Prize Versailles 2023 for excellence for sustainable mobility project in Australia  

Milan, December 22, 2023 – Airport Central Station, one of three on Perth’s Airport Line in Australia built by Webuild and local partner NRW, has received the Special Prize for an Exterior in the Passenger Stations category of the Prix Versailles 2023 international competition in architecture. The prize is the latest recognition awarded to one of the biggest sustainable mobility projects in the state of Western Australia and highlights the successful collaboration among Webuild and its local partners. 

The station, designed by Australian firm GHD Design and British partners Weston Williamson + Partners, was among 24 out of more than 90 new projects to receive special mention by the jury for excellence in design and architecture. “The Prix Versailles Laureates are testimonials to the aesthetic vitality of their regions and a tribute to the hard work of a large number of internationally renowned and/or pioneering firms,” read a statement from the jury. “The Official List – which pays tribute to innovation, creativity, reflections of local heritage, ecological efficiency and the values of social interaction and participation, which the United Nations holds in high regard – is in line with the principles of intelligent sustainability, taking the projects’ ecological, social and cultural impacts into consideration.”

Formerly known as the Forrestfield-Airport Link, the line, runs for 8.5 kilometres, connecting Perth’s eastern suburbs with the Central Business District via the international airport. It is helping to take up to 15,000 vehicles off the roads every day and avoid the emission of up to 2,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Airport Central Station, as well as the entire line, has won a number of awards since it opened in October 2022. They include an Earth Award for project excellence from the Civil Contractors Federation, and an award for excellence in design and architecture from the Australian Institute of Architects. Even before it opened, it received an “As Built Leading” rating, the highest classification from Australia’s Infrastructure Sustainability Council, and an award for Excellence in the Technology and Innovation Category from the Concrete Institute of Australia.

Webuild and its local subsidiary Clough are working a number of strategic projects in Australia, the biggest market for the Group outside Italy. They recently won a contract to build a shiplift facility in Darwin, the largest of its kind in the Northern Territory. In Western Australia, they are working on one of the world’s largest urea plants for the manufacture of fertiliser, as well as an upgrade to a sludge treatment process at the state’s largest wastewater treatment facility. In Melbourne, they are preparing to excavate the tunnels for the North East Link, a section of a freeway network in Melbourne. In Sydney, they are participating in the development of the Sydney Metro line that will lead to the Western Sydney International Airport, the largest public-private partnership in the state of New South Wales.