Thanks to the jury of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards for selecting Queen & Collins as a finalist in the architectural design category.
‘The Awards provide an opportunity for businesses and the community to better understand the role of design in creating functional, safe and efficient, products, services and spaces.’
‘Bound by three principles, the Awards seek to:
_ Elevate the value of design and the role of professional designers.
_ Celebrate Victorian-led design.
_ Position Victoria as a design capital.’
We look forward to the announcement of category winners in March 2023.
Link to category finalists
We are looking forward to 2023 with the elevations of Tobias Pond to Principal and Claire Humphreys, Lynn Chew, and Michael Blancato to Associate Principals, their knowledge and leadership skills will guide KTA through the next phase. The team promotions are the culmination of their multilayered experiences, commitment and ongoing contributions to the advancement of KTA.
_ Tobias’ steadfast and ambitious approach to management of the studio and projects has led to the growth and expansion of KTA over the last four years. He has been integral to KTA’s work in the Social and Multiple housing sectors, including our Richmond Social Housing project for Homes Victoria and significant projects for private sector clients to be announced in 2023.
_ Claire is indispensable, as a design leader she thoughtfully oversees the design development and direction of our projects. She has played a key role on many projects including Queen & Collins, Queenscliff Hub, Whitehorse Performing Arts Centre and most recently the Eva and Marc Besen Centre at Tarrawarra Museum of Art.
_ Lynn has been with KTA for 24 years, her considerate and detailed sensibility steers KTAs residential projects and clients, with some relationships lasting over 20 years. Successful collaborations include Albury House, Erskine River House and the George Street conversion.
_ Michael’s enthusiasm, care, and skill in working through scale and complexity is engrained in his approach. This has been evident through his successful management of the completion of Queen & Collins during Covid lockdowns, and more recently, by steering a large project team in our work for the University of Melbourne’s Fisherman’s Bend campus.
Queen & Collins was awarded winner in the Urban Design category at the 2022 Melbourne Awards, at an event held at the Melbourne Town Hall.
“The Melbourne Awards are the City of Melbourne’s highest accolade, celebrating the inspirational Melburnians who dedicate their time and energy to making this city a world leader. Eight key areas were identified to reflect the way in which programs and organisations contribute to Melbourne as a thriving, forward-thinking capital city: Community; Sustainability; Aboriginal Melbourne – ganbu guljin*; Arts and Events; Hospitality; Knowledge and Innovation; Urban Design; LGBTIQ+.”
The Jury cited; A new workplace has been cleverly woven into the fabric of Melbourne.
Link to award details
Michael Blancato, Claire Humphreys and Grant Dixon from KTA team with Nicholas Reece, Deputy Lord Mayor and Sally Capp, Lord Mayor of Melbourne
Congratulations team!
The Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) event held this month awarded Queen & Collins winner of Workplace Over 1000sqm category. The category considers ‘how a commercial fitout has been designed to enhance the efficiency of the workplace, not just from the perspective of user productivity, but also with regards to comfort and happiness’.
The jury cited ‘designed to be a city within the city, possessing a vision for the future workplace, and with well-being and social connection at its heart. The semi-open laneways, open-air courtyards and campiellos integrate the remarkable Heritage-listed buildings and reimagine the commercial workplace experience.’
Link to award details
Day one winners have been announced at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) awards, and we are so excited to share the news that Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge was highly commended in the Completed Buildings: Culture category
The category received 26 entries from around the world, in which 17 projects were shortlisted, we are so proud Bundanon was recognised in this category. The ‘projects entered in the WAF awards include some of the most innovative and ground-breaking designs in the world’.
Link to awards
Last week Clyde Creek Primary School received a Learning Environments Australasia award (VIC Chapter).
Winner in Category 2: New Educational Campus, the jury cited;
‘Clyde Creek Primary School stood out from other submissions, particularly those within a similar context and siting, due to its refined and rigorous design approach within a large greenfield site. The careful placement of buildings creates a sense of community around a ‘civic heart’, whilst playful pop-up roofs highlight key learning areas within. The design outcome is both rigorous in its offering to be flexible to multiple learning methods and changing pedagogy, as well as its sensible use of materials and construction methodology.’
Thanks to LEA and jury for recognising CCPS, and our collaborators on the project McBride Charles Ryan.
After 18 years, Kelley Mackay, Director of Projects, will be stepping away from KTA. This is sad news for KTA and all who have had the privilege of working with her. Kelley has been a leader and a guiding force at KTA for almost two decades. Evidence of just some of Kelley’s success in recent awarded projects is seen in Broadmeadows Town Hall, Balfe Park Lane and Clyde Creek Primary School.
Kerstin has noted that; “Kelley’s thumbprints are all over the place, embedded in KTA’s culture and our buildings. To say Kelley will be greatly missed is an understatement.” Tenacity and sheer determination have been her trademark, not accepting that near enough is good enough.
Kelley will be taking a long summer break and is looking forward to exploring new ways to continue her contribution to the design and construction industry.
We miss her already.
Clyde Creek Primary School won Best Primary School Project in the 2022 Victorian School Design Awards.
Completed as part of Bundle B 2022 for the Victorian School Building Authority and in collaboration with McBride Charles Ryan, the campus designed around a central heart provides the community with a civic hub. The masterplan and concept designs for the Bundle were developed collaboratively. KTA completed the detailed design and documentation for Clyde Creek Primary School.
“The awards recognise how architects are making Victoria a world leader in school design. The finalists were selected for the innovation, creativity and practicality their designs bring to the Victorian public schools and kindergartens we build and modernise.”Link to all VSDA winners
Curated by Kerstin Thompson and Phillip Arnold, The Architecture Symposium: A Broader Landscape will interrogate how architects practising in Australia use (or mis-use) the term ‘landscape’ to many different ends.
Held over two days, the symposium includes 19 speakers, 4 provocateurs and moderator. It will seek to expand and adapt our understandings to account for the specific histories and practices that have enabled occupations of this land for millennia. And it will explore the ways we can amplify diverse ideas about landscape to inform our architectural practice.
When: Friday 18 November – Saturday 19 November 2022
Where: Art Gallery of New South Wales + Bundanon
Link to symposium details
Kerstin Thompson was delighted by the opportunity to present the Keynote talk at the 2022 Queensland Regional Symposium, ‘Regional Futures: A Collaborative Perspective’.
Presenting a perspective on three selected projects completed in regional Victoria and NSW, Kerstin offered insights into the characters, collaborations, contexts and considerations behind the design processes and built outcomes.
The Symposium ran from the 27th to 29th October on Darumbal Country, in the coastal town of Yeppoon.
Link to more details
The AIA National Awards announced the 2022 winners at a recent event and we are elated to have received 3 awards.
Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge was awarded The Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture and an award in Sustainable Architecture, and Queen & Collins received an award in Commercial Architecture.
‘The 2022 jury commented that this year’s entries “truly captured the spirit of Australian architecture,” with notable projects including those which are built on seminal landmarks of Australian identity, and visually and viscerally connected to place.’
‘Bundanon, by Kerstin Thompson Architects, is steadily becoming a “reference for the holy grail of Australian architecture”, the jury said. “Bundanon is a layered work that has been sensitively handled and respects the original vision for the estate.” For its sensitive addition to the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd estate, this project was awarded both the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture and a National Award for Sustainable Architecture.’
Congratulations to all, especially our clients, collaborators and extended team for this gratifying and significant outcome!
Link to awards details
Edition 3 / 2022 of Architect Victoria, Design for all Life / Architecture and Planning features an 8 page article on Balfe Park Lane.
An interview with Kelley Mackay addresses KTA’s approach to the design and construction, planning considerations and strategies, public realm and resident amenities. A key aspect of the project was the dwelling designs achieving high level compliance in the Liveable Housing Australia’s, Liveable Design Standards.
Follow link to read full article
It’s gratifying to see all of the hard work pay off at KTA when we find ourselves shortlisted in 5 categories for the 2022 National Architecture Awards.
Our shortlisted projects and categories are:
• Balfe Park Lane | Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing
• Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge | Public Architecture (Image)
• Bundanon | Sustainable Architecture
• Queen & Collins | Commercial Architecture
• Queen & Collins | Interior Architecture
• Queen & Collins | Urban Design
Winners will be announced on Thursday 3 November within the surrounds of Sydney’s Taronga Zoo!
Link to shortlisted projects
The theme for this year’s Open House Melbourne (OHM) is Built/Unbuilt and is the largest to date featuring many tours and talks around Melbourne.
We are so delighted to have three of our projects included in program; Melbourne Holocaust Museum, Queen & Collins and Broadmeadows Town Hall. Commencing 30-31 July, tours will be hosted by members of our team. Kerstin is also participating in the OHM opening event held on the 29 July at The Capital. The speakers will reflect on ‘projects that amplify and register cultural memories, pre-histories and knowledges of place that are deeply present in the buildings, spaces and landscapes of our city.’
Link to program
Congratulations Kerstin Thompson, Phyllis Murphy, Joseph Lewit, Garry and Susan Rothwell, Soo-Tee Cheong, Peter Lee and Donald Mason; eight architects recognised for “meritorious, distinguished and conspicuous services” on Queen’s Birthday 2022 Honours List.
Kerstin was appointed a Member of the Order (AM)
For significant service to architecture, and to tertiary education. Thompson has been a principal at her practice since 1994 and was made a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects in 2017. Most recently, in 2021 she received the Victorian Premiers Design Award for her renovation of the Broadmeadows Town Hall, and the Victorian Architecture Medal for the same project in 2020. She is adjunct professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Monash University, and has been a professor of design at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Link to AIA Victorian Chapter article
Link to ArchitectureAU article
Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge has won the Sulman Medal for Public Architecture and also received an award in the Sustainable Architecture category in the 2022 New South Wales Architecture Awards
Thanks to the juries for this significant recognition.
Public Architecture Citation
“Bundanon creates a new appreciation of the Boyd Estate, it’s history & setting by purposefully inhabiting this landscape of cultural & physical significance.
Centered in the historic core of the estate, the two principal components of the project, ‘the bridge’ & the buried museum respond artfully to the primary necessities of the brief & their varied environmental & landscape demands. Boyd’s studio forms a fulcrum between these two components & the original Arthur & Yvonne Boyd Education Centre by Murcutt, Lewin & Lark. It is through this careful siting & screening that each is allowed room to breathe, sitting naturally alongside each other, each enjoying their distinctive settings in the landscape…
Transformational of this place & our experience of it, Bundanon provides an engaging, considered, & joyful experience of landscape.”
Thanks also to: a visionary client Bundanon, acknowledged with a ‘second Sulman’ noting Boyd Education Centre by Murcutt, Lewin & Lark was the recipient of this same award in 1999; Adco Constructions for their building excellence & commitment.
Many wonderful consultants: special call out to core for concept – Wraight Associates for landscape, Atelier Ten for ESD & Phil Gardiner, Brett Wall now of WSP Australia for structures.
Link to awards page
May/June edition of Architecture Australia features article ‘A curated piece of utopia: Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge’ written by Andrew Nimmo.
“On a site gifted to the public for artistic enjoyment, a design team led by Kerstin Thompson Architects has integrated landscape and architecture to transform the location while preserving its natural ecosystems and cultural context.”
“Near Nowra in the Shoalhaven River valley of southern New South Wales, two properties – Riversdale and the adjoining Bundanon – were the home of artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd. In 1993, the Boyds donated both sites, including their substantial art collection, to the Australian government and the Bundanon Trust was established. The Boyd Education Centre (BEC) – the winner of the Australian Institute of Architects’ Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Buildings in 1999, designed by Murcutt, Lewin and Lark – is on the Riversdale site and was constructed to facilitate artist-in-residence programs.”
Link to read full article
The shortlisted projects for the 2022 AIA Victorian Chapter Awards were recently revealed and KTA are nominated in eight.
Our shortlisted projects and categories:
Congratulations to all!
Winners will be announced at Awards online event Friday 17th June
Link to all shortlisted projects
#VicArchitectureAwards
We are so excited, Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge has been shortlisted in four categories in the 2022 NSW Architecture Awards; Public Architecture, Heritage Architecture, Urban Design and Sustainability.
We are also very appreciative of the efforts of entire project team and consistent support from our client Bundanon Trust.
Winners will be announced 1st July.
Link to shortlisted entries
We are so proud Broadmeadows Town Hall received Best in Category for Architectural Design in the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards 2021.
‘The awards showcase the depth of design talent in Victoria and the capability and capacity of the Victorian design industry.
Bound by three principles, the Awards seek to:
- Elevate the value of design and the role of professional designers.
- Celebrate Victorian-led design.
- Position Victoria as a design capital.’
Thanks to all involved, especially the collaborative project team and Hume City Council.
Recent article in ArchitectureAU features interview with Anthony Clarke (Bloxas) and Kerstin Thompson on the design developed for the model of care for the Statewide Child and Family Centre.
This is Victoria’s-first Statewide Child and Family Centre, to be delivered by the Victorian Health Building Authority in partnership with Austin Health. The new purpose-built 12-bed centre will provide children and families onsite stay and support.
Construction is expected to begin early 2022.
Link to article
We are elated Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge has reached completion, this achievement is a testament to the dedication of all associated with the project.
“The design is driven by Bundanon’s main imperative, as established by the Boyd family, to foster an appreciation for and understanding of landscape and art.”
Opening scheduled for 29 January 2022 and official ceremony to follow 5 March 2022
Related articles
Link to ArchitectureAU
Link to Architecture & Design
Link to Design Boom
We are so delighted Kerstin Thompson was announced as one of the esteemed 10 | Australian Design Visionaries for 2022
“The esteemed 10 recognises a cross-section of visionary architects and designers in 2022. Spanning perspective, aesthetic and intent, the esteemed 10 comprises influential voices in the Australian and international design community selected by the est living editorial team. Criterion is based on approach, current achievements, completed and anticipated projects, insights and analytics.”
Kerstin responds to eight questions, including anticipating key influences and sustainable design in 2022.
Link to article on visionaries
