The University of Adelaide’s Braggs Building has scooped the award for Best Piece of Public Architecture at the 2013 Australian Institute of Architects South Australia Architecture Awards. Click for images and judges comments, plus view the other commended entries.

The Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture – The Braggs University of Adelaide – BVN Donovan Hill and Hames Sharley in association

The Braggs Building was a clear winner of The Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture for the jury. The project impressed the jury with its clear conceptual basis drawn from the research program of photonics it houses. Strongly expressive of and responsive to the medium of photonics – glass and light – in its refined formal articulation and programmatic organisation, the building is also a sophisticated response to complex spatial requirements.

The folded façade, drawn explicitly from the project logic of research the properties of light, is a bold but simple device for wrapping the building. It provides an ever-changing pattern of light, shadow and reflection that extends the architectural language of the simple form of the building itself as well as neighbouring buildings. The uncompromising repetition of the folded rhythm in combination with the restrained material palette externally and internally gives the building a memorable quality and strong presence.

At its urban scale, the building develops the principles of Adelaide University’s master plan and reinforces the strong architectural character of the campus.

The façade logic allows for nuanced response to the various orientations that further enriches the form.

The clear focus on organisation of the program to enable excellent light to laboratories, transparency across the floor plate and drama in circulation spaces, has resulted in a high quality spatial experience for a normally restrictive typology. The southern atrium as an ordering device provides various opportunities for interaction and encounter, and is ultimately a beautiful space for people.

• Click here to see the winners of the City of Adelaide Prize, the Sustainable Architecture Prize, and the President’s Medal
• Click here to see the winners of the Residential, Multi Residential and Interior Design Awards
• Click here to see the winners of the Heritage and Small Project categories

The Public Architecture Awards

Public Architecture – Architecture Award: Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer – woodhead

The Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer is a project that creates a strong identity for itself and the campus it belongs to while sensitively accommodating a combined program of cancer treatment and research.

The building has been designed to enable interaction between cancer patients and their carers with cancer researchers with the purpose of enabling a more integrated approach to cancer in South Australia. Through a carefully designed atrium, opportunity for social interaction and informal dialogue is created. With a sensitively scaled series of meeting and foyer spaces interacting with the atrium, the various functions of the building including clinical day treatment, research laboratories and office spaces are linked to enable chance encounter and increased awareness.

At an urban scale the building consolidates the more urban part of Flinders University Campus and projects a strong presence to the main road and campus entry. The response to a difficult site maximises programmatic opportunities, functionality and spatial amenity within the constraints of a tight budget and large ambition.

Public Architecture – Commendations: Thebarton Community Centre – MPH Architects

Public Architecture – Commendations: St Peter’s Town Hall Complex – Phillips/Pilkington & Flightpath Architects in association

Public Architecture – Commendations:   Flinders University Biology Discovery Centre – HASSELL       

The Commercial Architecture Awards

Commercial Architecture commendations: Australian Federal Police Headquarters – Walter Brooke & Associates