A husband and wife team creating sustainable buildings that reinforce sense of place, community and identity in increasingly pressured urban environments has been awarded Australia’s top national architecture prize — the Australian Institute of Architects 2010 Gold Medal for Architecture.
Presenting the honour at the inaugural Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards (AAAA) ceremony in Brisbane on 18 March 2010, Australian Institute of Architects National President Melinda Dodson said she was proud to announce that outstanding architects Kerry and Lindsay Clare have won the 2010 Gold Medal.
Kerry and Lindsay are the first husband and wife team to win the nation’s top architecture prize, with Kerry the second Australian female only in the Gold Medal’s 50 year history to receive the honour. (Fellow Queenslander Professor Brit Andresen was the first female architect to receive the Gold Medal in 2002.)
Architecturally, Kerry and Lindsay Clare are best known for the creation over the past 31 years of a large range of projects in Queensland (particularly the Sunshine Coast) and NSW (Sydney). Their most iconic project to date is the multiple award-winning Gallery of Modern Art (as directors of Architectus) in Brisbane’s cultural precinct.
As importantly, the couple is widely known for their sub-tropical, low impact, sustainable residential projects across regional Queensland. These houses are typically modest in size, elegant, lightweight structures bathed in natural light and cooled by natural ventilation. The Goetz House and Thrupp and Summers House in particular received national attention when designed in the mid-1980s, forging new ground for environmental design.
In awarding the prize, Dodson said the Gold Medal jury firmly believed Kerry and Lindsay “had made an enormous contribution to the advancement of architecture, and particularly sustainable architecture” during their careers, and were widely recognised for their “strongly held belief that good design and sustainable design were intrinsically linked”.
The jury citation noted: “Their great body of work demonstrates an appropriate environmental response, developing the concept of efficient low-energy, sustainable solutions decades before legislation made it mandatory.”
In its 50th year, and awarded annually since 1960, the Gold Medal is the architectural profession’s highest accolade and recognises distinguished service by architects who have designed or executed buildings of high merit, or who have produced works of distinction resulting in the advancement of architecture. Recent past recipients include high profile architects such as Richard Johnson, Kerry Hill, Glenn Murcutt, Jørn Utzon, Gregory Burgess, Keith Cottier, Brit Andresen and Peter Corrigan.
Examples of Kerry and Lindsay’s work include:
- QUEENSLAND: Goetz House, Buderim; Thrupp and Summers House, Nambour; Clare Residence, Buderim; Rainbow Shores, Surfside; Cotton Tree Pilot Housing; Hammond House, Cooran; Recreation Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast; Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane; Chancellery, University of the Sunshine Coast; Wesley House Commercial Office, Brisbane (Architectus with Fulton Trotter Architects - current).
- NSW: Sydney: Circular Quay Ferry Wharves refurbishment, Sydney; National Environment Centre, Thurgoona (Clare Design with NSW Govt Architect); No.1 Fire Station, Sydney (Clare Design with NSW Govt Architect); Architectus Office Interior, Sydney and the UNSW Student Housing.
The Clares will tour Australia over the coming six months to speak on their key projects, and issues facing the profession.
