Two student architects were declared joint winners of the BlueScope
Glenn Murcutt Student Prize at the recent 2015 Australian Achievement in Architecture
Awards in Melbourne. This is a first in the decade-long history of the
BlueScope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize.
The prestigious prize is awarded to work that demonstrates excellence in
response to place, technology and Australian culture. Jin Chen Lee and
Matthew Hyland jointly shared in the prestigious student award and split the
$8000 prize money.
The winners were chosen by a jury consisting of Glenn Murcutt and the
respective national presidents of the Australian Institute of Architects and
Student Organised Network for Architecture, David Karotkin and Peter
Nguyen. According to the jury, both submissions displayed depth of
understanding for place-making and achieved authenticity.
Matthew Hyland from the University of Tasmania submitted The Core and
the Courtyard, a realisable, well resolved and beautifully illustrated design
for an infill housing framework for the city of Launceston. The submission is a
speculative proposition that reinvestigates the city's relationship with
domestic settings with Hyland observing and mapping the urban inhabitation,
circulation patterns and network of corridors of a site within the city.
Jin Chen Lee from the University of New South Wales submitted an
aspirational design for the Avalon Surf Lifesaving/Community Club, with the building,
which appears to be carved out of the rock cliffs and the sand dune, designed
as a response to, and extension of, the landscape. Its shape is influenced by
the physical nature of the surrounding ancient geological formation, with the project
design also demonstrating a strong understanding of the materials that are
appropriate and available to the region.
Both winners were sponsored to attend the 2015 Australian Achievement in
Architecture awards ceremony, which is part of the Australian Institute of
Architect's Awards Program, and will also receive flights, accommodation and
tickets to the 2015 National Architecture Conference in Melbourne.
BlueScope marketing manager - Coated and Industrial Products, Gregory
Moffitt, said the company is proud to support the development of student
architects. Describing the winning project designs as inspired and impressive
that could be easily imagined as built solutions, he added that BlueScope was
proud to reward the young architects' creativity by sponsoring the prize.
The Australian Institute of Architect's highest honour, the Gold Medal,
was awarded to Peter Stutchbury, who is renowned for a prolific body of work where
steel is an intrinsic and prominent feature.
