This week our Elizabeth Bay House was shortlisted for the prestigious 2011 Wilkinson Award for Residential Houses by the NSW Chapter of the Institute of Architects from a record number of entries. The Wilkinson Award is presented in memory of the Australian Architect Leslie Wilkinson (Born 1882) and the first Dean of Architecture at the University of Sydney and is presented each year to a residential work of outstanding merit. The first Wilkinson was presented in 1961 and it is a great honour to be shortlisted. This is the second time we have made the shortlist the first time being for the Palm Beach House in 2006.
Although this house is a large and prestigious commission many of the concerns central to its design are focused on our broader practice and more humble projects. The idea of how a house should connect and contribute to the street, and how relationships and rooms should be proportioned and planned to encourage connections yet also provide for privacy and intimacy. Energy efficiency and environmental systems are carefully integrated into the building without being overtly expressed and the house was meticulously detailed and resolved from a construction point of view.
The work is also broadened by the integration of considerable concern for landscape and heritage issues which were so much part of this rich and historic context. Both presented challenges and opportunities which were incorporated into the overall project.
The house will be visited by the Jury in the coming weeks and the finalists and winner will be announced a little later this year.
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