2023 National Prizes: Bluescope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize

Jury citation

The 2023 Bluescope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize is awarded to Rhiannon Brownbill for her project Burudi Gurad, Burudi Ora (Healthy Country, Healthy People), which captivated the jury intellectually and emotionally. Drawn from engagement with Aboriginal Elders and an Aboriginal Knowledge Keepers Circle, it challenges the protocols of healthcare framed by Western medicine, exploring instead how people might work, live and heal with Country.

Situated on Me-Mel island in Sydney Harbour and cultivating a rich understanding of place, the project not only respects but actively engages with the natural environment. Its singular architectural form acknowledges traditional structures but resists sentimentality to provide a confident, contemporary response to the brief. The arrangement of treatment rooms nimbly balances the technical requirements and human needs of care. Local materials and building techniques are deployed with appropriateness and skill, and an awareness of embodied cultural memory. The project’s lightweight and permeable language understands the site’s flora and fauna as active participants in its architectural life.

It is impossible to remain an impassive observer when confronted by the technical drawings developed to describe this project; they effortlessly communicate the precision and richness of thinking that underpins all aspects of its conception and development.

The jury is delighted that Brownbill is currently working with the health sector to explore how the findings of the project could transform contemporary practice.

Jury

Laura Harding Associate RAIA (Chair) – Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects

Shannon Battisson FRAIA (Chair) – National President, Australian Institute of Architects | The Mill: Architecture and Design

Nicole Mesquita-Mendes – SONA President, Australian Institute of Architects