A Family Home Wins Architecture Award after 25 years

A family home at Peregian Beach has been recognised with a prestigious architectural award, 25 years after it was built.

The Pie Residence, designed by Geoffrey Pie for his own young family all those years ago, received the Enduring Architecture Award at the Queensland Architecture Awards.

Mr Pie, now retired, has won a string of design awards during his 50 years as an architect, and was on hand to accept the accolade personally.

"Terrific. It's peer recognition. It's a nice experience," he said yesterday.

"It's called the Enduring Architecture Award, and when a building is 25 years old and looked after well, the Institute of Australian Architects recognises that."

Mr Pie said the house was actually two, two-storey buildings. One had the three bedrooms, and the other the kitchen, dining and living areas, with a self-contained dormitory downstairs. The two buildings are linked by an eight-metre decked courtyard.

Facing north-east and on the seafront, its large sliding doors help integrate the indoor and outdoor areas, but also make it perfect for the hotter months.

"You know how hot it gets in the summer months, but it was as cool as a cucumber," Mr Pie said fondly.

"I reckon in summer we were five to 10 degrees cooler than anyone else."

The judges noted that the house was remarkably unchanged since its construction in 1986, when it received the Robin Boyd Award for residential architecture.

"Its modesty of material and form and its reticence of expression are striking. It possesses both restraint and purpose, closely tailored to its coastal setting and to the changing needs over time of an extended family," the judges said.

The residence was described, more simply, as "brilliant" by Mr Pie's brother Dugald, who has stayed at the home in years gone by.

"It was just one of those places you just melded to. It just felt comfortable," he said.

Other Sunshine Coast buildings were also recognised at the Queensland Architecture Awards:



State Awards for Residential

Architecture: Montville residence, Sparks Architects; Currimundi beach house, Loucas Zahos Architects.

Job and Froud Award for Residential Architecture (multiple housing): Viridian Noosa Stage 3, JMA Architects.

Harry S Marks Award for Sustainable Architecture and the State Award for Urban Design: Viridian Noosa: Stage 3, JMA Architects.

State Award for Sustainable Architecture: Mike Ahern Centre, Project Services;

State Commendation for Urban Design: Noosa Junction Station, Bark Design Architects.