2021 National Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture

Jury citation

Across the nine freestanding buildings that make up the expansive Land 121 Facilities Project at Lavarack Barracks, steel is deployed as an efficient and resilient kit of building parts, and thoughtfully configured as an architectural language. The project continues a longstanding collaboration between the architect and the client. In the most recent tranche of work at the Townsville site, which is one of the Australian Defence Force’s largest bases, the architect has further evolved and refined an architectural approach that has delivered a suite of highly successful works, completed in stages of redevelopment from 1999 through to the present. The poised steel architecture of these new facilities, which profiles the nimble and robust qualities of the material, is tuned to its landscape setting and responsive to the dry tropical climate. The evidence-based approach of the architect is underpinned by research, evaluation and a commitment to environmental comfort, resilience and longevity. The use of steel is material to the success of the architecture – it is integral across the scales of detail, evident in the exemplary services integration and visually unifying across the individual buildings and their various programmatic requirements.

Project credits

Architect: BVN; Project team: David Kelly, Geoff Hehir, Vinayaka Bhat, Scott Hardcastle, Stuart Young, Will Cobine, Shao Ing Gan, David Ho, David Challinor, Duncan Moore, Marc Sullivan, Schneider Eliassaint, Marnie Goodman, Mark Power, Luke Chalmers, Jarrod Williams, Mark Rassmusen; Builder: Lendlease; Building certifier: Phillip Chun and Associates; Other consultants: Jacobs, Aurecon, Ashburner Francis Consulting Engineers, Stantec, Webb Australia Group, Rider Levett Bucknall.

Land 121 Facilities Project, Lavarack Barracks by BVN is located in Townsville, Queensland, on the land of the Bindal and Wulgurukaba peoples.