A 586-metre serpentine bridge in China has received the highest honour in the Australian Institute of Architects 2022 International Chapter Architecture Awards.
Yuandang Bridge by Brearley Architects and Urbanists BAU was awarded the International Architecture Medallion for its evocative structure.
“Yuandang Bridge is at once playful, achingly beautiful, and surprisingly, it astutely interweaves the intimate human scale with the vast seascape,” the jury said. “There are moments for shared gatherings under the pavilion with its warped metal structure, referencing the wearing of water of the local Suzhou Taihu rocks, along with intimately calibrated moments for individual contemplation and discovery. The pavilion roof structure is detailed to seemingly impossible thinness, almost like a hovering sheet of water fashioned more evocatively by its rippled reflective metal lining.”
The bridge received the international chapter named award in the urban design category.
Elsewhere in the awards Columbia University profession of architecture Felicity D. Scott was awarded the William J. Mitchell Prize for her contribution to Australian architecture abroad.
Winners of the international chapter awards will advance to the National Architecture Awards to be announced on 3 November.
International Architecture Medallion
Yuandang Bridge – Brearley Architects and Urbanists BAU
Public Architecture
Commendation
Australian Pavilion, Expo 2020 – Bureau Proberts
Educational Architecture
Award
Tianyou Experimental School – Brearley Architects and Urbanists BAU
Commercial Architecture
International Chapter Named Award
Commercial Bay – Te Toki I te Rangi – Warren and Mahoney, with Woods Bagot and NH Architecture
Urban Design
International Chapter Named Award
Yuandang Bridge – Brearley Architects and Urbanists BAU
Commendation
Commercial Bay – Te Toki I te Rangi – Warren and Mahoney, with Woods Bagot and NH Architecture
William J Mitchell Prize
Dr Felicity D Scott
