Award Winners, Commendations & Judges' Citations
Built Projects – City and Regional Scale
AWARD
Level Crossing Removal Project by LXRA
Land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, Land of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation - VIC
One of the big challenges in Australian cities is finding ways to retrofit our existing suburbs to improve their public realm and public transport access. The Level Crossing Removal Project has been able to achieve this, delivering a level of investment and design quality not seen in these suburbs since they were first laid out. Beginning in 2015, this project has removed 66 crossings and rebuilt 34 train stations across Melbourne in localised acts of urban repair that also have a metropolitan-wide impact in improving the train frequency and speed. Across the network different design teams rebuilt train stations responding to their local context, with stand out examples such as Carrum Station benefiting from community input on their design. Elevated rail has given opportunities for new linear parks, from Carnegie to Hughesdale, Clayton to Noble Park, and Brunswick to Coburg providing much needed bike paths, informal sports and play equipment, while stitching together formerly divided suburbs.
COMMENDATION
Putney Hill Master Plan and Residential Development by COX Architecture
Land of the Wallumedegal people of the Eora Nation - NSW
A result of a design competition, Putney Hill is a new residential neighbourhood, home to over 1000 people within a parkland setting. On the site of a former hospital, the masterplan privileges the landscape experience with a green network of parks and streets winding through the sloping site, prioritising the retention of trees and relocation of established figs and palms, and programmed with running tracks, playgrounds and community gardens. A range of well-mannered apartments, townhouses and houses are positioned to respond to the park setting and scale of the neighbouring suburbs, while supporting housing diversity.
COMMENDATION
Byron Bay Transport Interchange by DesignInc for Transport for NSW
Bundjalung Nation - NSW
Byron Bay Transport Interchange provides a dignified, layered and locally specific design response, elevating the experience of taking the bus while connecting the east and west of the town. As part of Transport for NSW’s ‘Transport Access Program’, this interchange goes beyond just providing safe, equitable, accessible and welcoming transport infrastructure, by weaving cultural, landscape and historic narratives of the site through the design. Engagement with Bundjalung traditional owners and artists informed the landscape and architectural design, celebrating Aboriginal connections to place.
Built Projects – Local and Neighbourhood Scale
AWARD
Bendigo Kangan Tafe Redevelopment by SBLA, Six Degrees and Architectus
Dja Dja Wurrung Country - VIC
Bendigo Kangan Tafe Redevelopment project is a careful act of urban surgery at the scale of a city block. With a creative repurposing of the budget available for one large extension, the design team were able to add two new buildings and refurbish three more, framing a series of well-programmed outdoor spaces. New buildings, using simple and robust materials respond to their heritage context and frame ground floor activity to create an exceptionally welcoming, inclusive and conducive learning environment for students, visitors and staff. Waa and Bujil, the crow and the eagle, from Dja Dja Wurrung cultural and belief systems are represented in the facades of the buildings and through artwork by Indigenous artist Mandy Nicholson, while the landscape represents ‘upside down Country’, privileging endemic plant species. Heritage brick buildings, local plants and stone create a uniquely harmonious and sensory visitor experience. The design collaboration and engagement was extensive and meaningful, evidenced in the quality of the built environment.
COMMENDATION
Beenleigh Streetscape Upgrades and Town Square Shade solution by Logan City Council, Innovative Rigging, Lat Studios, DotDash, BG-E AND Webb Consulting
The Yugambeh Nation - QLD
The Beenleigh Streetscape Upgrades and Town Square Shade solution project is a highly visible ‘town square’ project, creating a new civic heart for the local community. Artistic shade structures feature as visual markers and welcome locals and visitors to stay, mingle and socialise. The project is contextual, impactful and is seen as a catalyst for future projects to transform the urban environment to meet the needs and uses of the diverse Beenleigh community.
Leadership, Advocacy and Research – City and Regional Scale
AWARD
Delivering Best Practice Urban Design Through Planning by ACT Government, Hodyl & Co, Andy Fergus, Adams Urban, OCULUS and Creative Environment Enterprises
Land of the Ngunnawal, Ngambri & Ngarigu Peoples - ACT
This thoughtfully conceived and rigorously researched guide to Delivering Best Practice Urban Design delivers a robust design governance framework tailored to the ACT context and provides measures that both identifies the benefits of good design and supports the quality of future urban development. The project research was delivered in three stages: first defining what is good design in a Canberra context and providing select case studies; second working within the Territory Plan and policy framework to identify performance standards, measures and engagement practices that better regulate high-quality design outcomes; and thirdly developing a set of urban protocols integrated with the Territory Plan and supported by a suite of contemporary guidance tools focused on urban priorities. The design team have successfully delivered an exemplary research project; one that sets a new benchmark in design and delivery guidance; and reinstates Canberra as a leading voice in urban design policy.
AWARD
Green Track for Parramatta Light Rail by Transport for NSW with Urban Planning and Management, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University
Darug people - NSW
This innovative ‘Green Track’ project is an in-depth study into the viability and potential benefits of applying urban greening between and along light rail tracks in Western Sydney. While the place and sustainability benefits of urban greening enabled by green track were already established, the essence of this project was to understand whether it would be viable in the hotter climate of Western Sydney and what would be required to sustain the Green Track into the future. The Western Sydney University study demonstrated through exemplary process and thought leadership, that with the right understanding of site, climate, and sustainable design that Parramatta Light Rail could confidently invest in the installation of more than 1.3 kilometres of green track. The Green Track project has set a new precedent when it comes to determining the viability of urban greening projects and successfully demonstrated that with due diligence in design, larger scale pieces of climate sensitive infrastructure could be delivered with confidence.
COMMENDATION
Your Climate Smart Living Guidelines by Moreton Bay Regional Council
Land of the Jinibarra, Kabi Kabi and Turrbal peoples, Jinibarra Country, Kabi Kabi County and Yuggera Country - QLD
Your Climate Smart Living Guidelines successfully takes a socially and environmentally responsive approach to the challenge of how to get better housing and urban design outcomes for communities living in the Moreton Bay Region. For the project team, the answer lay with a more informed consumer, and after extensive community engagement led by Moreton Bay Regional Council, set about creating a simple, highly graphic guidance document with the aim to educate about the benefits of designing, renovating, or buying a well-designed home that suits the local climate. The result is an exemplary piece of strategic urban design communication that innovates through simplicity, an approach to accessibility and design literacy that aims to connect with community and maximise social impact.
Leadership, Advocacy and Research – Local and Neighbourhood Scale
AWARD
Campsie Town Centre Masterplan by City of Canterbury Bankstown Council
Darug and Eora peoples - NSW
The Campsie Town Centre Masterplan is an ambitious vision to transform Campsie from a single high street with post-war housing to a thriving cultural, living and health hub on the banks of the Cook River. A major driver for this transformation is the conversion of Campsie station to a metro station, enabling a careful rethinking of the density to leverage this improvement in accessibility. The project demonstrated authentic multi-layered engagement using a range of engagement tools including charettes, visualisations and inclusion of information in many languages. The development of different height and density profiles across the masterplan region responds to the engagement responses, proximity to the metro station and suitability of sites for redevelopment. Then utilising a well-defined set of principles which include local character and context, it provides for a finer grain of mixed use development than is normally seen in typical neighbourhood planning approaches. Inclusion of green infrastructure and a focus on sustainability demonstrate urban design leadership.
COMMENDATION
River Precinct Design Project by REALM Studio
Wadandi people - WA
The River Precinct Design Project in Margaret River is a community-driven masterplan to reimagine and connect a park, a historic settlement within a high amenity landscape setting. A new pedestrian bridge transforms access between the town centre and the river precinct with a design that balances access requirements and heritage. It demonstrates leadership through its synthesis of references from traditional owners, community and stakeholders. A multidisciplinary design team has considered the environment and context of the river with inclusion of WSUD features to improve river health.