Featured image: Dino Vrynios. Photo credit Josh Geelan
For Dino Vrynios, nothing is set in stone. The prize-winning Architect is constantly searching for new ways of thinking and sees every project as “an opportunity to unlock the potential of a place, the imaginations of people and the power of community.”
Last night, the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) recognised 37-year-old Dino Vrynios as the National Emerging Architect Prize winner, after several worthy candidates around the country were being considered for the prestigious prize. Dino was regarded by jurors as excelling across all criteria and was unanimously regarded as a stand-out.
Dino’s passion and drive is to conceive a better way to craft architecture: one that allows creativity, quality of product and work life balance all to thrive in tandem. It’s why he started Architecture, Interior Design and Landscape Architecture practice Das Studio with his wife Sara Horstmann and in just three years the pair, alongside their growing team, have helmed an impressive suite of residential, education, health, tourism, hospitality, commercial and adaptive re-use projects across three states. The most notable project to date being the $10million Flinders University Factory of the Future at Line Zero.
Dino’s expertise in modular and prefabricated construction methodologies helped in the development of a pilot modular schools program for the Department for Education that grew into a 28 school program valued at over $200m. Other notable projects that demonstrate the advantages of alternate construction methods include a multimillion-dollar Health Precinct for the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Marree and a Bushfire refuge and Activity Centre for Scouts in the Adelaide Hills.
More importantly, Dino and Sara have carefully pulled together a group of 17 like-minded and talented creatives to challenge convention and help create a better future for the state.
Dino says: “on the horizon we are in the development phases of a new housing model for South Australia and learning environment initiative that will help fast track the delivery of technology within schools around Australia – watch this space!”
Beyond his design practice, Dino is also helping to influence Adelaide and South Australia’s strategic direction of the future of architecture, technology and much more through a variety of initiatives. One of these is the podcast series 20MinuteCity that explores how a focus on wellbeing and creative design can shape the city’s future with fellow innovators who call Adelaide home
The podcast is an offshoot of Future Forum, a cross-disciplinary discussion platform launched by Dino in 2015 for “design-led conversations on subjects that will positively shape the way we live, learn and work.” After a triumphant return in 2021, the forum will expand into a mini conference in 2022.
Dino has a natural flair for bringing people together. Whether building connections between industry professionals, government and the public through Future Forum, or collaborating with allied professions through project work and forward-thinking initiatives, Dino is
persistently seeking to reset the boundaries of his practice or reimagining how society itself can operate. Dino’s many initiatives have been defined by a refusal to accept things as the way they are as the way they should be, and a determination to continually seek better solutions.
That forward-thinking vision was recognised by the AIA National Jury when they named Dino the 2021 National Emerging Architect Prize winner in recognition of how he has “continuously and passionately engaged himself in all aspects of architecture and the community, tirelessly searching for and achieving his team’s motto, “Make better.”” This tireless approach summed up in Das Studio’s revolutionary simple manifesto: “in all we do, we strive for better…Better processes, better relationships, better outcomes. At Das Studio, we make better”.
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