CODA Studio

CODA Studio is an architecture practice that doesn't see the contradiction in creating work that is both practical and intellectually rigorous. Since 1999, we have been dedicated to a user-centric design approach, and have grown an enviable portfolio demonstrating a contemporary vision that respects the functional and emotional requirements of those that interact with our buildings. This approach has seen us widely recognised as one of Western Australia's premier young practices.

www.coda-studio.com

DRAW: de Manincor Russell Architecture Workshop

DRAW is a Sydney based architectural practice operating at the nexus between professional services, research, publication and education.

Formally and programmatically their work is generated through intense investigation and abstraction of existing conditions and typologies (tempered with a little fun). Their design process explores a narrative of contrast and in doing so invites a detailed reading of numerous layers over time.

The DRAW portfolio ranges from a 23 sq cupcake store, single and multi-unit housing, to a master plan for student housing at the University of NSW. Current projects include a new State Emergency Services Headquaters and an urban space/transport infrastructure study for the City of Sydney.

www.draw.net.au

Marsh Cashman Koolloos Architects

MCK Architects is a young energetic architectural workshop offering design services ranging from furniture and interiors to architectural and urban projects. we typically explore quality design that has a strong conceptual basis, evident and reinforced in close attention to detail.

Projects to date have ranged dramatically in scale, but have all shared a common philosophy that any project evolves primarily from client needs and site opportunities. in this respect we have never been constrained by how large or small a project is, and have always been flexible enough to adjust to new projects and conditions. our previous work has always relied on a collaborative, energy between our respective clients and ourselves and a common desire to be challenging and creative.

www.mckarchitects.com

Minifie Nixon

Minifie Nixon Architects is an internationally recognised, award-winning architectural practice based in Melbourne, Australia. Our work is known for its design quality, imagination and originality. Each project offers an opportunity to pursue new solutions to complex building problems and to provide a particular architectural form that best realises the issues pertinent to that unique set of conditions.

We design buildings and environments that embody our clients' images and aspirations. Using an intense research process, we explore the ecological, economic, physical and experiential needs of a commission and provide something else as well: a new architecture for each new project.

Our commitment to innovative, high-quality design and the successful realisation of our clients' individual requirements has been recognised by the architectural community.

www.minifienixon.com

Owen and Vokes

Owen and Vokes (est.2003) is the Brisbane based practice of Paul Owen and Stuart Vokes specialising in residential and boutique commercial projects. The practice stresses the significance of design in the built environment and seeks to work with independent, inspired clients with a shared ambition for genuine architectural outcomes.

Owen and Vokes are primarily interested in the phenomenology of architecture and room making informed by human occupation. Evolving built typologies explore themes of enclosure and pleasure, and idealize the presence of nature.

There is a preference for making plain buildings with humble materials that are free of mannerism, distilling the potency of enclosure.

The prevailing aesthetics of austerity, not to be confused as modernist dogma, reveals a cultural resistance to fashionable affectation.

Traditional architectural practice and building methods are valued for they endure.

www.owenandvokes.com

Paul Morgan Architects

Paul Morgan Architects has emerged as one of Australia's most innovative architectural practices, specialising in educational design for universities and technical colleges. PMA has also completed residential and urban design, master planning, commercial, government and library projects in Melbourne, regional Victoria and Asia.

PMA's design-led team takes a strategic and expressive approach, creating innovative projects for ambitious clients. Our design processes result in space types such as ecology performance envelopes, spatial-acoustic environments and blended learning spaces that embrace and inspire end users.

PMA has been published extensively worldwide. In 2007 The Cape Schanck House won the RAIA Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture and was one of twenty projects nominated globally for the biennial Zumtobel Award for outstanding sustainable contributions to architecture and humanity.

www.paulmorganarchitects.com

The competition is first and foremost a design competition intended to elicit sophisticated speculations focusing on the environmental, social and artistic potential to transform residential and mixed-use design.

The participating architects have been briefed to incorporate the environmental capabilities of brick products while featuring at least 75% face brick in the non-glazed areas. Thus, the use of bricks should be explored in multiple and innovative ways to achieve these aims.

Past About Face competitions have focused on architect specific criteria investigating ESD and 'Artistic' attributes including Post Consumer Recycling, Durability, Recycling, VOC free, Art of Detailing, Commemoration and Meaning, Colour, Pattern and Texture, Form and Space and Light.

The 2009 competition will build on the past ideas but allow the individual architects to determine their own thematic agenda based around a relationship to 'socially orientated architecture'. It is possible that any combination of these attributes (and more) may support the theoretical foundation for the architectural proposition.

Program and Setting

Each architect is to explore a mixed use building with predominately multi-residential use supported by other facilities as deemed appropriate to suit the location and individual architect agenda.

Specific criteria include:

• Selection of an urban (or fringe urban) situation that includes a small multi-residential building and adjacent public place
• Clear demonstration of how the use of brick is fundamental to the idea developed
• Demonstrate clay brick’s superior capacity to fulfill ESD objectives

The Government Architect in each state (EPRA in WA) has been contacted in relation to this competition with the intent of potentially tying this research in to a program and site that may form part of the state government agenda. Although each invited architect is encouraged to explore this opportunity, if a suitable site that matches the competition brief is not available from the relevant government, the competitors will have no alternative but to independently select a site of their choice. This will not result in the competitor being penalised.

About Face is Think Brick Australia's invitation-only design ideas competition and is designed to support and foster innovation and research with Australia's architectural community.

The one stage competition calls for the selected architects to design a project that exemplifies innovation using face brick.

For full event details, entrants and winners of previous About Face competitions please visit www.thinkbrick.com.au

About Face 2009 Timeline

About Face 09 launches Form and Function Melbourne Convention Centre	30 April
Participating architects profiled online	30 April
Deadline for submissions	19 June
Official judging	2 July
Architect submissions published online	August
Peer voting opens online	August
Peer voting closes	18 September
Think Brick Awards Gala Dinner - winners announced	24 September
Award winners published online	25 September

Awards

The winners of About Face 2009, any commendations awarded and the About Face Peers' Choice Award winner will be announced and presented at an invitation-only event to be held in Sydney on Thursday 24th September 2009.

The "Peers' Choice" award will be voted by Australian architects during August, here on this website. Voting is open to all registered Australian architects.

The About Face awards presentation event also incorporates a Student Award and the Horbury Hunt Award for outstanding brick craftsmanship and innovation in built projects. Visit www.horburyhunt.com.au for more information.

Tickets to attend are available for each practice by request ?please contact us

Jury

A jury has been appointed by Think Brick Australia to judge the submissions and appoint a winner.

Jury Chair:

• Stephen Neille - Pendal and Neille (2008 About Face joint winner)

Jury:

• Michael Banney (m3architecture) (2008 About Face joint winner)
• Andrew Mackenzie (Architectural Review Australia)
• Lindsay Partridge (Chairman, Think Brick Australia)
• Linda Ginger (CEO, Think Brick Australia)

Think Brick Australia has appointed the following advisors to the jury:

• Adrian Iredale (Director Iredale Pedersen Hook architects and Architectural Advisor to Think Brick Australia)
• Cathy Inglis (Technical Advisor, Think Brick Australia)

The 2009 About Face competition was focused on the theme of socially responsive architecture and was explored by Brisbane's Owen and Vokes, Perth's CODA, Sydney's DRAW and Marsh Cashman Koolloos and Minifie Nixon and Paul Morgan Architects from Melbourne.

In choosing the winner CODA and two highly commended entries from Draw and Owen and Vokes, the jury focused on the architectural interpretation of the social agenda criteria and how well researched and thorough the responses were to the social and innovation issues that were chosen to be addressed.

In the opinion of the jury the beauty and innovation evident in CODA's mixed-use proposal was developed on the strength of a direct idea and the strategic invention of a new brick type, this approach was grounded in primary research that embraced social issues, while delivering compelling innovation and a genuine solution. Their entry showed a carefully balanced design ambition, combining new textural possibilities achievable within modest manufacturing processes, with the delivery of a robust social program.

DRAW's entry engaged with a broader social agenda, as well the macro urban issues experienced in many cities and towns across Australia. Their proposal created a truly delightful series of spatially rich and materially seductive forms, which left the jury believing this entry, provided a rich and versatile answer to the challenge presented.

The jury also enjoyed the social inclusion Owen and Vokes entry provided and how it formed a luscious intimacy between garden and brickwork. It's architectural proposition moves between the fine grain of a single residential building and its contribution to multiple communities. Using the natural heft of brick, Owen and Vokes also challenged assumptions of the traditional Queensland form by anchoring them elegantly to the ground.