![\"Cara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2eac2150a6ec06998d97d1d31f89fa5d196e1074.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
June 19, 2026 \u2014 10:00pm<\/p>\n
Save<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Dark rain clouds hover overhead and a brisk wind blows around the old brick buildings clustered on the top of Jacksons Hill on Melbourne\u2019s outskirts.<\/p>\n The former Female Refractory Ward at the Sunbury Lunatic Asylum once housed 50 women in tiny cells, some of them padded, but it has since been transformed into a community arts precinct that has been awarded Victoria\u2019s top award for heritage architecture.<\/p>\n The Sunbury Community Arts and Cultural Precinct, by Architecture Associates with Openwork, won the John George Knight Award for Heritage at the Australian Institute of Architects\u2019 2026 Victorian Architecture Awards on Friday night<\/p>\n The precinct\u2019s project manager, Carina Doolan, said that from 1890, women who suffered from things such as postnatal depression and menopause, those who were neurodivergent, \u201cirrational, outspoken women\u201d, or women who wanted to be independent and not get married and have children were sent to the asylum.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they fought back and felt that they were being unjustly put into an asylum, sometimes they would act out and be seen as not conforming, so then they would be moved into here,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no power, no toilets in the cells. It was very cold, little light, no heating. There was a bathroom with five baths and women were washed in the icy cold waters.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Doolan said Architecture Associates and Openwork had a challenging brief to transform a building that had such a traumatic history.<\/p>\n \u201cThe building was built to confine people and to keep people away from society, and it was very closed off and very isolated, very cold, very restrictive,\u201d she said. \u201cThe challenge for us was to make this beautiful community space that is vibrant and enjoyable; so, trying to change the view without losing the history.\u201d<\/p>\n Architects Samuel Hunter and Danielle Peck carefully retained many of the original features of the building such as the heavy metal cell doors and the wrought-iron fencing around the \u201cairing yard\u201d where the women could go outside, while creating space for a theatre, art gallery, pottery studio and woodwork room.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got this tremendously dark, mysterious, troubling past, which is now the positive message is it\u2019s a community project all of a sudden and supporting creative arts in the community outside of metropolitan Melbourne,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cWhere the arts are supported beyond the metropolis, that\u2019s very uncommon.\u201d<\/p>\n Oversized planters in the courtyard echo the chimneys around the site and the architects have tried to insert a sense of fun with tool motifs in the woodwork studio taking some \u201cbig Bunnings\u201d inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just has such a serious weight when you come here that finding moments for a bit of levity is important,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n Community involvement included the woodwork group creating columns for the new building and the potters creating handmade tiles.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t really stop designing until the construction was complete because every week there would be a new revelation,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThere would be a new door, a new step, or we discovered all the original blue stone flooring in what was the bath house.\u201d<\/p>\n Peck said it was refreshing to have a client who did not want to sanitise the history of the building.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve just left some things, or have things very open,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s been part of the healing of this site, and the success of it, really that everybody\u2019s very aware of what happened here, and there are positive futures that are starting to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sunbury Community Arts and Cultural Precinct was one of 64 winners and commendations at the awards, which span residential, community and commercial projects.<\/p>\n Awards jury chair Simon Knott said the winners included beloved landmarks that had transcended their function as pieces of infrastructure.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cWe saw multiple community projects that are delightful sites of human congregation where community-centric design has been at the forefront \u2013 taking prosaic pieces of existing architecture and making them a place of recreation,\u201d he said. \u201cSites with a grim history were also utterly transformed with deft hands and given new life as public hubs with a multitude of amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n Other winners included 65 Dover Street, Cremorne, housing the Commons Health Club, for which Fieldwork won the top commercial architecture accolade; the new Footscray Hospital by COX Architecture and Billard Leece Partnership, which won the public architecture award; and the St Kilda Pier redevelopment<\/a>, which won Jackson Clements Burrows, Site Office and AW Maritime the top award for urban design.<\/p>\n A former Toorak laundry converted into a one-bedroom apartment by Studio Hill won the highest honour for interior architecture, while Palmerston Street House by Robert Simeoni Architects won the top residential architecture award for house alterations and additions for its celebration of Carlton\u2019s cultural and architectural heritage.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Architects](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/747242960098549c7c32be9bd01b50c20ad7579a.jpeg\")
Architects Samuel Hunter and Danielle Peck at the Sunbury Community Arts and Cultural Building, which has won one of Victoria\u2019s top architecture awards. Jason South<\/p>\n![\"Sunbury](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/e0baa7dd1abb328336a7cb2129be49cbcbe6b5a2.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6830cd810575ede479bbfa2ebc12a6c8ef6e5527.jpeg\")
The performance space in the Sunbury Community Arts and Cultural Building.Jason South<\/p>\n![\"Memorial](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/7f898e7fcca901e836fcf462c9b36d213100b2747c5a80c262f5d663650141fb.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n