Public Architecture Award
The Public Architecture Award recognises outstanding contributions to the built environment through the design of public spaces, civic buildings, and community infrastructure across the Sunshine State. This award celebrates projects that not only respond to Queensland’s unique climatic, cultural, and social context but also enrich the lives of its diverse communities.
From schools and libraries to cultural institutions and transport hubs, eligible projects demonstrate innovative and thoughtful design that enhances accessibility, fosters community engagement, and contributes to Queensland’s vibrant public realm. These designs often embrace the subtropical and tropical climates, prioritising sustainability, environmental responsiveness, and local materials while showcasing architectural excellence.
Projects in this category must be predominantly of a public or institutional nature generally falling within BCA Class 9. However, this category does not include projects falling within the definition of Educational Architecture or any BCA Class 9b used primarily for educational purposes.
Award Winners Throughout the Years
2024
The FDG Stanley Award for Public Architecture
Bradbury Park Playscape | Alcorn Middleton
Jury citation
The Bradbury Park Playscape is a groundbreaking project that transcends traditional playground norms, offering an original and abstract structure that inspires the imagination. The project intricately weaves narratives of Connection to Country into its styling, with materials and details evoking the surrounding flora and fauna.
Going beyond the client’s initial vision, the playscape’s custom design eschews typical playground fixtures and instead features self-shading elements and a notable commitment to integrating equitable use in its design of the underside of the Playscape, which enables inclusive access.
This project serves as an exemplary model for public playgrounds, highlighting the significance of creativity and inclusivity in outdoor recreational spaces.
Award for public Architecture
IPSWICH HOSPITAL MENTAL HEALTH ACUTE INPATIENT SERVICES | HASSELL
Jury citation
The Ipswich Hospital’s Acute Mental Health Inpatient Service raises the benchmark for health facilities, upholding a new model of mental health care through its holistic design. The facility fosters well-being by integrating the native landscape with the architecture to create a calm and dignified environment.
Inclusive co-design cultivates a sound strategy for culturally safe spaces that support well-being through deep connection with the natural environment.
Generous spaces orient inwardly towards views of verdant vertical planting in light-filled atriums, while patient well-being is further supported by a circadian lighting strategy.
The building blends comfortably into the community with its familiar material palette of brown brick and bronze anodized aluminium, offering privacy and comfort while promoting recovery and normalising mental health care.
2021
The F D G Stanley Award for Public Architecture
Rockhampton Museum of Art | Conrad Gargett, Clare Design (Lead Design Architects) and Brian Hooper Architect
Jury citation
The new Rockhampton Museum of Modern Art is a significant cultural project for the central Queensland region. Located in Rockhampton’s urban centre, the project establishes a new cultural hub for the city.
The museum plays an important role in the precinct, contributing amenity alongside a new pedestrian link that connects the city centre and the river’s edge. Elevation of the project’s internal program allows the ground plane to address the public realm with soft, active edges. The architectural language has been established through a genuine, site-specific response, setting up a direct dialogue with the city’s colonial history.
A palette of bronze cladding and locally sourced sandstone speaks to the fabric of the precinct while a colonnade of new columns provides a contemporary interpretation of the monumental portico that is championed by the adjoining Customs House.
The architects’ experience and proficiency with this type of building is evident in their execution of both the galleries and the associated back of house facilities; the performance and serviceability of the museum have clearly been central to their focus.
Thoughtfully conceived and highly refined, this project delivers an exceptional outcome for both the city and the State.
Award for public Architecture
QFES North Coast Regional Headquarters and Maryborough Fire and Rescue Station | Baber Studio Architects
Jury citation
QFES North Coast Regional Headquarters and Maryborough Fire and Rescue Station establishes a new benchmark for the design and construction of emergency service centres in Queensland.
Innovative renewable timber construction showcases a dynamic and sustainable approach to the heritage fire station. Efficient programming of the project’s operational facilities affords the inclusion of a generous public interface in the form of a public museum that welcomes the community to engage in dialogue with the station’s officers over a treasure chest of historical fire and rescue artefacts.
This project demonstrates the architect’s exceptional commitment and the pivotal role they have played within a broad alliance of stakeholders and specialist contributors.
National Partners
