The national and state winners have been revealed for the 2026 Super Studio competition, organised by the Australian Institute of Architects’ Student Organising Network for Architecture (SONA), with a Queensland team taking home the top prize.
An annual competition open nationally to student members of the Institute, Super Studio challenged this year’s entrants with a brief titled “Pause, Gather, Feel”, developed by creative directors Madeline Sewall and Keith Westbrook of design practice Up to Something, alongside SONA vice president of professional development Zoeanna Upadhyay.
In response to increasing digitisation globally, the 2026 brief tasked participants “to design physical spaces centered around a single artwork, artefact, or narrative – creating environments that encourage observation, presence, and embodied engagement,” the Institute said in a communique.
The national prize was awarded to “Arirang Gogae” – a memorial pavilion in the form of an architectural music instrument, located in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) – by Jaehong Kim and Seo Jin Hong.
The designers commented, “Our project begins with the belief that the shared wounds of war can be remembered, and our shared identity reclaimed, through the one song both Koreas still possess together.”
In the design, visitors pluck strings integrated into the pavilion to play Arirang – a Korean folk tune. In playing the strings, the occupants leave behind vibrations.
“Only after passing the centre do they realise that the vibrations they first experienced were created by someone entering from the other side; perhaps the north,” the designers said. “Then another realisation follows: their own melody has also reached someone they will never know. Together, they continue forward.”
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The jury reflected, “What made this project so extraordinary was how music and architecture were fused to address profound political divide.”
“The idea of … allowing strangers from opposite sides to feel one another’s presence, was a deeply poetic reflection on memory, touch, and shared identity,” they said.
They added that original, inventive thinking was evident across all the state chapter winners, along with personal, creative touches to the visual storytelling and drawings.
The winners were:
Queensland (national winner)
Arirang Gogae by Jaehong Kim and Seo Jin Hong
Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory
Pre-sense by Barton Taylor
New South Wales
Edge of Paradise by Ho Yeung Alvin Chan
Northern Territory
Delirra Park by Rose Souter, Jorja Handebo and Ashley Bagadiong
South Australia
Finding Ourselves by Dylan Fleming and Angus Vojonovic
Tasmania
The End of Pursuit by Ee Xuen Lee and Gabriel Yiek
Victoria
Refugium by Wendy Wing, Rowan Taylor and Ruth Martin
Western Australia
Imprint by Willow McGuigan and Jelaica Nabajo
For more information visit the Australian Institute of Architects’ website.