Brian Patrick Keirnan Prize
For Students of Architecture

Award – Ryan Dingle | Framing Country

The jury was sensitive to the proposal which invites the viewer into a personal journey through a landscape of memory re-interpreting Sydney’s pre-colonial ecology.

Repurposing a disused railway tunnel underneath Hyde Park into an intense experiential passage, taking visitors from the city to the Botanic Garden, the project cleverly blurs the threshold between spectral urban ruins and picturesque nature. The abandoned infrastructure revives as a dense atmospheric pipeline fluctuating between bright outdoor space and dark confined tunnels resolving in a vision of uncanny beauty at times reminiscent of Andrei Tarkovsky’s imagery.

The monolithic architecture guides us through a series of sensorial settings following a tragic narrative of loss.
The minimal design interventions are sequenced in a collection of compelling vignettes somber yet oneiric in appearance conveying an atmosphere that encourages reveries and personal introspection.

As a transitable archive of topographical flashbacks -using architecture as scaphandre- the proposal ignites an exciting prospect embodying the spirit of the student awards: an intriguing excavation, an apneic dive into the unknown where “gravity intensifies, rounded edges become sharp, enclosing mass becomes cavernous with the sky being viewed through a stone frame”

Commendation – Lucy Sharman | Generation

‘Generation’ by Lucy Sharman boldly reimagines the approach to the pressing issues of an ageing population, a lack of affordable student accommodation and the social isolation which generally flows from existing design approaches. ‘Generation’ delivers an instructive response to these problems, breaking down imagined barriers between generations and delivering a design solution borne from a recognition of the commonality of experience of younger and ageing generations.

The reinvention of what to date has generally been a stagnant design outcome for aged housing, provides an exciting path to address social isolation and affordability of housing– generating improved social outcomes through a dynamic response to public and private space.

Commendation – Chloe Goldsmith and Callum Coombe | Tributary Park

Award – Carmelo Nastasi | Build Back Better; Urban Resilience for the Township of Lismore

Global warming is challenging our resilience. We can no longer ‘wait and see’, nor simply shift our settlements to places that won’t be impacted – ours is a continent of drought and flooding rains, leading to increases in bush fire and flooding. 

Architecture must play a role in creating capacity for our communities to respond to expanding natural disasters of increased intensity. Rather than aiming to design out the challenges presented by this new normal, we need to design them in – to work out how to live with greater fluctuation. 

Carmelo’s proposal, set in Lismore, offers a view into a new normal, where communities through the employment of better architectural systems can respond and adapt to flooding. His travel proposal, to learn from those who consistently respond to flood offers an opportunity to build confidence, approaching flooding more laterally, as a natural and regular occurrence to be designed for. 

As a jury we were excited by Carmelo’s passion for the challenge and his connection to the community through lived research. We look forward to seeing how grass roots community engagement and collaboration may better prepare our communities for change. 

Commendation – Hannah Hill-Wade and Tom Matthews | Retrofitting for Reinvention

‘Retrofitting for Reinvention’ by Hannah Hill-Wade and Tom Matthews seeks to investigate the role of technical heritage within our cities and align past stories of technical innovation and economic progress with present understandings of public space. In taking the derelict glebe island, conducting detailed research and sensitively inserting a platform to enable a new generation to interact and appreciate the historic relevance of this structure in the development of transport infrastructure in Sydney, Hannah and Tom have proposed a valuable response to many of the current unloved infrastructure elements that are within our cities and regional areas.

Commendation – Amanda Eessa | Catalytic River: A Cultural Construction

‘Catalytic River: A Cultural Construction’ by Amanda Eessa is a dialogue between the heritage and cultural memory of Parramatta within the new redevelopment of the city. The proposal takes the form of a masterplan, connecting existing historical elements, buildings, and civic spaces via a series of adaptive units that add to the social fabric of the city and seek to bring community to the forefront. A current and important conversation in shaping our public spaces and the power of small architectural interventions to generate engagement, ownership and give agency to communities.

Commendation – Marcela Dounis, Raphael Newell and Tom Rogers | The Commission on Sydney Improvement

‘The Commission On Sydney Improvement’ by Marcela Dounis, Tom Rogers and Raphael Newell is a nuanced reinvention of one of Sydney’s most beloved (and beleaguered) city-fringe environments. Oxford Street is transformed from impermeable transport corridor to lively, sinuous green spine. Meandering north and south between existing buildings, the spine creates a diverse range of landscape and civic environments, each with a specific character determined by solar access, topography and microclimate. The jury were impressed by the team’s sophisticated understanding of urban design across both macro and micro scales.