This year’s photography competition invited participants to explore the architecture of the Gold Coast from a range of perspectives, encouraging a different way of seeing and interpreting the city.
Entries spanned from broad views of façades and cityscapes to the finer architectural details found within our built environment. Photographers were invited to submit images across five categories: Exterior, Interior, Detail, People and Resilience.
Reflecting the 2025 program theme of Resilience, the competition also asked entrants to consider how architecture responds to change — through sustainable materials, adaptive reuse, or enduring community value. Together, the categories created a collective portrait of the Gold Coast as a place of evolving design and lived experience, seen through the eyes of those who notice its structures, textures and atmosphere in new ways.
OVERALL WINNER: Jill Chilton – Pink Hotel
Jill Chilton takes the top honour this year with her evocative image of the Pink Hotel in Cooloongatta. Her composition draws attention to the interplay of colour, geometry and place — a bold reflection on the hotel’s architecture and its unique presence in a Gold Coast context.
Category Winners
Here are the winners across our five category challenges:
Exterior: Frances Wu – Solid Rock, Gold Coast Disaster & Emergency Management Centre
Frances’ image of the exterior at the DEMC (Disaster & Emergency Management Centre) shows confidence in framing the bold façade, materials and setting.
Interior: Rachel Cooper – Looking Up At HOTA
Rachel turns her lens inward at HOTA (Home of the Arts), offering a compelling upward-looking perspective that invites the viewer to explore height, light and space.
Detail: Natasha Watson – Look Up, HOTA
Another HOTA winner! Natasha’s focus on architectural detail gives a completely different perspective of HOTA, drawing attention beyond the grand scale of the building to an unusual perspective.
People: Selma Barbosa – Passage, DEMC (Gold Coast Disaster & Emergency Management Centre)
Selma’s winning image, again at DEMC, focuses on the human dimension — people moving through space, a scene of transition and engagement with this iconic built environment.
Resilience: Bowen Yang – Spring, Griffith University
At Griffith University, Bowen captures the spirit of resilience – through his subject, environment or timing – showing how architecture and landscape coexist, persist and renew.
Photography in architecture is more than simply showing buildings – it’s about feeling place. These images invite us to look at facades, interiors, details, movement and resilience from fresh angles. See all commended entries over on our Facebook page here.
