Croker takes out excellence awards
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A LOCAL building designer has picked up three awards for his cutting-edge, environmentally- friendly building designs at the Building Designers Australia Design Excellence Awards, held in Sydney recently.
Simon Croker of SC Design Solutions won the ‘New Residential Buildings up to 250sqm’ category, received a commendation in the ‘Residential Alterations and Additions over $200,000’ category, and was the overall winner of the sought after ‘Environmentally Sustainable Buildings’ award.
His work in designing self-sufficient, sustainable and comfortable residences at Tarlo and Currawang – both of which are without mains power - was deemed some of the state’s best.
“It’s really exciting,” Mr Croker told the Post.
“It’s been a great honour to receive these awards on behalf of our company and our clients, and I’m thrilled to be recognised for something I’m passionate about.”
Mr Croker has been the principal designer at his Goulburn-based practice since 2004, following on from a seven-year stint at Bunning and Madden Architects in Canberra.
The practice has a flair for environmentally sustainable design. Mr Croker says he tries to develop the natural advantages of the site and locally sourced building materials into a comfortable, modern residence.
“We’re primarily involved in working with newer products and natural materials, and there’s more awareness now with people to reduce their footprint and impact on the environment, so that leads to a lot of innovative new designs,” he said.
“Each site has its own constraints and opportunities, and so we have to adapt to the site as well as to what the client wants.”
His design at the new ‘Moon Dance’ cottage, located on a 2000- acre property in the Tarlo National Park, incorporated local stone and timber with newer technology like Photovoltaic Solar Systems and LPG Gas.
The design was the winner of this year’s ‘New Residential Buildings up to 250sqm’ category.
“We tried to blend it in to the natural environment so we used a lot of locally-sourced stone from the property, (and) some spotted gum and recycled iron bark. It was designed for complete relaxation and reflection for the Sydneybased clients,” Mr Croker said.
Having designed award-winning residences for other people in the region, you might think this local designer would be cooking up an amazing dream home design of his own. But he’s not ready to give up work and retire to the local countryside just yet, he said.
“I love our Goulburn region, so a home nestled on a rural property somewhere in the future would suit my family and me just fine. “I would like to include many of the Ecological Sustainable design principles and solutions I have learnt and combined them with the many of the exciting new building technologies and materials available on the market today.”
As winner of these state-based awards, Simon moves through to the national awards held early next year.
