The winner of The Graduate at the 2023 INDE.Awards has been named as Sam Hodgens from the University of Tasmania, Australia. With a diverse group of entrants from across the Indo-Pacific region and entries that addressed multiple issues that face the architecture community, the jury recognised Hodgen’s project as a stand out.

COLORBOND® is the partner of The Graduate category and has shown that supporting the next generation of architects helps to make a better future for design and for people. With sustainability at the heart of Hodgen’s winning entry, COLORBOND® is continuing its support for a better environment and also helping architecture students realise potential at the beginning of their professional journeys.

The 2023 INDE.Awards jury commented on Hodgens project, “Architecture undoing and redoing as a way forward. This research looks, questions and looks again before prompting better workings within the landscapes we share.”

Hodgen’s project is based on two overarching concepts that are extracted from the 18th International Architecture Exhibition: The Laboratory of the Future, the “DE” and “RE” concepts. The “DE” concepts signify efforts to undo, reverse and dismantle, while the “RE” concepts are an effort to recover something that is past or has been lost, to maintain the currency and relevance of something from an older time.

The project delves deep into the relationship between people and nature and focuses on collaborative knowledge production, ecological and interdisciplinary research, and pre-colonial understandings of agricultural practices.

The program seeks to deconstruct conventional educational structures by providing common spaces for inclusive and participatory learning that will explore more sustainable behaviours towards land use and critical responses to a post-climate world.

Congratulations to Sam Hodgens for his outstanding work and we will watch his architectural journey with great interest.

Missed the INDE.Awards gala or just want to relive the highlights? Simply follow this link and sit back and enjoy the only regional celebration of architecture and design excellence. 

Images courtesy of the student.

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