Bruce Reynolds wins a 2011 CCAA Public Domain Award...

Congratulations to Bruce Reynolds, winner of one of the 2011 CCAA Public Domain Awards - national awards for excellence in concrete to enhance the public domain.

Entered by – Cox Rayner Architects

Client – Queensland Government, Department of Justice and Attorney General

Architect – ABM Cox Rayner Architects

Landscape Architect – Tract

Consultants - Artist – Bruce Reynolds

Principal Contractor – Abigroup

Principal Engineer – Robert Bird Group

Main Concrete Supplier – Boral

Overview

The Ipswich Justice Precinct comprises a courthouse serving both District and Magistrates courts, and a police station. The brief required the police station to be independently identifiable while also forming part of the precinct.

The design strategy was to create a courtyard on the street front to wrap the courthouse around two edges and the police station around the other, the courtyard forming the fulcrum of activity.

The choice of pre-coloured concrete as the primary building material was made because of its adaptability to meet different planning layouts at each level, including slightly different sizes plates. A second purpose was to relate the buildings to a city renowned for its masonry civic buildings and churches, without resorting to obvious copy of their materials. As an essentially raw material, concrete was also bchosen for its compatibility with a palette of other raw materials, particularly timber.

Insitu rather than precast was chosen because the design did not generate the repetition suited to the latter. The design team also preferred the imperfect character of insitu concrete, optimising its plasticity to envelop spaces, define

certain functions and create tactility.

Judges Comments

The impressive integration of site-specific artwork and concrete construction for the suite of external walls in this project creates a setting that adds strength and depth to the public domain in Ipswich and confidence in contemporary civic institutions. A masterful demonstration of how creative narrative power and technical expertise in construction can work together in a public project.

Judged by:

Professor Catherin Bull, Emeritus Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Melbourne, Adjunct Professor at QUT.

Professor Philip Follent, Head of School, Soheil Abedian School of Architecture Bond University.

Tony Blackwell, Managing Director, Landscape bArchitect and Urban Designer, Blackwell & Associates.