commercial Architecture went to NH Architecture for their redevelopment of Melbourne's iconic Myer Bourke Street building, of which it was said that with its sculpted gold roof, harlequin façade and “raking atrium culminating in what must now be our city’s premier contemporary retail space.”

Myer Bourke St Redevelopment by NH Architecture. Image: Dianna Snape

Also in Melbourne, John Wardle Architects has taken out the Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design and an award for Commercial Architecture for their 500 Bourke Street Podium redevelopment, “an example of a commercial tower re-engaging with the city”.

A beach house, the Sorrento House by NMBW, took out the state’s top residential award - the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award. The “sensitive development of a sensitive coastal site” emerged as winner from a strong field, including sophisticated city-based projects such as Robert Simeoni Architects’ Brighton House, de Campo Architects’ Williamstown House and Multiplicity’s evocatively titled “not in my backyard thank you very much”.

Houses given Residential Architecture (New) Awards were the “austere” Law Street House by Muir Mendes, “powerfully folded” Beached House by BKK and “warm and textured” Westernport House by Sally Draper Architects.

Law St House by Muir Mendes. Image: Peter Bennetts

Awards for Residential Houses (Alterations & Additions) went to the “playful, beautifully sculpted” Foyn-Johanson House by Harrison and White, the “effortless” Boston Villa by Nest Architects and the “detailed and refined” Gallery House by Denton Corker Marshall.

Elenberg Fraser’s A’Beckett Tower took out the Award for Multiple Residential Architecture for their “considerable understanding, skill and inventiveness within the constraints of a developer-driven, large-scale apartment building”.

The use of Colorbond steel on the impressive colour-rich façade, “making a residential slab block magnificent”, also led to the building receiving a Colorbond Architecture Award.

The colourful Pixel building by Studio505 took out the state’s top Sustainable Architecture award. A top rated sustainable commercial building, it employs anaerobic digestion, tracking solar arrays, wind turbines, fixed shading louvers, double-glazed window walls and solar panel shading to “surpass the sustainability measures of a series of sustainable rating tools, gaining 100 points for a 6 Star Green Star, a LEED Platinum rating and an outstanding BREEAM rating.”

The other winner in the Sustainable category was a modest country residence. Hill Plains House by Wolveridge Architects is “notable for its outward simplicity and subtle integration of sustainable initiatives to minimise the environmental impact.” It uses a mix of time-honoured passive solar principles and recycled materials and modern technology to “create an autonomous home with no grid electricity or water connections”.

As well as receiving a Public Architecture award, Kerstin Thompson Architects’ Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) took out the Marion Mahony Interior Architecture Award. The jury praised it as “confident in its restraint”.

Interior Category was a strong field this year, one that saw two new bars awarded, The Waiting Room by 1:1 Architects for its “refreshing opulence” and the “welcoming, surprising, rigorous and forthright” Newmarket Hotel by Six Degrees Architects.

The Venny, the City of Melbourne’s communal backyard for children in Kensington was shortlisted in the Small Project category and their “resourceful, robust and raw” River Studios designed by Breathe Architecture took out the top award with their low budget conversion of derelict warehouses into much-needed arts spaces.

The other Small Project award went to a joint venture between Antarctica, Monash Architecture Studio and VicUrban for Habitat 21 Adaptable House, which is an exploration of developing “a new suburban housing typology”.

Seventeen buildings competed for The Regional Prize, sponsored by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.

Marysville Rebuilding Advisory Centre by bamford-dash. Image: Peter Bennetts

Unusually, three regional prizes were awarded to: “the mythical Phoenix reborn from the ashes” Marysville Rebuilding Advisory Centre by bamford-dash, Gray Puksand’s “powerful contribution to the town's civic realm” in La Trobe University Shepparton, and Adam Dettrick’s The Heights Community Building in Traralgon which proves “that architecture for older citizens does not have to feel old”.