The Australian Institute of Architects has recognised our design at the 2024 National Architecture Awards and awarded The Porter House with the National Commercial Architecture Award and the National Award for Heritage Architecture Award.

We’d like to thank our clients, the project team and our construction team.

Client: United Development Sydney Pty Ltd (original competition with Mars Planning Pty Ltd)

Architectural Team – Design: Angelo Candalepas (Director), Evan Pearson (Principal), Alex Dircks, Nichole Darke, Nathan Kong, James van Geffen, John Evans, Lewis Evans, Jemima Retallack, Lachlan Seegers, Luiz Maia.

Architectural Team – Documentation: Angelo Candalepas (Director), Sergio Melo e Azevedo (Senior Associate), Peter Kouvelas (Associate), Jason Williams (Associate), Martin Christensen, Joanna Latoska, Pedro Nascimento, Carl Tappin, Jarrod Hinwood, Nathan Kong, Silvia Fernandez, Lazslo Kotvan, Paul Lopez.

Architectural Team – Interiors: Angelo Candalepas (Director), Vesna Kocovic. Shelby Kueber, Nathan Kong.

Builder: Hutchinson Builders
Geotechnical: Douglas Partners
Acoustics: Acoustic Logic
Mechanical Engineer: Evolved Engineering / D&E
Electrical Engineer: Evolved Engineering / Ultegra / Perigon
Façade Engineer: Surface Design Consulting / GJames
Structural and Civil Engineer: BG&E Consulting Engineers
Structural (Heritage): Mott MacDonald
Heritage Consultant: GML Heritage Pty Ltd
Landscape: Sydney Design Collective
Principal Certifying Authority: Elite Certification
Access Consultant: Morris Goding Accessibility Consultant
Fire: Innova Services PTY LTD
Planner: Ethos Urban
Artist: Fernando Torres Rebollo (Interior), Maria-Fernanda Cardoso (Exterior)
Artist Strategy: Amanda Sharrad
Heritage Consultant: Extent Heritage/ NBRS Architecture Heritage

Jury Citation for Heritage Architecture: “The construction and materials of Porter House, a 146-year-old building in the Sydney CBD, contain significant early Sydney history and heritage. The building was originally constructed – reportedly by convict settlers – using Sydney sandstone bricks. It was a tobacco factory and later housed a leather factory and furniture manufacturer. This heritage has been given longevity thanks to accomplished interventions to the building. New interior uses include a restaurant, cocktail bar and hotel guest services featuring interiors that deliberately match the heritage fabric in richness of detail and material. At the same time, layers of the building’s history are made visible, including displays of uncovered artefacts that reveal its narrative. This project has handsomely reinstated the original Porter House façade, the entire first storey of which required complete reconstruction. This façade has been given prominence with the addition of an adjacent modern façade. The new face is sculptural and silent and mirrors the Porter House face in both scale and intent. This project honours a heritage building by confidently accompanying it with reciprocal detail and craft.”

Jury Citation for Commercial Architecture: “This project is two buildings of timeless modernity and heritage in a reciprocal pairing. Together they give a sense of civic permanence. The Porter House Hotel is a CBD hotel where the new building houses hotel rooms and street-level retail, while the adjacent heritage building contains hotel guest services, a restaurant and cocktail bar. The buildings are set apart to create an entry lane, which gives bookend space to the heritage building. The laneway void invites civic access and becomes the mediator of complex hotel services and access. The new and old buildings are a counterpoint to each other in terms of decoration and detail, yet both buildings exhibit a similar level of deliberate craft. To this end, the building, and the project as a whole, invite public viewing of architecture as craft. The hewn, sculpted façade of the new building is a celebration of architecture as a permanent art form. Both on a civic level and a minute tactile level, this building communicates the importance of architecture as a practice.”

Photography: Rory Gardiner

For more information please visit https://www.architecture.com.au/awards/2024-awards