Congratulations to architects ARM for winning the AIA 2016 Gold Medal. Stephen Ashton, Howard Raggatt and Ian McDougall have been at it for years, considered the enfant terribles of the Victorian architecture scene. Their work is fun and often controversial. Some of their most notable projects include the Melb Recital Centre, National Museum in Canberra, Hamer Hall and one of my favourites the Oscar Neimeyer inspired lift overrun block on top of the social housing building in Flemington Victoria, near the DCM cheese stick and tunnel. ARM have won the AIA Sir Zelman Cohen award for best building in the nation twice, most recently for stage 2 of the Shrine of Remembrance in Victoria.
One of our upcoming events for the AAA is a tour with Ian McDougall at the Shrine in August, tickets will go on sale closer to the time.
A quick caveat: the AAA I refer to here is the Australian Architecture Association, a not for profit architecture advocacy group. The Gold Medal was awarded by the AIA, the Australian Institute of Architects; our peak national members body representing architects to both the public in advocacy and the government in policy. Each year the AIA National Architecture Conference begins with the Australian Achievement in Architecture (AAA) Awards that was held last night. These two references to the AAA are not related. Also, I believe the photo is by John Gollings however I may be wrong.
Last night some other recipients included; Jeremy McLeod of Breathe Architecture for Leadership in Sustainability in relation to the Nightingale Developments. Amy Muir of Muir Architecture won the National Emerging Architect Prize joining previous Vic recipients Clare Cousins and Mel Bright of Make Architects. Peter Maddison and Grand Designs Australia won the National Presidents’s Prize and also Chris Gilbert of Archier was one of several to win a place on the Dulux international Study Tour Prize. Watch out for Chris as he may become a future recipient of the Emerging Architect Prize. Well done all around, more info available on Architecture AU including jury citations. Read about the 2015 Gold Medal winner here.
