Double win for Hassell at Australian Institute of Architects awards
Balcatta Senior High School received top honours in the education category and ABN Group headquarters took the award for commercial architecture at this year’s Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) Western Australia awards.
Although vastly contrasting in many ways both Balcatta Senior High School and the headquarters for construction, property and finance company, ABN Group successfully create a seamless, cohesive dialogue between past, present, and future.
BALCATTA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, PERTH
“The Hassell team loved working on Balcatta Senior High School,” says principal in charge of the project, David Gulland. “It’s a wonderfully complex and steeply sloping site with amazing views, integrated with a strong, existing heritage-listed 1960s building by famous Western Australian architect Marshall Clifton.“
A long and collaborative working relationship with the school and the Department of Education helped David and his team blur the boundaries between different areas of the school curriculum — from performing arts, science and maker-spaces to physical education — within a single connected building.
“The interface between old and new seems effortless, flashing a vibrant splash of golden yellow against the concrete tones and textures. Subtle but meaningful interventions within the original campus respond to the new architecture and solidify the sense of careful integration.”
Jury citation, Australian Institute of Architects WA Chapter
Principal of Balcatta Senior High School Helen Maitland says the new development reflects the community as one that builds on the history and the future. “The connection between the old and the new replicates the opportunities for collaboration and connection in classes for students and staff as we embrace what the new facilities offer,” she says.
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ABN GROUP, PERTH
Our design for ABN Group’s new headquarters received an AIA architectural award in the commercial category for its approach and acknowledgment of the past and the present and for offering a quality precedent for future development. The mixed-use office brought together over 800 employees that were once interspersed around Perth under one roof, breathing new life into the Leederville town centre.
“The architects have touched each edge of the complex site, adding value to the public realm and pedestrian experience of this urban location.”
Jury citation, Australian Institute of Architects WA Chapter
“The decision to use brick as the primary construction material was to help ensure a tactile façade that would also integrate more naturally with Leederville’s heritage buildings,” says senior associate on the project, Yong Lee. “In contrast, the top office floor is fringed by a modern perforated metal veil, which nods to the area’s emerging character.”