The Emerging Architect Prize recognises an individual emerging architect or emerging architectural collaboration’s contribution to architectural practice, education, design excellence and community involvement, which advances the profession’s role within the public arena. Entrants need to be nominated by a member of the Australian Institute of Architects.
A 7:30 kick off to the AWS EmAGN Breakfast was always going to be challenging on day two of the 2016 Architectural Conference and How Soon is Now proved to be predictive as I opened my eyes and rolled out of bed looking for the clock to determine when I was due to be there.
The previous evening I had visualised the three wise men giggling as they messed around with the studio photocopier late one night in the search for creativity. After all there was only so many times one could photocopy ones cheeks! Fortuitously one of the wise men had bumped the bookcase and a copy of Venturi’s Learning from Las Vegas had dropped on to the head of the wise man with the least cranial protection. Inspiration at last! The resulting tug of war over the book as it straddled the photocopier led to some distorted images of the page it had fallen open to and the wise men barely recognised Vanna Venturi House (though these images were as good as anything else they had come up with in the session).
Having satisfied myself that Architects were indeed visual thinkers I was left to rue the missed opportunity to refresh my glass before Award presentations began, a feeling that had been assuaged while Ian McDougall of 2016 Gold Medallists ARM Architecture held the floor.
The directors of ARM Architecture (which I have discovered is “known for its wit, experimentation and fearlessness with architectural language and form”), showed us that the possession of a good dose of Australian irreverence seems to be beneficial in determining Gold Medal winners, going by recent past winners.
The awards had continued to roll out between some tears and some typically self-deprecating humour from Peter Maddison - Presidents Award, Amy Muir - Emerging Architect Award, Peter Nguyen – Student Prize, Jeremy McLeod - Sustainability Award, Brian Barr - International Award, Michael Ostwald - Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize, and Mat van Kooy / Qianyi Lim / Chris Gilbert / Katy Moir / Hannah Slater - the Dulux Study Award recipients.
But the next morning I once again reveled in the joy of Adelaide’s 20-minute city (beating Tim Williams 30-minute city hands down!) as I pulled up in the loading zone outside PUBLIC CBD to celebrate the EmAGN 10 year anniversary with the 2016 Emerging Architect Prize winner Amy Muir from Victoria, safe in the knowledge that unlike our Big Brother Eastern State capitals, the car would still be there when I returned with, at worst, a fine that was not going to require the sale of a kidney in order to pay off.
Having successfully negotiated the distribution rights for a restorative latte with support from a smashed avocado with toast (“could I get some fresh chilli with that please?”), it didn’t take more than a minute or two to discover I was surrounded by an extraordinary group of emerging architects. In fact, I could not help but be impressed with 2015 WA Chapter winner – Kylee Schoonens (of the Fratelle Group). I found myself wishing I had more time to connect with each of those surrounding the table, just to see what made them tick.
“How Soon is Now” proved to be too soon and day two beckoned. After all, it is the nature of conferences that such paths are crossed briefly and that it is impossible to predict where the grit that forms the pearl will originate from.
Still ahead lay Astrid Klein, Urtzi Grau & Cristina Goberna Pesudo, Kevin Low, Ken Maher, Sadie Morgan, Abbie Galvin, Tim Williams, Andrew Beer, Matt Davis, Vicente Guallart, Greg Mackie, Thomas Fisher, Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, Timothy Hill, Kerstin Thompson, Charles Rice & Nasrine Seraji.
- Edward Lukac (National Conference Event Correspondent for AWS)
Edward is the State Manager of Archicentre SA since 2009, AIS SA Chapter councillor since 2013 and AIA residential task force member. He regularly presents architecturally related public workshops and seminars to both adults and children aiming to engage the public with architecture. Edward has been Principal of ELA since 1992 - providing cost effective architectural residential solutions because good design changes lives.
