We are pleased to announce that Sibling co-director Qianyi Lim has been awarded a Fellowship by the Australian Institute of Architects.

A Fellowship is awarded to Institute members who have demonstrated a significant contribution to the architecture profession both within and beyond architecture practice.

Congratulations Qianyi!

Read more about the 2024 NSW Prizes and Honours awards here.

We’re so thrilled that our South East Centre for Contemporary Art project has won both the Blacket prize award and Public Architecture award at the Architecture NSW awards!

Jury Citation:
The South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is awarded the 2024 Blacket Prize for achieving design excellence in a regional context.
The proposed SECCA building is an extensive refurbishment and expansion of the former Bega Valley Regional Art Gallery. With the aim to forge stronger connections between the community and art, the revitalised gallery is not just a cultural hub but a driver of cultural tourism.
The clever design incorporates a well resolved, carefully detailed and cost-effective addition to the original outdated and restrictive building. Encompassing an area of over 500sqm, the expansion strategically reprograms existing functions, bringing gallery spaces to the periphery to showcase exhibitions through large openings in the textured aluminium facade screen. The project has provided a vibrant and playful new facade which engages with the surrounding landscape and civic precinct.
The South East Centre for Contemporary Art is a worthy recipient of the Blacket Prize as it demonstrates an innovative and sensitive architectural revival to an existing building and strengthens ties with the local community, providing a new fit for purpose Art Gallery in the regional town of Bega.

We are delighted and humbled by the recognition at the 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards! Wangaratta district Specialist School won the EmAGN Project Award and received a Commendation for Educational Architecture, Thank you to the jury, The Australian Institute of Architects, and all the stakeholders involved in bringing this project to life. Your expertise and dedication played a crucial role in this success.

Jury Citation:“The project demonstrated a collaborative leadership approach between a practice director in the EmAGN demographic and a graduate team member, who grew into the role of project architect throughout the project’s duration. Leadership was particularly evident throughout the sensory design zones, as the team were challenged to draw upon insights garnered from Sibling’s experience in exhibition design to champion innovative sensory solutions within the VSBA framework and tight budget.The project team demonstrated their commitment to collaboration, actively involving end-users and specialists throughout the design process. The team interrogated the initial design brief, to enrich the building’s functionality and flexibility through extensive end-user consultation. This ensured that the project has a high-level of research and understanding embedded within the design, to meet the diverse needs of students and educators. The built outcome is a playful, thoughtful, and a highly functional response, expertly balancing a challenging brief and tight budget. The jury believes the project sets a new benchmark for the design of inclusive spaces and exemplifies best practice in designing for students who have clinically diagnosed intellectual disabilities. The outcome is dignified, responsible and delightful.”

Architectural Photography by @derek_swalwell

We are humbled to win the 2024 ArchitectureAu Award for Social Impact – an accolade that honours projects that have made valuable societal contributions and prioritise empathy over aesthetics:

Thank you to the jury and Architecture Au.
Jury citation:
“The project offers a model for engagement with a diverse user cohort and expert teaching staff, and is an exemplar of spatial and tactile design for numerous learning (or even workplace) environments across the country,”

Last week we attended the 2024 Dulux Colour Awards at Bennelong, Sydney Opera House.

We were pleased to have two projects shortlisted in the Commercial and Public Interior categroy; Aireys Inlet Primary School and Wangaratta District Specialist School…and even more thrilled to receive a commendation for Aireys Inlet Primary School!!!!

We are so pleased to have this small but mighty project recognised for its bold but thoughtful use of colour. The specific Dulux tones were chosen to reflect the natural bushland and coastal setting of the school. Located on the traditional lands of the Wadawarrung people and Gulidjan and Gadubanud peoples of the Eastern Maar, it was important that the building sat comfortably within its surrounds.

Read more about the project here.

The night was not complete without an obligatory photo with the Dulux dog! Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to Dulux for hosting such a special event and celebrating design through their awards.

Congratulations to Tope Adesina for being one of the recipients of this years Australian Design Review’s 30UNDER30 mentorship program!

We are excited at this mentorship opportunity for Tope, to connect with other young architects and industry experts over the next 12months.
At Sibling, Tope has had a strong hand in shaping many of our education and cultural projects. His experience in public art projects has contributed to a unique understanding of the perceptions of public space.

A man of many talents, Tope is also the man behind the camera, lending his keen and careful eye to the photographic documentation of a number of our recent projects.

Well done Tope!

We kicked off the year with exciting news: we were selected as recipients for the Creative Ventures grant funding!

Supported by the Victorian government, the Creative Ventures program provides two-year grants to small creative organisations to deliver a big impact.

Sibling received more than $180,000 in funding to support our research into sensorially-sensitive architectural design of spaces which cater to neurodivergent and sensorially diverse people.

This research has been a longstanding pre-occupation of Sibling, with earlier projects such as New Agency and Arts Project Australia establishing the groundwork for larger projects such as the recently completed Wangaratta District Specialist School.

We will be posting updates on our research as it unfolds, so keep an eye out on our socials.

A huge congratulations to Andrea and Isabella who were awarded the Christopher Procter research prize and David Lindner research prizes respectively!
The prizes were awarded at the 2023 NSW Australian Institute of Architects Honours and Awards celebration at the Ace Hotel, Sydney.

Andrea’s research is titled “Chinatowns are disappearing around the world – how can architecture ensure their future?”
Jury Citation:
Chinatowns around the world are unique cultural and urban spaces which make a rich contribution to our cities. Through the 19th and 20th century they became places to congregate for many migrants from China and Asia more broadly. They served as vibrant hubs of significant cultural and economic activity, attracting locals and tourists alike.

Changing demographics, post Covid-19 challenges of our inner cities combined with the virus’ origin in Wuhan have left Chinatowns across the globe struggling to regain that vibrancy. Andrea’s research will focus on San Franscisco’s Chinatown which is one of the largest and oldest of its kind. Her study will be about its distinct cultural, economic and physical characteristics, as well as which local renewal strategies may be translatable into an Australian context.

Growing up with regular visits to Sydney’s Chinatown and now working on its reimagination as an architect and urban designer Andrea’s proposal is personal and highly relevant. It meets the mission of the Christopher Procter prize to enable research and professional development with a focus on improving our cities.”

Andrea has also received a Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship to further her research into this topic, where she will travel to the US, Europe and South Pacific.

Isabella’s research is titled “Soft Spaces: Designing for Pain in the Public Realm.”

Jury citation:
Isabella’s submission brings to the fore the high proportion of Australian’s living with the invisible experiences of chronic pain and disease and how good design within our built environment should consider people living with these conditions.

Her proposal builds on her previous research into this topic, where she catalogued how public spaces affect people living with chronic pain. The David Lindner Prize will enable Isabella to continue this research through establishing a set of recommendations in the form of a practical guide for future public buildings and spaces to palliate the effects of chronic pain. This research will be strengthened through collaboration with nominated industry leaders in this space as well as medical professionals.

Through highlighting the statistics around chronic pain and the impact of our environmental conditions on this, the jury considered that Isabella’s work could be a very poignant topic within the architectural profession about how we design our spaces with empathy and inclusion.”

On 11^th May, Sibling attended the Dulux 2023 Colour Awards where our Darebin Intercultural Centre was crowned the winner of the Grand Prix prize!

“The deliberate avoidance of any recognizable cultural representation placed greater importance on the form and material palette, and we applaud the strong tie to the brief, achieved through the push and pull of colour and texture,” said the judges.

Read all about the win on ArchitectureAU, along with a list of all the other winners at the 2023 Dulux Colour Awards.