Murdoch Uni building Boola Katitjin wins top architecture prize

Murdoch University’s new teaching building Boola Katitjin has won a sought after international architecture prize.

Inside the Boola Katitjin building at Murdoch University.

Murdoch University’s new Boola Katitjin teaching building has won the higher education and research category at the World Architecture Festival in Singapore.

Boola Katitjin, which means “many facets and many levels of learning” in the Noongar language, is a 180m long, four-storey, 16,000sq m timber building that accommodates up to 60 per cent of the university’s teaching requirements.

The building also leads in environmental sustainability with solar panels, stormwater harvesting and active design features that mean it can operate on 100 per cent renewable energy.

An exterior view of Boola Katitjin.

Murdoch vice-chancellor Andrew Deeks said the international recognition for Boola Katitjin demonstrated the significance the global community places on environmental responsibility.

At the World Architecture Festival last week the building won against strong competition including the Centre for Computing and Data Sciences at Boston University; Printing House Square at Trinity College Dublin; and the John A. Paulson Centre at New York University.

Principal architect Carey Lyon said his team was “pretty happy and humbled that the jury thought a project in Perth was the worthy winner”.

Earlier this year Boola Katitjin won the George Temple Poole Award, the top prize at the WA Architecture Awards.