NH Architecture is delighted to have been recognised at this year’s Victorian AIA Awards.

Burwood Brickworks has added to its accolades by winning the Allan and Beth Coldicutt Award for Sustainable Architecture, as well as receiving 2 Jury commendations in Commercial Architecture and Interior Design. Cannons House was also commended by the Jury in the Commerical Architecture category. In presenting the award for Sustainable Architecture, the juror’s cited,

“In delivering the world’s first Living Building Challenge, Burwood Brickworks sets a new standard for sustainable building practice and operations in Shopping Centres.”

“This project demonstrates that net positive sustainable building practices are not only possible in shopping centres, but doing so increases the return on investment, presenting a compelling argument for sustainable benchmarks in retail design.”

NH Architecture worked in partnership with Russell and George on the interior design and Wurundjeri-willam artist Mandy Nicholson for the ceiling mural and façade artwork to challenge the assumed antithesis of the consumer experience and sustainable development. As a result, Burwood Brickworks occupies a uniquely curated space between convenience consumerism and ground-breaking sustainability. It exists as an overt rejection of big box retail, embodied both in its philosophy and its verdant form, and defies both the architectural and cultural expectations of the retail arena.

The Cannons House renovation reinterprets and redefines Denton Corker Marshall’s original mid-1980’s postmodern facade, bringing it into line with commercial expectations commensurate to the second decade of the millennium. A new dimpled bronze, Collins Place-coloured stainless steel ‘sheath’ was placed over the southern facade, reflecting and distorting its context, amplifying and scattering reflected light: a kind of urban Glomesh. While the project heavily engages precedent, as equally as material experimentation, it is a celebration of its current urban condition: an abbreviated and coded love letter.