St Kilda pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise playful and ‘deeply civic’ design | Architecture
A redesigned St Kilda pier has scooped some of the top gongs at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Victorian awards, adding further accolades to its thriving trophy cabinet.
The $53 million Victorian government project, redesigned by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects in conjunction with Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, took home the Victorian architecture medal for the year’s most outstanding project on Friday.
He also won the Dimity Reed Melbourne award and the Joseph Reed award for urban design. It was joint winner in the built results category at the national Urban Design awards in March.
The project has weathered its share of controversies, including the cancellation of Parks Victoria’s attempt to provide pay-per-view access to the pier-dwelling penguin colony. On Friday, a Victorian panel of judges praised the project for managing to balance the competing demands of tourists, locals, fishermen, ferries, marina users and even penguins.
“The project shows how complex infrastructure can become fun, social and deeply civil at the same time,” the jury said.
Building on recent national and New South Wales awards, sustainability, resource efficiency and community-focused public design took center stage at the Victorian awards.
Judge chairman, architect and academic Simon Knott, said this year’s standout projects were defined by their ability to move beyond purely utilitarian briefs and prioritize human interaction.
“[They] “We’ve seen so many community projects where community-centered design is at the forefront, taking ordinary pieces of existing architecture and turning them into recreational spaces, delightful spaces where people come together,” he said.
Even areas with a “brutal history” have been “completely transformed by master hands,” Knott said.
One remaining site from a bygone era is the former Sunbury Asylum, built in 1879, renamed the Sunbury Hospital for the Insane in 1905, and renamed again as the Caloola Training Center in 1985.
After being part of the Victoria University campus for almost two decades, the Sunbury community has now been transformed into an arts and culture district; This project won many awards, including the John George Knight heritage award and the interior architecture award.
The jury praised the design by Architecture Associates with Openwork as an adaptive reuse of an institutional complex previously defined by the confinement of people.
“A fine balance is required when a building designed to restrict and alienate individuals from society becomes a building that celebrates community coming together,” the judges said in their statement.
‘Allowing the story of the building to unfold…sometimes directly, sometimes by shadowing the past…is a skill with many facets. Architects use all these skills.”
The drive to transform underused urban spaces into functional and flexible workspaces was evident in Fieldwork’s design for 65 Dover Street in Cremorne; this design received the Sir Osborn McCutcheon award for commercial architecture.
The sitework was praised for its “elegant and thoughtful” response to the site, which also included a rooftop lounge area with a half-size basketball court for workers.
“65 Dover St sets a new standard for commercial architecture of this scale, holistically elegant and elegant,” the judges said.
Henry Bastow’s prize for educational architecture was awarded to Baldasso Cortese’s Edmund Rice center at Emmanuel College. Clad in Colorbond estate red, the Warrnambool campus learning center is organized into three learning spaces – wisdom, communication and discovery – all overlooking a central courtyard.
In the residential categories, sustainable restoration of heritage structures, rather than the traditional “demolish and rebuild” strategy, has been the winner.
Robert Simeoni Architects’ home on Palmerston Street in Calrton received the heritage award and the John and Phyllis Murphy award for alterations and additions.
The architects’ design was admired for its sober reimagining of the former 1870s hotel while dealing with rising construction costs and material shortages.
“He works directly, honestly and poetically within these limitations to find a spatial and material language that revels in its own economy,” the jury said.
The Harold Desbrowe Annear award for new buildings was awarded to Edition Offices’ “House in the Garden”, a striking, elevated timber form set in the shadow of the Birrarung flood plain, giving “a cinematic sense of immersion into a highly choreographed landscape”.
