BRINGING back the Wollongong City architecture competition could help encourage quality and daring in building design according to Deputy Mayor Tania Brown.

Cr Brown, who is Labor’s candidate for lord mayor at the September local government elections, said an architectural excellence competition could be the motivation to inspire award-winning designs.

Cr Brown pledged to create the awards, to be held every two years, if elected into Wollongong’s top job at next month’s elections.

“The city ran architecture awards for a few years in the early 2000s and given the present volume of investment in the city it’s a good time to bring them back,” Cr Brown said.
The proposed awards will be judged by a panel of stakeholders and include a citizen’s vote section.

“I propose that the award categories should include sections for affordable housing, heritage, adaptive reuse and sustainability,” Cr Brown said.

“There has been significant focus on bad building practices since the Building Commissioner began inspections in the city and it’s appropriate that we do what we can to reward excellence and even a bit of risk taking in design.

“In February I called for the Building Commissioner to open an office in Wollongong to tackle the dodgy building practices we have seen taking place. Pleasingly, this NSW Government office opened in July with staff now on the ground and working to lift construction standards.

“Now we want to challenge the industry to inspire us with daring design and reward that creative thinking,” Cr Brown said.

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