Sixty projects have been shortlisted in the 2013 National Architecture Awards, with education and science-based buildings dominating the public category. The Australian Institute of Architects will announce the awards at a dinner on Thursday 7 November at the Sydney Opera House. On the 2013 jury were: Shelley Penn (AIA immediate past national president), Richard Hassell (WOHA Singapore), Ben Hewett (South Australian Government Architect), Justine Clark (Parlour) and Sydney architect Hannah Tribe (Tribe Studio).

Australia’s tallest timber apartment building (10 storeys) received the top award at the 2013 Australian Timber Design Awards presented by Timber Development Association. The awards were announced on 19 September at ZINC at Federation Square, Melbourne. On the jury were: Richard Hough (Arup), Richard Brisland (REB Contracting), Kate St James (Universal Magazines), and Paul Haar (2012 Overall winner, Paul Haar Architect).

Forté at Victoria Harbour – Lend Lease

It was an absolute honour to chair the jury for this year’s National Architecture Awards. The privilege lay in the sharing of intense and memorable experiences with fellow jurors, in the intimate access to so many outstanding buildings and spaces, and in the engagement with such a diverse representation of excellent Australian architects. I think it’s the latter point that is ultimately so exciting. We saw a lot of wonderful architecture and we came away with the certainty that more is to follow.

To be presented with 166 award-winning projects from the states and territories was a daunting beginning. Our starting position was that our chapter-based colleagues had deliberated with care in giving their awards, and we took every contender seriously. We reluctantly narrowed the field to fifty-five awards, feeling both sure of our choices and certain that we were missing some really great work. I retain this feeling and acknowledge the tension that comes with the task of choosing the best from a field of the best. I also note the incremental increase in entries and visited projects that occurs each year – not just a sign of more architects doing more work, but a sign of more fabulous architecture being impossible to ignore.

The diversity of Australian architecture was celebrated on Thursday 7 November at the Sydney Opera House, which in October marked forty years as a cultural icon. Around 500 architects and their clients gathered in the Concert Hall and North Foyer for the 2013 National Architecture Awards dinner and presentation, hosted by the Australian Institute of Architects.

Thirty-eight projects were awarded a total of fifty-five awards and commendations across the twelve categories. Pojects were selected by the 2013 national jury from the 166 eligible award winners progressing from the Insitiute’s state and territory awards series earlier in the year. On this year’s jury were Shelley Penn (chair), Richard Hassell, Ben Hewett, Justine Clark and Hannah Tribe.

Highly commended identity projects at the 2013 Eat-Drink-Design Awards.

Rosa’s Table – Nexus Designs (Frankston South, Vic)
Tonka – Studio Round (Melbourne, Vic)

When a bar is destined to become a staple of the hospitality scene because of its quality, genealogy and faultless management, its visual identity might seem of peripheral importance. At Bar Di Stasio, however, (as in every part of the Di Stasio eat-drink empire), no aspect of the integration of food, culture, art and design has been casually considered, no opportunity neglected, in elegantly and earthily projecting the persona of this new endeavour. Each component – signage, website and the graphic accoutrements of the place – has been designed with potency and confident simplicity. They are cohesive without repetitious thematic, and the dazzling slideshow of images on the Di Stasio website ventures beyond visual richness, sensuality and warmth into the downright hot. Underscoring each element is a sense of translation appropriate to this child of legendary Cafe Di Stasio: between old and new media, old and new spaces, and between the architectural and art worlds that are Di Stasio’s province. Nothing is lost in translation, though, and the Collegamento’s collaboration is a seductive revivification of Di Stasio’s celebrated legacy to the design and hospitality industries.

Bar Di Stasio owner Ronnie Di Stasio and the Collegamento show that when a client and the collective expertise of artists and designers come together, anything is possible. The project was a collective artistic endeavour to create a new cultural institution for Melbourne, an extension of Ronnie’s style, standard and experience. Ronnie wanted the bar to be a central meeting place, a vibrant hub for artists, architects and other creative people. The exuberance of Ronnie, his menu and the artistic restaurant fitout needed an identity to complement the hospitality offering rather than compete with it. Bar Di Stasio is honest and confident in its minimalism. Business cards double as coasters, menus feature imagery and take cue from Ronnie’s influences – Renaissance artwork, his father, the Venice Biennale, the development of the bar and his vineyard.

Highly commended cafe projects at the 2013 Eat-Drink-Design Awards.

Industry Beans Cafe & Roastery – Figureground Architecture (Fitzroy, Vic)
Nama Nama – Denton Corker Marshall (Melbourne, Vic)
T2B – Landini Associates (Sydney, NSW)

There is an expansive egalitarianism to Top Paddock Cafe. Not only does it accommodate diverse social groupings and moods, it also recognizes that in contemporary cafe culture dining out at any time, for any meal, can become an occasion. Sunday brunch may be “the new black” at Top Paddock Cafe, enjoyed at a perkily designed communal table, yet equally a solo coffee or drink can be had in a choice of snug nooks or engaging, people-watching spaces. The impressive spatial dexterity employed to achieve this intimacy within the ample envelope of the building is never at the expense of operational practicality, however, and Top Paddock Cafe shows the hallmarks of an evolved and honed approach to hospitality, from client and designer alike. The cafe makes a virtue of its busy roadside location and commercial context, with material references to urban surfaces and infrastructure, and quirky solutions like recycled street-sign seats. The careful blurring of interior and exterior eating places sets a neat balance between comfort and cafe culture. In an unlikely location, this lively project manages the richness and freshness of the fabled top paddock.

The design allows form and function to work as one. It creates a space that invites the customer in while allowing for ease and efficiency of service for staff. The space and service in turn complement the wholehearted food on offer. The cafe has a pulse and a buzz about it but also a sense of home. Through careful consideration of the existing shell and materials, life has been injected into the space without the overuse and wastage of new materials. Thoughtful spatial planning and placement of furniture and lighting fixtures not only breaks the space up into intimate areas, but also takes advantage of the abundance of natural light and views out to surrounding greenery.

Highly commended retail projects at the 2013 Eat-Drink-Design Awards.

Egg Unlimited – Christopher Elliott Design (Prahran, Vic)
Mitchelton Winery – Hecker Guthrie (Nagambie, Vic)
Peter G Bouchier Butcher – Doherty Lynch (Toorak, Vic)
T2B – Landini Associates (Sydney, NSW)

This sexy little corner shop is aptly named, as it brings a sense of spring, bounce and freshness to an otherwise hard street corner. A playful vocabulary of references has been employed to make sound urban moves, opening the cafe and gelati bar ante space to the footpath as an “absent” Doric column, and activating the side lane with vigorous Scarpa-inspired windows and sliding screens. The place exudes an irresistible “come-to” invitation at all times of the day and night, its bold forms and colours spilling out to the city like a funky cornucopia of produce and hospitality. The modest footprint and volume have been worked hard to accommodate not only a delicatessen, a grocer, a cafe and a cool, glazed-brick cheese cellar, but also flexible space for exhibitions and functions. A circular tactic in graphics, stair and other design elements holds these together with a tight, lively dynamic. There is a robust, pragmatic richness to the materiality and construction of Spring Street Grocer – nougat terrazzo, orange peel steel balustrade – supporting the ethos of a local providore of convenience, conviviality and longevity. This is radical postmodernism, but with taste and constructional gusto.

This project captures the new urban essence of small-grain urbanism where the relatively hidden activities of Melbourne’s lanes become manifest on main streets. The architectural form-making is driven by immediate local references. Local materials have been chosen for their longevity and durability, sustaining and inspiring local craftspeople and thereby encouraging the local economy, for example by using recycled timbers and local aggregates sourced from nearby quarries, minimizing transportation and ensuring low maintenance. The glazed bricks and cheese cellar are constructed with family-owned Euroa Bricks.

At a time when takeaway food, pop-up diners and temporality are increasingly part of the gastronomic scene, Kitchen by Mike on Wheels takes the idea of mobility and performative kitchens a step further. This modern-day barrow evokes traditional markets and food transport, and at the same time, operates as the quintessential dining table, kitchen bench or cooking-class counter. With its clever incorporation of a kitchen garden, water, heat and culinary tools, this ingenious piece neatly encapsulates food culture from production to consumption. In its simple linear layout and exposed services, it operates as a wonderfully transparent demon-stration of all that is needed to create good food. The careful choice of raw, precious and technologically advanced materials, associations with place and attention to sustainable processes exemplify the best in contemporary ethical and sophisticated hospitality. All are resolved with a refreshing sense of whimsy and ease in this bold but understated peripatetic kitchen.

The overarching concept for this mobile kitchen was for a refined rawness to reflect the style of food offered by Kitchen by Mike – honest, seasonal and without tricks. However, this doesn’t mean there isn’t a complexity or sophistication to what is served. With a tight budget, the designers wanted to create something that embodied the philosophy of the project’s main Rosebery site and, when out and about, would enable Kitchen by Mike to have some presence. Kitchen By Mike on Wheels needed to be self-contained – water is collected, there are portable gas burners and utensils hang on a copper pipe. All timber is plantation grown and finishes are water based. Solid, black-stained timber and exposed copper pipe reflect the materials used at the main Rosebery site. Carbon fibre aerospace wheels allow the mobile kitchen to be easily moved.

Highly commended bar projects at the 2013 Eat-Drink-Design Awards.

Bar Di Stasio – Robert Simeoni Architects in collaboration with Callum Morton and David Pidgeon (St Kilda, Vic)
Howler – Splinter Society Architecture in conjunction with Brendan Brogan (Brunswick, Vic)
Sidecar – Kirk Richardson with Dunbabin Architects (Hobart, Tas)
The Collins – Woods Bagot (Adelaide, SA)
The Smith Restaurant & Bar – Tarryn Joyce & Demie Manolas (Prahran, Vic)

From its enigmatic entry portal, through the dark, compressed approach corridor, to the tense architectonic space of its first-floor bar, Hihou is a poised and dramatic exercise in spatial experiences. Working within a robust and muscular shell, where the overhead plane of coffered slab and weighty perimeter beams impose a strong presence, the designers have amplified the existing fine qualities of the space with precise spatial moves and materiality. Rather than recourse to any literal imagery, Hihou’s Japanese inspiration and theme are communicated through the elegant composition of each component, a recurrent motif of ingenious interlocking detail or intimate space, and the overall neat fit into this refined reduct-ionist space. Yet it is unmistakably Melbourne too, with varied visual connections to the streets below, and its deliberate cosmopolitan blending of urban references. The clarity, control and embedded nature of every move and moment at Hihou create a memorable hybrid of contemporary East-West hospitality and a Zen-like haven in the heart of the city.

The design uses simple ideas to achieve an effective multipurpose use of the venue. Sliding screens allow a bright and fresh theme to become dark and moody. A timber chandelier is suspended over the communal table in the middle of the bar area, while LED light fittings bring indirect light into the space. A feature wall, used to display bottles and glasses, is constructed with timber battens arranged to form a three-dimensional artwork. In response to the brief, planter boxes were designed as a green vertical garden. Doubling as display shelves, the planter boxes obscure the view from the outside, reducing the goldfish-in-tank effect, and respond to the surrounding Treasury Garden and street trees.

The striking concrete culvert facade of Prahran Hotel makes an unambiguous declaration to passers-by: this is a place to enjoy a sociable drink in a reimagined version of the corner pub. There is an unabashed celebration of Australian drinking culture in the visual allusion to stacked kegs, bottles or barrels, while the finesse of the execution in scale, spatial accommodation and construction evokes less expected references to Japanese Metabolist architecture or modernist mechanist metaphors. Like all good pubs, Prahran Hotel offers a variety of settings for different seasons, groupings and times of day, each reinforced by intelligent choices in materials, lighting and fitout: from the intimate caves of timber-lined booths, to the vantage point offered by a floating concrete tub overlooking an airy courtyard. This is no gentle insertion or secret imbibing hideaway, but a bold, purpose-built piece of architecture that elevates the simple act of sharing a drink with friends to street theatre.

The challenge of designing and building the facade made this project unique. The design consists of seventeen oversized concrete pipes. This pipe facade is the defining feature of the pub and the facade experience is the same whether you are inside or outside the pub. Steel-framed windows face the street so passers-by can easily see into the venue and immediately engage with the pub. Taking this a step further, the facade isn’t just a wall to be looked at. It contains booths and walkways that enable patrons to actually sit within it, to interact physically with the edifice itself.

Highly commended restaurants at the 2013 Eat-Drink-Design Awards.

Esquire – Hassell (Brisbane, Qld)
Gazi – March Studio (Melbourne, Vic)
Monopole – Pascale Gomes-McNabb (Potts Point, NSW)
Rosetta– BKH (Melbourne, Vic)
The Depot Eatery & Oyster Bar – Nott Architects (Auckland, NZ)
The Meatball & Wine Bar – Eades and Bergman (Melbourne, Vic)
The Smith Restaurant & Bar – Tarryn Joyce & Demie Manolas (Prahran, Vic)
Tonka Restaurant – Techne Architects (Melbourne, Vic)

With minimal but precise moves Farmhouse creates a bucolic dining fantasy, not only in the midst of dense urbanity but also in a highly competitive gastronomic area. Working within a compact volume and with a restrained, elemental palette of design elements this tiny restaurant diligently pares back the dining experience to its essentials, without parsimony or lack of conviviality. Its ingenious single operable table and intimate connections with the servery and kitchen heighten the sense of being at a dinner party in a French farmhouse, yet there is no pastiche or unauthenticity about this place. Every decision has been made with clarity and criticality – to provide everything you need, and nothing you don’t. Farmhouse succeeds as much for what it chooses not to do, as for what it does. This ethic carries through to its courageous conception of the food offering: each sitting is a communal affair, with no menu, no choice, and the food is prepared by emerging chefs who cook, serve and clear the table. A refreshing challenge to mainstream approaches to restaurants, Farmhouse is an exquisitely focused venture, simultaneously modest and noble.

The union of design and craft is central to Farmhouse. The project champions a holistic approach and a shared aspiration to use recycled, salvaged and reclaimed material. A farmhouse is simple, rustic, enduring and hardworking. The materials used are relevant; they make sense; they are not being used simply to demonstrate sustainable initiative or intent. The concept that is Farmhouse highlights the way an original and innovative concept can be integral to the success of a restaurant. Farmhouse is the direct outcome of design thinking and collaboration.

Grasp the sculpted bronze hands that are the doorhandles of Cafe Di Stasio and you grasp the essence of this iconic restaurant. It is as Italian as an effusive hand gesture, as hospitable as the owner whose hands formed the cast, as durable as the patined material in your hand, and as irreverent as this surprising welcome.

Beyond being a staple in the Melbourne hospitality scene for twenty-five years, Cafe Di Stasio has been pivotal in transforming the gastronomic tone and amenity of its St Kilda environs, and more than any other restaurant in Australia has married the realms of food, culture and design. Launched in 1988 by charismatic owner/operator Rinaldo (Ronnie) Di Stasio, and designed by distinguished architect Allan Powell, Cafe Di Stasio captured the elan and indulgence of the late 1980s.

Melbourne’s Howler bar played host to the second annual Eat-Drink-Design Awards on 12 November 2013. Presented by Architecture Media and AGM Publishing, the Eat-Drink-Design Awards saw more than 300 architects, designers and their clients come together to celebrate Australasia’s best hospitality design. The awards were announced by Architecture Media editorial director Cameron Bruhn and Artichoke editor Cassie Hansen, with 2013 awards juror and restauratuer Christine Manfield speaking on behalf of the jury. See the full list of awards  .

After the official annoucements, guests continued the party in Howler’s bar and courtyard late into the night. You can hear from winners and jurors on the video below, or, to see more photos from the night, simply ‘like’ the Eat-Drink-Design Facebook page.

Eleven emerging Victorian architecture practices were recognized at this year’s Architeam Awards from a record number of entries (49 in total). Now in its 21st year, the Architeam annual Awards celebrate small to medium-sized architecture firms in Victoria, and their contributions to the architectural landscape. The awards were presented at a cocktail party at the No Vacancy Gallery in the QV Building, Melbourne.

Architeam director Gray Smith says that eighty-five percent of architects in Victoria work in small practices or are sole practitioners, and that “One of the many challenges facing them is getting their names out into the public realm … So the Architeam Awards tries to promote their contribution to the design community.”

The Laminex Group SA DIA 2013 Awards were announced on Saturday 30 November at Adelaide Gaol. The awards, run by the South Australian Chapter of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA), recognise excellence by the state’s designers and students across three disciplines: Built Environment, Object and Communication.

Collins Hotel – Woods Bagot