An array of diverse and ingenious projects were rightly awarded at the 2022 edition of the New South Wales Student Architecture Awards, which seeks to showcase the efforts of Graduates, Undergraduates and students of Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees across the state.
UNSW’s Natalie Wing Sum Ho was a joint winner of the NSW Graduate Medal for her project, Stayin' Alive, which envisions a ‘free space’ on campus for creatives and community projects, which utilises a slab and tower to extend the public domain.
The other joint winners were Calum York, Hannah Clifton and Raphael Newell for their Policy Defining Dwelling and Domestic Formalities (pictured above), which set out novel housing parameters and identified a range of specific urban sites to develop higher sleeping density.
“Our NSW Student Architecture Awards play an important role in the growth of our profession,” says the AIA’s NSW Chapter President, Adam Haddow.
“The entries submitted and awarded are full of possibilities, they present propositions that can decolonise, re-rationalise, innovate and inspire our built environment.
“Over an extraordinary three years where much of learning was done remotely, we are encouraged by your resilience and purpose. I look forward to seeing the continued contributions from this cohort to our profession through thoughtful practice."
Michael Connolly was awarded the NSW Undergraduate Medal for The Motion Repository, a theatre built into the Glebe Island Peninsula and intersects aquamarine and performance, while Tyla Venish was handed the NSW Architectural Technologies Award for her project Revive 75, an alternative build-to-rent housing model.
Kevin Hwang’s Allegory of the Museum of Fiction (pictured above) project took home two awards, the NSW Architectural Communication Award and the Rafiq Azam Travel Bursary respectively. The submission features the journey of an architectural concept from its historical context, to its reinterpretation, to its architectural realisation, and ultimately to its abandonment and extinction. Gracie Grew’s High Watermark – An Evolving Landscape Legacy project was also awarded the Rafiq Azam Travel Bursary for her envisaging of a residential development in a challenged site.
Carmelo Nastasi’s project Build back better, which focuses on the rebuild of Lismore following the 2022 floods in the region, was awarded the Brian Patrick Keirnan Prize.
