The Victorian Architecture Awards are granted annually by the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects. [1] They began with the Street Architecture Medal, awarded between 1929 and 1942. Apart from a single award in 1954, annual awards did not resume until 1964, backdated by one year. [2]
To mark the 75th Victorian Architecture Awards in 2003, the Institute published Judging Architecture – Issues, Divisions, Triumphs, which lists all awards since 1929. [2]
The most prestigious award has been variously called the Medal, the Bronze Medal, or Merit Award, but since but since 1987 it has been called the Victorian Architecture Medal.
The numbers and categories of awards has expanded and changed over the years. Since the 1990s, some categories have been named after significant architects or firms who have practiced in Victoria. [3]
In 2024 the AIA Victoria Chapter received the largest total entries of all Australian States and Territories chapters with 228 submissions across 15 categories for judging. At the awards held on Friday 7 June, 2024 a total of 15 named awards, 24 architecture awards and 22 commendations were presented. [5]
140 William Street is a 41-storey 152m tall steel, concrete and glass building located in the western end of the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Constructed between 1969 and 1972, BHP House was designed by the architectural practice Yuncken Freeman alongside engineers Irwinconsult, with heavy influence of contemporary skyscrapers in Chicago, Illinois. The local architects sought technical advice from Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, of renowned American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, spending ten weeks at its Chicago office in 1968. At the time, BHP House was known to be the tallest steel-framed building and the first office building in Australia to use a “total energy concept” – the generation of its own electricity using BHP natural gas. The name BHP House came from the building being the national headquarters of BHP. BHP House has been included in the Victorian Heritage Register for significance to the State of Victoria for following three reasons:
Edmond and Corrigan is an Australian architectural firm based in Melbourne, Victoria, founded in the late 1970s by partners Maggie Edmond and Peter Corrigan, the firm's principals. The practice's work, both built and written, has been widely associated with the emergence of architectural postmodernism in Australia, an interest in suburbia and a search for an Australian architectural identity. Peter Corrigan taught design studios at RMIT University for over 30 years, until his death in December 2016.
Peter Russell Corrigan was an Australian architect and was involved in the completion of works in stage and set design.
John Wardle is a Melbourne-based architect. He graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a degree in Architecture.
Peter McIntyre is a Melbourne based Australian architect and educator.
Margaret Leonie Edmond is an Australian architect.
Wood Marsh Architecture, styled Wood | Marsh Architecture, is a Melbourne-based Australian architectural practice founded by Roger Wood and Randal Marsh in 1983.
Koning Eizenberg Architecture (KEA) is an architecture firm located in Santa Monica, California established in 1981. The firm is recognized for a range of project types including: adaptive reuse of historic buildings, educational facilities, community places, and housing. Principals Hank Koning, Julie Eizenberg, Brian Lane, and Nathan Bishop work collaboratively with developers, cities and not-for-profit clients. Their work has been published extensively both in the US and abroad, and has earned over 200 awards for design, sustainability and historic preservation.
Dimity Reed is an architect, urbanist and academic. She has been involved in government advisory roles, as well as writing for both The Sun and The Age newspapers.
The Melbourne Prize is an Australian architectural award. It is awarded annually at the Victorian Architecture Awards by a jury appointed by the Victoria Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects to architectural projects that have made a significant contribution to the public life of Melbourne, Australia. It was first awarded in 1997 to Six Degrees Architects for the small bar Meyers Place.
The Victorian Architecture Medal is the highest honour awarded annually by the Victoria Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and has been awarded 38 consecutive times since 1987. The Medal was originally known as the ‘Street Architecture Medal’ introduced by the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (RVIA) in 1929 as an award for the design of a building of exceptional merit. Buildings were judged on their "urban propriety and architectural etiquette; the building had to front a street, road, square or court" and with a requirement of being publicly accessible, thereby excluding residential and private commissions.
Clare Cousins is an Australian architect, interior designer, and director of Melbourne-based Clare Cousins Architects, established in 2005. Cousins served as the national president of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). She was awarded the Chapter Presidential Medal by the Institute for her advocacy to protect Anzac Hall. She has also received the Presidential Medal of the American Institute of Architects.
The National Award for Enduring Architecture is an Australian architecture prize presented annually by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) since 2003. The award recognises long lasting, innovative and culturally significant Australian architecture with usually more than 25 years passed since the completion of construction.
The New South Wales Enduring Architecture Award is an architecture award presented annually by the New South Wales Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) since 2003. The average age of awarded projects is around 45.4 years.
The Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award is an architecture prize presented annually since 2003 at the Victorian Architecture Awards by the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). The award is presented to recognise long lasting, authentic and enduring architecture with usually more than 25 years since the completion of construction.
The Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture is a national architecture award presented annually by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) since 1981. The named award is given to the work adjudicated to be the most significant for the advancement of public architecture in that year. Alongside the Named Award, National Awards and National Commendations are also given by the jury.
The Tasmania Award for Enduring Architecture is an architecture prize presented annually by the Tasmania Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) since the inaugural award was presented in 2010. The award recognises significant, long lasting and innovative architecture with usually more than 25 years passed since the completion of construction.
The Northern Territory Enduring Architecture Award is an architecture prize presented annually by the Northern Territory Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) since the inaugural award in 2013. The award recognises significant, long lasting and innovative architecture with usually more than 25 years passed since the completion of construction.
The Australian Institute of Architects coordinates and promotes annual awards, prizes and honours at both a national level and at a State and Territory level. Awards generally recognise buildings and projects, whilst prizes recognise individual and group achievement in advocacy, innovation, social, community, education and environmental fields. Honours recognise individual achievements in all areas of architecture.
The William Wardell Award for Public Architecture is the highest honour awarded annually for public buildings and presented by the Victoria Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) at the Victorian Architecture Awards. It has been awarded 28 consecutive times from 1997 to 2024.