Date |
Title |
Project |
|---|---|---|
01.07.10 |
BVN WINS WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL’S WORKPLACE |
Contact
Stella de Vulder 02 8297 7200 or 0412 341 013
Stella de Vulder 02 8297 7200 or 0412 341 013
BVN Architecture’s design of the Attorney Generals Workplace received the W. Hayward Morris Award for interior architecture at the ACT Institute of Architects annual Architecture Awards presentation that was held on 26 June.
Attorney General, The Hon Robert McClelland MP previously said, ‘It’s a significant, important and very functional facility…I’m impressed by how well it works, it’s interactive, it allows you to mix with colleagues, it allows for downtime.’
The awards jury found that BVN were provided with a challenge ‘to move a client department that epitomises hierarchical structures into a contemporary open plan, flexible workplace’.
According to Ms Abbie Galvin, BVN Principal, this challenge included providing a high level of security whilst recognising the need for collaboration and a high level of flexibility.
The solution was to develop a ‘pavilion’ style work setting. The pavilion is a frame with a demountable wall and sliding door system, that can be reconfigured to meet the requirements of the user by being closed in and quiet, or being completely open and blending into the surrounding space.
This flexibility was commended by the jury for allowing ‘the Department to quickly, and cost effectively, respond to changes in accommodation requirements without having to reconfigure the built form’. They also noted the thoughtful placing of the pavilions on each floor that helps break down linear circulation paths and ‘provide a range of interstitial spaces that create intimate working team environments for smaller groups’.
The W. Hayward Morris Award is the highest award an interior project can receive in the ACT Awards, it also means that the Attorney General’s office now becomes a nominee in the National Architecture Awards that will be announced in late October.
Showing the breadth of their skills, BVN Architecture was also given an Interior Architecture Commendation for the Kingston Library.
According to the jury the shopfront, with its long narrow floor plan, presented the architects with such a disjunction between expectations for a normal library and the physical constraints presented by the site, that they developed ‘an entirely new model…which sees the library as an inevitable part of the Kingston retail strip.’
BVN Principal, Mr Matthew Blair said this was a most challenging space that ‘at first appeared impossible, but then through an intensive design process we found the solution, a key part of which is the central built element.’
The jury commended the architects’ use of the central joinery unit that mutates along its length ‘to provide computer, reading, admin and shelving functions…the new work has been done with an easy, almost effortless quality. The result is a comfortable new library space that demonstrates that these new types can be successful and will hopefully inspire further experimentation with the library type in Canberra.’
These latest awards add to BVN’s growing architecture prize collection, which now exceeds more than 125 in the last five years.
Attorney General, The Hon Robert McClelland MP previously said, ‘It’s a significant, important and very functional facility…I’m impressed by how well it works, it’s interactive, it allows you to mix with colleagues, it allows for downtime.’
The awards jury found that BVN were provided with a challenge ‘to move a client department that epitomises hierarchical structures into a contemporary open plan, flexible workplace’.
According to Ms Abbie Galvin, BVN Principal, this challenge included providing a high level of security whilst recognising the need for collaboration and a high level of flexibility.
The solution was to develop a ‘pavilion’ style work setting. The pavilion is a frame with a demountable wall and sliding door system, that can be reconfigured to meet the requirements of the user by being closed in and quiet, or being completely open and blending into the surrounding space.
This flexibility was commended by the jury for allowing ‘the Department to quickly, and cost effectively, respond to changes in accommodation requirements without having to reconfigure the built form’. They also noted the thoughtful placing of the pavilions on each floor that helps break down linear circulation paths and ‘provide a range of interstitial spaces that create intimate working team environments for smaller groups’.
The W. Hayward Morris Award is the highest award an interior project can receive in the ACT Awards, it also means that the Attorney General’s office now becomes a nominee in the National Architecture Awards that will be announced in late October.
Showing the breadth of their skills, BVN Architecture was also given an Interior Architecture Commendation for the Kingston Library.
According to the jury the shopfront, with its long narrow floor plan, presented the architects with such a disjunction between expectations for a normal library and the physical constraints presented by the site, that they developed ‘an entirely new model…which sees the library as an inevitable part of the Kingston retail strip.’
BVN Principal, Mr Matthew Blair said this was a most challenging space that ‘at first appeared impossible, but then through an intensive design process we found the solution, a key part of which is the central built element.’
The jury commended the architects’ use of the central joinery unit that mutates along its length ‘to provide computer, reading, admin and shelving functions…the new work has been done with an easy, almost effortless quality. The result is a comfortable new library space that demonstrates that these new types can be successful and will hopefully inspire further experimentation with the library type in Canberra.’
These latest awards add to BVN’s growing architecture prize collection, which now exceeds more than 125 in the last five years.
