Perth’s METRONET Morley-Ellenbrook Line Project has swept the stage at the recently announced WA Architecture Awards, taking home four accolades.
METRONET was awarded Western Australia’s highest architectural honour, the George Temple Poole Award.
The project was also the recipient of the Wallace Greenham Award for Sustainable Architecture, the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture, and an award for Public Architecture.
Designed by Woods Bagot with Taylor Robinson Chaney Broderick (TRCB), TCL and UDLA, the project delivers five new stations and precincts at Morely, Noranda, Ballajura, Whiteman Park and Ellenbrook.
The stations along the Morley-Ellenbrook line make an outstanding contribution to the social and public infrastructure of a rapidly growing area of Perth, noted the jury.
The jury praised the project for setting “an impressive new sustainability benchmark for government infrastructure in Australia, and for being an exemplar of public transport and community facilities, with the end-user experience at the forefront of the design.”
The Ruah Centre for Women and Children in Northbridge won the Jeffrey Howlett Award for Public Architecture and the Brian Kidd Enabling Architecture Prize.
Designed by Architectus, the Ruah Centre is Australia’s first state-of-the-art healing and recovery centre dedicated to supporting women and children affected by family and domestic violence.
The seven-storey building provides medical, counselling and legal services, and accommodation for families.
Architectus closely collaborated with staff and women with lived experience, carefully balancing dignity, privacy and empowerment.
The jury applauded the project as “an elegant, well-planned and beautifully detailed building” that gives “broken lives a chance to rebuild”.
Hale Memorial Hall and Stow Precinct won the Hillson Beasley Award for Educational Architecture and a Heritage Architecture award.
Designed by KHA, the Hale Memorial Hall was first constructed in 1961 to commemorate the former students of Hale School who died in the World Wars.
The jury commended KHA’s “ingenious refurbishment of a nationally significant modernist memorial hall that enriches the ceremonial life and heart of the school.”
The project “expands the capacity of the main auditorium and elegantly maintains the integrity and beauty of the original building,” said the jury.
Murdoch Square won the Ross Chisholm and Gil Nicol Award for Commercial Architecture and the John Septimus Roe Award for Urban Design.
Designed by Hassell, Murdoch Square reimagines a health precinct as a thriving and inclusive community hub. Five separate buildings integrate public and private healthcare, commercial offices, aged care and short and long-stay accommodation facilities.
The jury hailed the project for “setting an innovative global benchmark for urban design.”
“Murdoch Square combines a complex health services brief and a busy street front into a welcoming, urban place,” said the jury.
All awarded and commended projects from the region are now in the running for the Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards, set to be announced later in the year.
