The competition, led by Archicentre and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), was held as part of Frankston City Council's Seaford Life Saving Club Precinct Master Plan, which aims to revive the life saving club and reinvigorate the surrounding Seaford Village, including the foreshore, village streetscape and open space adjoining the community centre. For the competition, Council received 53 design entries from as far away as Fremantle, in Western Australia.

Mr Holding congratulated everyone involved in the design competition, saying the high standards of the designs submitted had provided Seaford Life Saving Club and local community with a quality outcome.

Frankston City Mayor, Cr Rochelle McArthur said a condition of entering the competition required the architects to design a building according to environmentally sustainable principles. "The new clubhouse design will respect the environmentally sensitive foreshore area and not diminish the natural and landscape values of the Seaford Foreshore Reserve and its nearby beach," she said.

The judging panel comprised Klauer Ward Councillor Glenn Aitken, Sustainable Energy Australia architect Catherine Ramsay, Peter Maddison from Maddison Architects, Department of Sustainability and Environment architect Leila Robinson, Foreshore Advisory Committee member and landscape architect Virginia Brook, and Seaford Life Saving Club president Tony Seals. "We found the task of short listing extremely difficult given the generally high standard of presentation," Cr Aitken said.

For the first stage of the competition, entrants submitted A3 drawings of their concepts, focusing on vision and principles, the precinct, site and plans, architecture, and sustainability. From this, the judges selected four finalists whose designs were then displayed at Council's Seaford shop. For the second round of judging, residents were invited to attend a community meeting where the finalists presented three-dimensional representations of their designs. "The judges took the residents' comments on the night into consideration as part of choosing the winner," Cr Aitken said.

Robert Simeoni Pty Ltd Architects was previously awarded both a Victorian RAIA Award for Architecture and a National Commendation for "Woolamai House", on a sensitive coastal site at Cape Woolamai, Phillip Island. Architect Robert Simeoni said his firm's clubhouse design created a strong visual and physical connection with the Seaford pier and beach as well as the retail strip across Nepean Highway. It would be constructed on screw pile footings, allowing the building to be prefabricated off site, minimising disturbance to the fragile environment.

Cr Aitken said Frankston City Council would now negotiate with Robert Simeoni to undertake the final design work for the project. "Work is expected to begin on the new $1 million clubhouse in June 2006 with completion expected that December," he said. "Regular updates will be posted at our Seaford shop."

Media Contacts:
Donna Mongan: (03) 9784 1812
Ryan Sturman: (03) 9784 1005