Highly regarded Australian architect Peter Stuchbury has continued to soar after receiving the Australia Institute of Architects highest honour , the highly coveted Gold Medal for Architecture . He earned the prestigious award for his considerable contribution to the advancement of architecture though practice , teaching and participation . While you may imagine the award winning 60-year-old 's own home to be a lavish contemporary monument , you 'll be surprised to know that in reality Mr Stuchbury did n't opt for an opulent structure but instead a simple and sustainable tent on Sydney 's northern beaches . Scroll down for video . The master architect 's northern beaches tent home is only a meagre 45-square-feet . The visionary took out the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture after presenting his tent home to the jury . His own home , which he presented to the NSW Architecture Awards jury , is a humble 45-square-metre tent house which he said is 'designed to challenge the conventions of our suburban lives . ' 'The tent house provides a model for sustainability . It is a purposeful step towards a radical view of living in the suburbs , ' Mr Stutchbury told jurors . 'It is a necessary step towards reduction if we as a community are to rediscover a sustainable lifestyle . ' Unlike some lavish small homes that are heavily styled Mr Stutchbury instead chose simplicity preferring to decorate his home modestly . 'The tent house provides a model for sustainability . It is a purposeful step towards a radical view of living in the suburbs ' His bedroom opens out onto a wooden deck and only houses a bed , a chest of drawers , a rack of clothing and a rocking chair . The home is saturated in a warm glow as the light entering the home is filtered through canvas walls . Mr Stutchbury has garnered a reputation for his environmentally sustainable residential structures which have been internationally recognised to have an intrinsic link to the site they are built on . Mr Stutchbury 's Invisible House in Megalong Valley embraces its bush setting as he aims to design homes that relate to where they are . 'Stutchbury has mastered the art of creating architecture that speaks of the place it inhabits – buildings that are environmentally sustainable , culturally specific and locally embedded ' 'In 34 years of practice , Stutchbury has mastered the art of creating architecture that speaks of the place it inhabits – buildings that are environmentally sustainable , culturally specific and locally embedded , ' said the Gold Medal jury . His firm , Peter Stutchbury Architecture , has received 47 institution awards and have been entered into around 20 national and international design competitions . He is best known for his work on Bay and Springwater house which took out the country 's top architectural honour , the Robin Boyd Award , in 2003 and 2005 respectively . Mr Stutchbury 's Bay House in Sydney won the coveted Robin Boyd Award in 2003 . Repeat offender : He also took out the Robin Boyd award again in 2005 for his Springwater House . As a founding director of the Architecture Foundation Australia Mr Stutchbury continues to pass on his message of creating a more sustainable built environment by teaching students of Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class and those at the University of Newcastle . Professor Stutchbury said winning a prestigious award like this has been very 'humbling ' and ' a deep honour ' adding that he found himself 'speechless ' after realising he had joined the ranks of architecture greats who had also won the accolade . Mr Stutchbury built the Design building , pictured , in 1994 and is now a professor of architecture at the University of Newcastle . Peter Stutchbury Architecture has received 47 institution awards and were entered into around 20 national and international design competitions .
Peter Stutchbury won the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal . He earned the award through his considerable contribution to the field . He says architecture needs to start challenging sustainability conventions . His home is a simple 45-square-metre tent in Sydney's northern beaches . ' The tent house provides a model for sustainability . It has no windows, but it does have solar panels on its roof and an array of photovoltaic cells that provide electricity to power lights inside the structure.