The Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) have bestowed NSW’s Peter Stutchbury with its highest honour, the Gold Medal for Architecture, at the 2015 Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards.

Stutchbury’s contribution to the advancement of architecture through practice, teaching and participation in professional organisations was celebrated at the awards ceremony, held on March 19 at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).

The Gold Medal was presented by National President David Karotkin alongside eight other prizes including the Emerging Architect Prize, the National President’s Prize, the Student Prize for Advancement of Architecture, the BlueScope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize, the Leadership in Sustainability Prize, the William J Mitchell International Committee Prize, the Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize and the Dulux Study Tour Prize.

Two well known works from Peter Stutchbury Architecture are the Deepwater Woolshed (above) and the 2014 House of the Year, Invisible House. Photography by Michael Nicholson.

Stutchbury has joined an extensive list of Gold Medal winners which was first awarded to Leslie Wilkinson in 1960 and has since been awarded to over 50 architects including the likes of Robin Boyd (1969), Jorn Utzon (1973), Peter McIntyre (1990), Glenn Murcutt (1992) and Brit Anderson (2002).

Established in 1981, Peter Stutchbury Architecture have received 47 Institute awards in total, have won or been placed in approximately 20 national and international design competitions, and have been published in around 200 books and publications.

Stutchbury is best known for his residential architecture which is meticulously responsive to site and culturally specific and has seen him earn two AIA Robin Boyd Awards, the highest honour in Australian residential architecture,  as well as the 2014 House of the Year Award.

Then and Now: Israel House built in 1992 is merely kilometres from Peter Stutchbury Architecture’s latest offering at their home town of Avalon Beach, Tent House (2014). Photography by Michael Nicholson

"In 34 years of practice, Stutchbury has mastered the art of creating architecture that speaks of the place it inhabits – buildings that are environmentally sustainable, culturally specific and locally embedded,” said the jury.

Stutchbury is also a professor in architecture at the University of Newcastle, a founding director of the Architecture Foundation Australia and has taught at the foundation’s Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class since its inception in 2001.

The 2015 Australian Achievement in Architecture Awards:

Gold Medal

  • Peter Stutchbury, Peter Stutchbury Architecture (NSW)

Emerging Architect Prize   

  • Nic Brunsdon, Post- and Spacemarket (WA)

National President’s Prize

  • Ian Close and Sue Harris, Architecture Media (Vic)

Student Prize for Advancement of Architecture

  • Barnaby Hartford-Davis, RMIT (Vic)

BlueScope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize

  • Matthew Hyland, University of Tasmania (Qld)
  • Jin Chen Lee, University of NSW (NSW)

Leadership in Sustainability Prize

  • Professor Emeritus Allan Rodger LFRAIA (Vic)

William J Mitchell International Committee Prize

  • Louise Cox AO LFRAIA (NSW)

Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize

  • Professor Paul Memmott, University of Queensland (Qld)

Dulux Study Tour Prize

  • Bonnie Herring, Breathe Architecture (Vic)
  • Casey Bryant, Andrew Burns Architect (NSW)
  • John Ellway, James Russell Architect (Qld)
  • Monique Woodward, WOWOWA (Vic)
  • Nic Brunsdon, Post- and Spacemarket (WA)

 Stutchbury’s work is not strictly residential, as proven by his 2000 Sydney International Archery Centre building and the below Cessnock Hangar (2009). Photography by Michael Nicholson.

Peter Stutchbury’s two Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture winning projects, Springwater (2005) and Bay House (2003). Photography by Michael Nicholson.