It began as a derelict shell, a condemned 1892 boot factory in the heart of Bondi Junction, the last Victorian-era industrial building left in the suburb, vacant for years and facing the wrecking ball. Today it stands as Australia’s best-designed timber building: the original brick perimeter wrapped around an entirely reimagined interior of glue-laminated Australian hardwood, exposed Victorian Ash columns, an inverted floor of beams and planks, and radial rafters fanning up to a central skylight.
Archer Office’s adaptive reuse of the Boot Factory took the 2025 Australian Timber Design Awards Grand Prix. And right now, the search is on for the project that will follow it. Entries for the 27th program close at 5 pm this Friday, 3 July, and organisers say the 2026 field is already one of the strongest yet, with several internationally significant projects among those received.
“What I love about these awards is that the smallest, most considered home is judged right alongside a national landmark, and behind each one is the same story, one that begins in the forest and runs through the mills, engineers and builders who bring Australian timber to life,” said Kylan Low, who is organising this year’s program.
“This year’s field is already among the strongest we’ve seen. With days left, my message is simple: if you’ve built something exceptional in wood, make sure we get to see it.”
The Boot Factory is amongst almost 4,000 projects the awards have recognised across 27 years, a roll call that runs from an embassy near the White House to a Barangaroo building later crowned World Building of the Year in Amsterdam. Designer Tomek Archer described the build as a test of the material itself. Timber, he said, rewards patience and precision, “very easy to stop, but very hard to become an expert.”
So what separates a winning entry from the rest?
Former awards judge David Rowlinson, who led Planet Ark’s Make It Wood campaign and sat on the jury three times, says the basics are no longer enough. Most of the sector already knows that timber is renewable, stores carbon, and has far lower embodied emissions than concrete or steel. “Just restating any or all of those isn’t going to win you an award,” he says.
The projects that stand out, Rowlinson says, show what else the timber is doing: its role in Passivhaus design and thermal performance, or mass timber that strips mass and finishes from a structure, with exposed soffits, columns and beams left to do the work.
He also urges entrants to look past the engineering: timber’s place in biophilic design and occupant wellbeing, its contribution to acoustics, and the warmth it can bring to a tired refurbishment. The Boot Factory, a retained heritage shell with drastically cut embodied carbon, is exactly that kind of entry.
The 2026 program is open to projects of any scale, residential, commercial or public, completed since 1 July 2023. There is no minimum size and no single aesthetic the judges are chasing. A bespoke family home sits alongside a national institution; a hospitality fitout belongs as much as a university campus. What the judges look for, as they have for 27 years, is exceptional design and an intelligent use of timber.
Entries close at 5 pm this Friday, 3 July. Once interest is registered, submissions can be completed up to 16 July. The 2026 winners will be announced at a gala dinner on Wednesday, 21 October at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in The Rocks.