A Curtin University architect and design team has taken out national honours, winning the 2022 Fleetwood Challenge Cup which showcases Australia’s leading Architectural, Engineering and Construction Management (AEC) students.
There were four national finalists, one from Western Sydney University and three from Curtin University, with Curtin’s Team Curvular announced the winner in a gala ceremony at the annual prefabAUS Conference on the evening of September 6 in Brisbane.
PrefabAUS, Australia’s off-site construction industry peak body, developed the Challenge Cup in partnership with Fleetwood Australia.
“The Fleetwood Challenge Cup enables our industry to support and celebrate innovative designers of tomorrow, whose foresight and imagination is guiding and inspiring our industry into the realities of a challenging future,” prefabAUS Executive Chair, Damien Crough, said.
Fleetwood Australia CEO, Bruce Nicholson congratulated all entrants for tackling the timely and topical requirements set for the 2022 Challenge.
“This year we asked students to design affordable and sustainable housing construction solutions to counter Australia’s housing and climate crises, and demonstrate how offsite manufacturing and the latest prefabricated construction methods could be delivered with a NET Zero focus,” Bruce said.
Each design solution applied futuristic thinking to reduce construction sector carbon emissions while applying the unique value proposition of prefabrication and modular building to ease the housing crisis. The unit building design was to be modifiable, delivered in multiple configurations and flexible to enable more than one façade.
Collaborations between industry and universities, such as the Challenge Cup, create confidence to prepare and to invest in a construction sector future-focussed to meet the community’s evolving needs, via next generation-inspired AEC design professionals.
“The Fleetwood Challenge Cup actively encourages and embraces off-site manufacturing technology and design, and prefabricated construction, which is clearly the future of the industry,” prefab Executive Chair, Damien Crough, said.
Finalists, who were selected by a panel of Australia’s leading architectural, engineering, science and innovation professionals, share a $15,000 prize pool, with the winning team awarded $7,000.
The three Curtin finalists were:
- Team Curvular: Rebecca Burcui Luke McBeath, Presley Peter and Yih Han Lim.
- Team 49 Victoria: Dinh Vinh Thang Le, Mohammed Saadiq Mohammed Akbar, Alwin Joe, and Ravin Jayasinghe
- Team Lot 49 NRCG: Cameron Atkins, Nian Hui Ooi, Regelyn De Castro and Gabrielle Kusnowirjono.
2022’s National finalists:
- (Winner 2022) Curvular (Curtin University WA)
- 49 Victoria (Curtin University WA)
- The Western Residences (Western Sydney University) – Fleetwood Industry Award
- Lot 49 Victoria Street (Curtin University WA)
