Peter Stutchbury's 34 years of architectural practice reached a milestone in winning the 2015 Gold Medal in the Australia Achievement in Architecture Awards during a March 19 evening ceremony at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Organized by the Australian Institute of Architects, the national awards recognize respected practitioners, up-and-coming architects, academics, and students for their exemplary contribution to the profession in various disciplines.

Like a token of national pride, the achievement award recognizes the recipient's ongoing contribution to advancing architecture through practice, teaching, and participation in professional activities and organizations.

The jury described Stutchbury as "mastering the art of creating architecture that speaks of the place it inhabits – buildings that are environmentally sustainable, culturally specific and locally embedded."

More about Stutchbury below:

‘Since establishing his own practice in 1981, Stutchbury and his firm have received 47 Institute awards ( including two Robin Boyd Awards for Residential Housing ), have won or been placed in approximately 20 national and international design competitions, have been published in around 200 books and publications, and have been exhibited in Australia, Europe, America and Asia."

His most famous works include his two Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture winning projects, Springwater (2005) and Bay House (2003), Deepwater Woolshed and the Invisible House, winner of a 2014 NSW Architecture Award for Residential Architecture."

"While the work of Peter Stutchbury Architecture is best known for its residential responses to unique Australian regional landscapes, Stutchbury’s work is not limited to this genre. ‘The firm’s awarded projects include public works in urban environments and in recent years Stutchbury has successfully applied his meticulous, site - sensitive design approach in international locations as diver se as Japan, Vanuatu and Russia,’ the jury reported."

"A professor in architecture at the University of Newcastle, Stutchbury has been engaged in teaching throughout his career, including tenures as a guest professor at a number of international universities. He is also a founding director of the Architecture Foundation Australia and has taught at the foundation’s Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class since its inception in 2001."

Additional awards were also given at the ceremony, including:

• Emerging Architect Prize Nic Brunsdon, Post - and Spacemarket (WA)
• National President’s Prize Ian Close and Sue Harris, Architecture Media (Vic)
• Student Prize for Advancement of Architecture Barnaby Hartford - Davis, RMIT (Vic)
• BlueScope Glenn Murcutt Student Prize: Matthew Hyland, University of Tasmania (Qld) and Jin Chen Lee, University of NSW (NSW)
• Leadership in Sustainability Prize: Professor Emeritus Allan Rodger LFRAIA (Vic)
• William J Mitchell International Committee Prize: Louise Cox AO LFRAIA (NSW)
• Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize: Professor Paul Memmott, University of Queensland (Qld)
• Dulux Study Tour Prize: Bonn ie Herring, Breathe Architecture (Vic); Casey Bryant, Andrew Burns Architect (NSW); John Ellway, James Russell Architect (Qld); Monique Woodward, WOWOWA (Vic); Nic Brunsdon, Post - and Spacemarket (WA)