Joint winners:
Matthew Hyland, University of Tasmania
Jin Chen Lee, University of New South Wales
Jury citation
Matthew Hyland, University of Tasmania.
Jin Chen Lee, University of New South Wales.
For the first time, the jury has chosen joint winners for the 2015 BlueScope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize. Matthew Hyland from the University of Tasmania and Jin Chen Lee from the University of New South Wales share the prize – each will receive a winner’s certificate plus an equal share of the prize money.
The two projects responded to two very different conditions, yet both displayed depth of understanding for placemaking and each achieved authenticity.
Matthew Hyland’s The Core and the Courtyard, an infill housing framework for the city of Launceston in Tasmania, is a speculative proposition that reinvestigates the city’s relationship with domestic settings. Hyland observed and mapped the urban inhabitation, circulation patterns and network of corridors of a site within the city of Launceston. The key design ideas were derived from identified opportunities within the existing cultural patterns.
The proposition investigated overlooking, privacy and higher density and was a diverse, flexible and not-at-all-prescriptive solution. It responded to each of the criteria with a high level of resolution. Hyland’s ideas were expressed beyond the mundane; his project is realizable, well resolved and beautifully illustrated.
Jin Chen Lee’s project, the Avalon Surf Lifesaving/Community Club, had some wonderful aspirational qualities for a student project and clearly displayed a high level of design skill.
The building appears to be carved out of the rock cliffs and the sand dune. Its shape is informed by the physical nature of the surrounding ancient geological formation, reflecting the driving, salt-laden onshore winds that have formed the nearby caves, the erosion that has exposed the stratification of the rock cliffs and the ravages of the Pacific Ocean. The project demonstrates a strong understanding of materials that are appropriate and available to the region.
Jin Chen Lee’s project is a sophisticated exploration of light, prospect, refuge, atmosphere and the opportunity for the building to be a response to and extension of the landscape.
Jury
Glenn Murcutt AO LFRAIA (chair) prize patron; David Karotkin FRAIA Australian Institute of Architects National President, managing director Sandover Pinder Architects; Peter Nguyen, 2014 SONA President.
