2016 Gallery
Winner: House in a Heritage Context
Owen Architecture for Bayside Fire Station
This project is the addition of a kitchen room to a heritage listed former fire station building. The design aims to enable family life in what,once was a civic building, whilst preserving the heritage of the original building.
Jury Citation
Bayside Fire Station is an outstanding project. Constructed in 1938 as a fire station, it operated until 2004 when it was acquired as a residence. As noted in the heritage report accompanying the entry, it is a modest, functional civic building that plays a prominent landmark role in the street. Its strong symmetry, solid facade and austerity have been well understood by the architects in this brilliantly understated conversion.
A series of compelling drawings in three-dimensional format illustrate the design intent of the project and the very sensitive responses to the varied aspects of the original building. The architects have lucidly described both process and end result, from formal compositional interest, through to the impact of change on the place and materiality of the constructed project.
The design path taken by the architects has resulted in a finished project that not only retains this rare example of pre-war Queensland civic architecture, but also creates for a contemporary family a high-quality residence enriched by its past.
