The 2024 INDE Awards shortlist has been released, showcasing the best in Indo-Pacific architecture and design. Four Woods Bagot projects have been selected across four diverse categories, demonstrating the practice’s reach and design impact across the region.
Marking the awards’ eighth year, this year’s shortlisted projects were selected from over 500 entries across 16 categories.
“Each shortlisted entry reflects the bold, visionary and innovative nature of architecture and design in the Indo-Pacific,” Indesign Media said.
From this year’s selection, the jury praised the architects’ and designers’ creativity, ingenuity and commitment to quality from conception through to execution.
Four Woods Bagot projects have been shortlisted for this year’s INDE Awards: The StandardX for “The Building Space” category; BHP Melbourne for “The Work Space” category; Mosman High School for “The Learning Space” category; and Farage Headquarters for “The Retail Space”.
The Building Space is the grand prize for the region’s most progressive architecture, awarded to the project that marks a new direction in the future of architecture as well as its capacity to respond to its local place and culture.
For The StandardX, the design team undertook a detailed place analysis to devise the best product for this significant corner site in the heart of Fitzroy. Recognising a demand for short-term accommodation with an authentic connection to place, the team designed a hotel that engaged with the community and connected with local ventures. Boasting a robust and simple stacked form and weathering steel façade, the building is intended to blend in with the area’s light-industrial heritage.
Across its 125 rooms, the StandardX trades a larger floorplate for an intimate scale that is deeply enmeshed in the heart of the neighbourhood. Room footprints are offset by larger gathering spaces and common areas that celebrate the local context and support the neighbouring ecosystem of independent retailers.
Boasting gritty industrialism and vital eclecticism in one architectural form, the hotel features an onsite bodega, bustling lobby, restaurant and rooftop bar. Leveraging off existing local industry, The StandardX connects visitors to surrounding businesses, from local coffee roasters, to the nearby gyms, markets and galleries.
The StandardX has been shortlisted alongside 11 other significant projects, including the Harudot Chon Buri in Thailand by IDIN Architects and The Round by BKK Architects and Kerstin Thompson Architects.
The Work Space prize is awarded to a project that recognises the social and cultural as well as the functional significance of the places in which we work. This award honours the workplace design that meets the demands of a practical work environment as well as the needs of the people who use it.
The BHP Melbourne workplace is a forward-looking work environment that demonstrates its commitment to people, to the environment, and to the future. As with all BHP fit outs, connection to site was vital, but especially for this project as the home to the company’s global HQ. Place is embedded through the spatial composition, with the vivid, tactile material palette drawing inspiration from the beauty and warmth of the natural environment.
Design Lead and Woods Bagot Regional BHP Leader Emma Smith said colour in the BHP Workplace has been drawn directly from the land, the palette providing a sense of connection within the global headquarters to the physical sites of its global assets.
“The use of colour in the BHP Melbourne workplace reflects the company’s connection to the land and its global assets,” says Smith. “Inspired directly by the raw natural materials of BHP’s commodities, the colour palette serves as a tangible link to the physical sites where these resources are sourced.
“Rich burgundy, pinks, and oranges reference iron ore and potash, while cooler blues, greens, and greys draw inspiration from coal, nickel, copper, and the intricate processes of metal oxidation,” she continues. “The subdued, earthy tones of the hand-finished render further accentuate this connection, mirroring the textures and hues of the earth itself.”
BHP Melbourne has been shortlisted alongside 11 other creative and innovative workspaces, including Aesop Australia Headquarters by Carr Australia, and Te Tihi Aurecon Auckland by Warren and Mahoney.
The Learning Space award recognises the spectrum of formal and informal spaces that are required to complete the ecosystem of an education campus. This award acknowledges environments that promote connection and learning in the most dexterous and contemporary way to meet the diverse needs of students today.
Mosman High School by Woods Bagot is a significant extension to the existing school on Sydney’s North Shore. The expansion has been inspired by heritage and local landscape, as well as taking inspiration from the creativity of its students.
Overlooking Sydney’s Harbour, the four-storey multipurpose learning facility expands the school’s capacity to 1200 students. The update includes new classrooms, performance and fitness studios, a library, gym and outdoor play areas, including a rooftop courtyard. The project embodies the school’s performing arts values, rich Indigenous significance of the site, and a vision of future learning.
Global Leader of Education and Science at Woods Bagot Georgia Singleton says, “The design approach to Mosman High School reflects the playful and creative character of the school and serve the local community by creating a space that is flexible, promotes future-focused learning and is ultimately a place for everyone.”
Mosman School has been shortlisted alongside 11 other impressive learning campuses, including Darlington Public School by Fjcstudio and The River’s Edge at the University of Tasmania by Wardle.
The Retail Space award acknowledges the many guises of retail space today, and notes the impact, experience and functionality of the best commercial shop spaces.
Farage Headquarters by Woods Bagot and Greg Natale comprises a two-storey retail and bespoke atelier space in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. Housed within a heritage shell as an adaptive reuse of the former Watters Gallery, the interior boasts lofty interiors and brutalist concrete staircase centrepiece, connecting the retail zones on the ground and first floors.
Woods Bagot’s Design Director for Farage, Domenic Alvaro, says that the design focuses on creating an exclusive, private feel for customers in a reflection of Farage’s brand identity.
“Each detail is aligned with the brand image and ethos – grounded in a philosophy which prioritises cutting-edge tailoring, textiles, service and craftmanship,” says Alvaro.
“The concept was to create a simple backdrop to the clothing, with private fitting rooms and a personalised Farage service tucked within the soft gallery volume. Blackened steel elements nod to the industrial history of the site, while bringing an elemental anchor to the consumer journey.”
Founded in 1998, Farage is 100-percent Australian owned, with architecture and design as the key aspirations behind the brand. Designed in collaboration with Greg Natale, the new Farage Headquarters is a testament to creative collaboration with industry leaders and doubles as an event space set within a corner building in the heart of Darlinghurst.
Farage Headquarters has been shortlisted alongside 11 other superb retail spaces, including Fortune Farm by MuseLAB in India, and OLA HALE by CHIO Architects in Vietnam.
View the full INDE. Awards shortlist here.
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