James Cook University, Engineering & Innovation Place awarded Daryl Jackson Award for Educational Architecture.

James Cook University, Engineering & Innovation Place has been awarded the Daryl Jackson Award for Educational Architecture at the 2025 AIA National Architecture Awards. This award represents the night’s top award for Educational Architecture and affirms the project’s ambitious contribution to the educational design typology and KIRK’s role as a leader in shaping the next generation of adaptive and multi-modal learning environments.
Designed by KIRK in collaboration with i4Architecture and Charles Wright Architects, the project was commended by the Jury for its rigorous engagement with the tropical site conditions and its innovative approach to the evolving demands of University infrastructure.

"The Engineering and Innovation Place at James Cook University is an exceptional piece of educational architecture. Deeply grounded in Indigenous knowledges of place, the building is considerate of the university’s original Stephenson and Birrel Master Plan but embraces its role in repositioning the campus into a contemporary learning environment. The combined experience of Kirk, I4 Architecture and Charles Wright Architects has produced an architecture that explores the opportunities of its tropical context and understands the pedagogical demands of a hardworking piece of university infrastructure.

The learning spaces are responsive and adaptive, with peer-to-peer informal areas stacked around a central atrium that can be opened up to the main thoroughfare of the campus. A dynamic series of research spaces is vertically assembled from the exciting prototyping warehouse on the ground floor, alongside highly functional laboratories that provide clear visibility to the activities inside.

These spaces rise to the truly innovative Multi-Modal Studio, which is a beautiful room that shifts effortlessly from public lecture space to function room to incidental study space. The articulated façade, crafted of zinc and timber, creates deep shades in its immediate response to place, but its refinements conceals a highly innovated façade system that leverages cyclonic construction techniques to reduce the core concrete structure. Engineering and Innovation Place marks an ambitious new phase of campus development for JCU and set a new standard for tropical architecture in Australia. " (Jury Citation)

This national award follows a series of accolades for the project including:

• The Jennifer Taylor Award for Educational Architecture at the 2025 AIA QLD State Architecture Awards
• The GHM Addison Award for Interior Architecture at the 2025 AIA QLD State Architecture Awards
• The Harry Marks Award for Sustainable Architecture at the 2025 AIA QLD State Architecture Awards
• Walter and Oliver Tunbridge Award for Building of the Year at 2025 AIA North Queensland Regional Architecture Awards
• Finalist in Higher Education & Research Category at the World Architecture Festival 2025 (Winner to be Announced)
• Prix Versailles 2025 Finalist for “World’s Most Beautiful Campus’ (Winner to be Announced)
• Commendation in Educational Architecture at 2025 AIA North Queensland Regional Architecture Awards
• Commendation in Interior Architecture at 2025 AIA North Queensland Regional Architecture Awards
• Shortlisted for Art and Architecture Award at the 2025 AIA QLD State Architecture Awards
• Shortlisted for EmAGN Project Award at the 2025 AIA QLD State Architecture Awards

KIRK would like to thank the Institute and Jury for this acknowledgement. We share this recognition with our client and project teams who were instrumental to the success of JCU EIP.

The KIRK team now travels to Miami and Paris to present JCU EIP on the global stage at the World Architecture Festival and Prix Versailles where it has been listed as a finalist in the Higher Education & Research Category and 'World's Most Beautiful Campus' Awards respectively.

For more information on the project please see James Cook University Engineering & Innovation Place