We are honoured and deeply humbled to hear that our design for Punchbowl Mosque has been awarded a RIBA International Award for Excellence 2024.

Thank you to our client, Australian Islamic Mission and the project team.

Architectural Team: Angelo Candalepas (Director), Adrian Curtin (Principal), Evan Pearson (Principal), Jeremy Loblay, Rachel Yabsley, Nichole Darke, Ivan Jeldrez

Architectural Team – early stages design and documentation: Alex Dircks, Andrew Scott, Christian Natterodt, Clancy Mears, David Tordoff, David Butler, Claudia Takada.

Builder: Infinity Constructions Group
Structural Engineers: Taylor Thomson Whitting Group Pty Ltd and Wood and Grieve Engineers Limited
Principal Certifying Authority: Blackett Maguire + Goldsmith Pty Ltd
Hydraulic Engineers: Jones Nicholson Pty Limited
Mechanical/Electrical Engineers: Jones Nicholson Pty Limited
Landscape Architect: Taylor Brammer Landscape Architects Pty Limited
Access Consultant: Accessibility Solutions (NSW)
Fire Engineering: Innova Services PTY LTD
Geotechnical Engineering: JK Geotechnics Pty Limited
Planner: SJB Planning (NSW) Pty Ltd

Photography: Rory Gardiner and Boral Australia

In a suburb located southwest of Sydney, this modest project sought to establish a new home for the Australian Islamic Mission and to provide a place for learning and religious worship. It subsequently inspired an entire community to use its rare public interior as a meeting place for all people.

Today, the space represents a unity of community ethics. It has been the venue for numerous public events such as festivals, meetings and even the State Governor’s opening of the legal year in New South Wales.

The building has dissolved many barriers between the local population and the broader society of Sydney and is today a space where the entire community celebrates social diversity. Creating a place of worship has provided a dimension to the client that is at once core to the brief and surprising.

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Jury Citation: “Entirely modern in its use of material and in its formal and spatial manipulation, the Punchbowl Mosque nevertheless seems to take its place confidently within the tradition of Muslim architecture. And although principally, and manifestly, designed to celebrate and intensify the experience of worship, the mosque also serves the wider community as a venue for meetings, festivals and events, and is already enormously valued locally for its openness and inclusivity.”

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Photography: Rory Gardiner and Boral Australia