| |
University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
April 17, 2000 |
Contact: Heidi Chang - Information Specialist, School of Architecture, 956-3469 email: alohaheidi@hawaii.rr.com
|
| $25,000 Prize Winner Named for 2000 Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award |
A unique education center in Australia has been selected this year's
winner of the Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Culture and Architecture design
Award. Dean Raymond Yeh of the University of Hawai`i School of Architecture
announced the winner at a program Saturday night, April 15. The design
award is the only one of its kind for culture and architecture in the Asia-Pacific
region.
This year's winner - selected by a distinguished international panel of jurors - is The Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Center in Australia. The center is located on the Shoalhaven River near the town of Nowra on the south coast of New South Wales.
Three Australian architects, Glenn Murcutt, Wendy Lewin and Reginald Lark designed the center. It provides living accommodations for student artists and a range of educational and creative facilities. The center promotes environmental awareness by being self-sufficient in water collection, storage and distribution, and maintains its own on-site sewage and wastewater treatment service.
Jurors from Cairo, Sri Lanka and the U.S. based their decision on how well the Center's architecture creates a quality environment for people and contributes in a holistic way to their well being. They say the Center represents "a mature statement of architecture that responds to and enhances the quality of the landscape. It is a simple and poetic conception that picks up the spirit of the land and adds to the existing built and natural environment of the site.
"The architects have superbly balanced a fresh crafting of the building materials, a commitment for environmental enrichment by the creation of appropriate and well-grounded buildings," the jurors' assessment said. "They have successfully demonstrated that good architecture draws inspiration not from a model or an image but from the constraints and opportunities of its location."
The Jury also selected four Honorable Mention Projects from South Korea, India and Singapore. To review the projects, log on to the Award web site at: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kbda.
The Kenneth F. Brown Asia-Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award program is named in honor of the eminent architect, humanitarian and descendent of Hawaiian ali`i Kenneth F. Brown.
Brown and others at the School of Architecture are trying to inspire a more culturally, socially and environmentally appropriate approach to architecture by awarding the $25,000 cash prize every two years to select buildings in Asia and the Pacific region. This is the third time the prize has been awarded. Organizers plan to expand the program by creating a special Chairman's Award for the international promotion of architecture in Hawai`i.
School of Architecture Dean Yeh established the unique Design Award for Asia-Pacific Architecture in 1995. Since then, it has played a pivotal role in changing the perception of architecture.
This year's winners will be keynote speakers at The Fourth International Symposium on Asia-Pacific Architecture next spring at the School of Architecture. They will also participate as Visiting Design Critics for the School's architecture studios.
