A beach house on a ridgeline above the Great Ocean Road in Victoria has clinched the country’s most prestigious residential architecture prize for a second year in a row for John Wardle Architects. Source: The Australian
The winners of the Australian Institute of Architects National Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House last night.
It is only the second time in the history of the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture that the same practice has taken the top award two years running.
John Wardle Architects won last year for the Shearers Quarters on North Bruny Island but John Wardle, the head of the 25-year-old Melbourne-based practice, said there was little to connect this year’s entry, the Fairhaven Beach House, with last year’s winner.
“Good projects are born out of many long conversations,” Wardle said. “These clients were demanding, entirely trusting and up for anything. The more we tried to be compelling, the more excited they became.”
The Fairhaven residence is like a piece of zinc-clad origami that winds around a protected courtyard, sheltering it from the harsh prevailing winds. In contrast to the green-grey of the zinc cladding, the interior is completely lined in timber, to form an enclosure for living that completely immerses its inhabitants.
The judges praised the project, saying it “reveals a masterful control of form and space, material and detail. It is responsive to site and client, beautifully functional and is richly sculptural as a series of spaces for occupation, rest and life.”
Despite the plaudits for the Fairhaven residence, public buildings well and truly dominated this year’s awards.
