2015 Winners
Winner: The Mornington Centre Stage 2
Architect: Billard Leece Partnership
Location: VIC
The Mornington Centre Stage 2 is part of a large integrated clinical services centre that promotes health independence for the aged. Both externally and internally, in material and form, the building alludes to the coastal shack with the use of timber cladding and profiled parapets. The building is almost entirely clad in white cypress timber with deeper battens that accentuate texture and provide differing patterns across the length of the façade. The clever use of timber makes the centre less like an institution, and more welcoming in form.
Commendation: Australian Grains Genebank (AGG
Architect: H20 Architects
Location: VIC
The Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) is a national seed storage bank for the Victorian Department of Environment and Primary Industries. At the facility’s heart are three freezers accommodating at least 200,000 seed accessions from around Australia and the world within 2.7 kilometres of compactus shelving storage, programmed for a freezing environment of minus 20 degrees Celsius. An innovative double skin freezer design has an inner ‘esky’ box of insulated panels, contained within an outer timber clad weather protecting layer, both layers sandwiching and separated by a thermally stabilising air pillow. The external western red cedar cladding of the building, and the growing landscaping, will eventually blend the building into the wetlands and surrounding Wimmera plains.