MONA architects Fender Katsalidis win prestigious Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture

Tasmania’s extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art (pictured below) has won the prized Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture 2012.

Melbourne architects Fender Katsalidis received the honour at the Australian Institute of Architects 2012 National Awards.

It is the first time in the award’s 31-year history that a Tasmanian building won the coveted title.

The jury, which comprised of immediate past president Brian Zulaikha, Kerry Hill, Richard Johnson, Amy Muir and Juliana Engberg, found MONA to be a powerful and entertaining experience for displaying and engaging with art within a steel container that is already weathering inexorably into the landscape – creating one of the best examples in the country of the benefits of cultural tourism.

The Robyn Boyd Award for Residential Architecture Houses went to John Wardle Architect’s for the Shearer’s Quarters on Tasmania’s Bruny Island (pictured above and below). The building houses travelling shearers and rural workers in the region.

Zulaikha, who chaired the jury, says winning projects embody best practice principles, showcase sustainable solutions and become part of Australia's architectural history.

“We travelled the suburbs of Fremantle, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart and Brisbane, where architects had found a link to their own ideas and created meaningful contributions to the broader community. With poetics of space and materials the winners have enriched our communities, and skillfully advocated for the quality of our profession and our professionalism,” Zulaikha says.

The awards, which were held in Perth’s historic Midland Railway Workshops, are the nation’s most prestigious awards in the design and construction industry.

The Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture was picked up by archiectus + ingenhoven architects for 1 Blight Street, Sydney (pictured above), while the late, great Harry Seidler won the National Enduring Architecture Award for Australia Square in Sydney.

Another Sydney legend – The Swifts at Darling Point (pictured above)– claimed the Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage for Clive Lucas Stapleton & Partners’ restoration of the 56-room Victorian Gothic mansion.

Other winners include:

The Fredrick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing went to BVN Architecture for
 Monash University Student Housing.

PTW Architects for the John Kaldor Family Gallery at the Art Gallery of NSW collected the Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture.

The Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design was awarded to Peter Elliott Architecture + Urban Design for the University Lawn Precinct RMIT University.

The Jørn Utzon Award for International Architecture went to FMJT + Archimedia for the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

The COLORBOND Award for Steel Architecture went to Allen Jack + Cottier Architects for Milson Island Sports Stadium.