Evelyn Reynolds

A state significant development application for the establishment of an $845.85 million data facility in Sydney’s Artarmon has been approved.
The proposed Lanceley Place Data Centre, designed by HDR, was greenlit for development across five individual allotments at 2–8 Lanceley Place and 14 Campbell Street, comprising a total site area of 14,024 square metres. Several vacant 2–3 storey buildings currently exist on the site, which were previously occupied by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s film and television studios until the site was sold in 2021.
Planning documents indicate that the new data facility will house the hardware and infrastructure needed for storing and processing digital data.
The large-scale facility will reach up to ten storeys at a maximum building height of 51.479 metres and a total gross floor area of 26,769 square metres. The architectural design report noted that the mass of the building has been broken down into three “blocks.” These include a data block, which accommodates five levels of data halls along with supporting facilities; a generator block that houses backup generators, and an office block that features a lobby, office spaces and a rooftop garden.

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Each of these “blocks” are characterised by a stepped form that gradually descends from west to east across the site. According to the design report, the stepped massing was a response to the surrounding built context – which is of greater scale to the west and of a lower scale to the east – and the natural topographical fall across the site, which also declines from west to east.
The facade draws inspiration from both the historical and contemporary context of the area. Each block is supported by a continuous masonry brick base, while the top portions of every block feature a distinct expression. The use of brick pays homage to the area’s industrial heritage, specifically its history of brick manufacturing. The data and generator blocks instead feature metallic elements that reflect themes of technology and machinery, aligning with the intended use of the facility and the site’s location within a growing technology infrastructure hub.
According to the design report, the building envelope is set back 27 metres from its primary frontage on Campbell Street and 14 metres from Lanceley Place. Plans state that these increased setbacks “provide numerous benefits with respect to the urban design outcome, including reducing the perceived height and scale of the development from the adjoining public realm and streetscapes, as well as minimising overshadowing and other environmental impacts to these same locations.”
The increased setbacks have additionally allowed for new and improved landscaped edges surrounding the building, “introduced to provide public amenity and to soften and enhance the quality of adjoining streetscapes,” the report states. The landscape architecture practice appointed to the project is Cola Studios. More

A development application has been lodged for a new tower adjacent to the site of St Stephen’s Cathedral, at 131 Edward Street in Brisbane. The project, titled Brisbane Place, was designed by Blight Rayner Architecture with landscape design by Wild Studio.
Proposed by developer JGL Properties, the submitted development seeks to deliver 28 floors of commercial and retail office space, totalling approximately 43,500 square metres of floor area, alongside reused heritage places, which include the Stock Exchange Hotel, Penola Place and the F. H. Faulding Warehouse.
According to the urban context report prepared by Blight Rayner, “the development aims to rejuvenate underutilised heritage structures while creating new public connections and modern workplace environments.”

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In the scheme, each of the site’s three heritage buildings are connected on the ground plane, with new cross-block links and laneways aimed at improving inclusive pedestrian accessibility to the site. Interfacing with St Stephen’s, a new plaza and amphitheatre serve as the centrepiece of the public realm, while on the street side, the project seeks to reinstate the Stock Exchange Hotel as a two-level wine bar as well as locate a new cafe within the warehouse building.
A proposed six-storey podium addition includes two levels of end-of-trip facilities, a gym, a terrace and a swimming pool with two plunge pools above the triple-height lobby. Landscaping along the podium perimeter and rooftop planting atop the gym and terrace would be reflected in the mirrored soffit of the tower’s base.

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Blight Rayner noted that “the architectural response balances high physical porosity” at ground level with a minimum of 14 metres of separation above the existing buildings providing “visual permeability above the heritage buildings [and] creating a distinctive silhouette that integrates seamlessly with its historic surroundings.”
Rising to approximately 160 metres, the proposed tower massing has been conceived with openings at the base, middle and top, also “to enhance visual permeability,” Blight Rayner noted. The base of the tower is raised above a web of trussed circular supports, while at the top, a three-storey “urban room” provides a sheltered external space for occupants and visitors to the building’s commercial and retail spaces.

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Across these porous breakout spaces, the landscape design by Wild Studio is themed in response to the site’s Indigenous and colonial histories, and references creeks that once existed in the area. The proposed ground plane features a “creekbed” garden, while the podium top serves as a “waterhole,” where, according to Wild, “visitors can swim under tree canopy and enjoy a feeling of seclusion in the middle of the CBD.” The tower’s various wintergardens are envisioned as “cloud forests” that will support a cool microclimate “not seen elsewhere in the city.”
According to their report, Blight Rayner has integrated the city’s Subtropical Design Planning Scheme Policy principles in the design of the building’s breakout spaces and articulation of the tower’s envelope. Louvred facades intended to support mixed-mode ventilation are also tailored with horizontal and vertical sun-shading unique to each elevation.

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Blight Rayner contends that, if built, the “project will serve as a landmark addition to Brisbane’s evolving cityscape.”
The development application is on exhibition on the Brisbane City Council website. More

This year’s focus in Milan has been on materials and detail, with outstanding new products inviting the sensation of human touch. Here, I have selected a number of pieces that stood out to me for their originality, including a few by Australian designers. I particularly loved imagining the slippery fingers of Faye Toogood’s Butter prototype (yellow seems to be the colour of the moment), the playfulness of the Gelato lamp, the texture of the Lava tiles, and the huge glass block that is the new Agape basin.
Butter sofa by Faye Toogood
This new super squashy sofa by UK designer Faye Toogood for Tacchini is enough to melt your heart. Originally modelled with slippery fingers from a block of Cornish butter, the form of the sofa and its soft yellow colour evoke an everyday beauty – the quotidian pleasure of butter on bread. Part of the Bread and Butter collection, which also includes a Bread console and side tables in timber, the Butter sofa is made of oversized modular pieces that can be rearranged to your taste. Delicious.
Solace light by Ross Gardam

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Australian Ross Gardam continues his success in lighting with Solace, a new form that is both simple and complex in form, derived from two overlapping geometric spheres. Like some of his other works, this one is made by blowing glass into a mould, but instead of being a rotating mould, it is static, and a faint imprint of the mould can be seen and felt on the surface of the glass. Stunning work.
Study TrulyTruly Big Glow light for Rakumba

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Another Australian lighting design making waves in Milan is the Big Glow light by Studio TrulyTruly for Rakumba. This oversized light is inspired by the designers’ experience living as Australians in Europe and reflecting on the difference in quality of light between the two. The light is made of non-woven wool blended with a plant-based fibre transformed under heat and pressure. They also stack inside each other to reduce shipping volumes. Smart.
Marmelade lounge chair by Rosa Ryhänen

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This strange chair exhibited as part of the Habitare: Materials and Objects exhibition of Finnish works at Alcova is called the Marmelade lounge chair. It is part of Finnish designer Rosa Ryhänen’s series called “Form Follows Intuition” and looks as if it might have been drawn in texta by a child. Rosa says on first sight you might ask yourself: “Is it magic that holds the piece together?”
Squash Mirror by Paul Cocksedge for Magis

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This series of mirrors by UK designer Paul Cocksedge explores the effect of compression on geometric shapes. It started with an experiment taking three-dimensional soft forms and compressing them, then interpreting them into 2D mirrors. In doing so they take on a sense of personality. “They evoke human connections – like friends greeting each other, a parent holding a child, or the warmth of an embrace,” says the designer.
Ranieri Lava tiles

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Ranieri had a large exhibit at Alcova in the ex-SNAI factory, a post-industrial space that has become a ruin over the years. Called “Under the Volcano,” it featured their Void tables and the Reborn chair, plus some volcanic rock carved with robot arms, but it is their tiles that caught my eye, all made from lava stone near Naples.
Gelato lamp by Established and Sons

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The Gelato lamp was originally designed in the 1960s by Italian designer and glass blower Carlo Nason and now has been redeveloped by Established and Sons, retaining and updating its style for a new generation. Originally wired, it is now a portable lamp and is available in an array of mouth-watering colours.
Massicci basin by Agape

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Made from 18 kilograms of solid glass, this basin retains the irregularities of its formation at 1200 degrees, creating textures that interplay with light and water. Designed by Marco Zito for Italian bathroom brand Agape, it is available in clear glass or ochre yellow.
Esmerelda Modular Cabinet by Bottos Design Italia for Artemest

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Artemest is a brand that champions Italian design and craftsmanship around the world, with a finely curated (and top end) selection of designer products. The Esmerelda Modular Cabinet is the perfect example of the brand’s attention to detail, with its spiral wooden design cut with precision into the timber, creating a unique talking piece that is also a functional storage cupboard.
Collette chair by Adam Goodrum

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With Collette chair, Australian designer Adam Goodrum was inspired by an abstract reference to the Vietnamese traditional script. And the shape of its back forms a collar (collette in French) giving it its name. Created in soft ash, the chair is manufactured by Vietnamese brand District Eight. More

Billy Maynard Architects has been announced the winner of a design competition for a new war memorial in Sydney dedicated to honouring the service and sacrifice of recent veterans.
The memorial will be located within the Domain, a large parkland that holds historical significance as the site of Sydney’s first Anzac Day service in 1916. According to a NSW government communique, the memorial is intended to provide a “contemplative” space for contemporary veterans and their loved ones, allowing them to reflect on the contributions and sacrifices of those who served in the Australian Defence Force from 1990 onwards.
The memorial is circular in shape, formed by two crescents that intersect and are partially embedded within the grassy landscape of the park. This simple composition of elements is intended to “symbolise gathering, protection and unbreakable bonds,” stated the communique.

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Billy Maynard Architects’ design was selected from a design ideas competition between small and emerging architectural practices organised by the NSW Office for Veterans Affairs, with support from the Government Architect NSW. Other participants in the competition included Breakspear Architects, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture, Other Architects, Retallack Thompson and Trias.
Architect Billy Maynard said the memorial was envisioned as a place for collective and individual healing. “It fosters remembrance and reflection through simplicity of form combined with finely resolved and caringly crafted detail,” said Maynard.
“The unifying thread through the individual stories of loss in conflict is one of remembrance. This memorial creates an accessible place of gathering and recollection by combining site, seating, artwork and new plantings in a considered ensemble.
“It is a distillation of form to create a singular space, simple and appropriate, which above all honours the service of contemporary veterans and recognises the sacrifice of families. In this process we remember the enduring dialogue and connection that resonates between Australia and the places of service – between people and place.”

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Internationally acclaimed artist Khadim Ali, based in Sydney and belonging to the Hazara ethnic minority of central Afghanistan, also contributed to the design.
The memorial will be located nearby the NSW Police Wall of Rememberance and south of the Art Gallery of NSW. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2026. More

Newly opened at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, the Australia Pavilion is now welcoming visitors. Designed by global architecture practice Buchan, this year’s pavilion responds to the exposition’s banner of “Designing Future Society for our Lives” with a design themed “Chasing the Sun.”
The practice noted in a media release that the design draws inspiration from the eucalyptus tree and gumnut, whose bloom is “a powerful symbol of new life and the boundless potential of future generations.”
According to Buchan, the pavilion’s colourful facade represents the gumnut bursting into flower. It is made from a soft, tensile fabric that the practice envisions as “a canvas for sharing Australia’s stories, innovation and creativity.” In addition, the light-permeable fabric is intended to capture changing shadows across the day to connect visitors with nature as part of the pavilion experience.
Underneath the fabric shell, the pavilion’s structure reuses a steel framework that was previously used at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Buchan noted that the pavilion’s use of minimal construction materials and light-permeable building envelope together minimise the pavilion’s waste and energy use. For lead architect architect on the pavilion Nataly Ernst, these moves “showcase our nation’s design ingenuity” in the World Expo context, which she noted is “a great opportunity for architects to experiment and exchange ideas.”

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A cultural forecourt precinct outside the pavilion’s entry, designed with landscape architecture practice McGregor Coxall, is intended as a welcoming gathering point with music, theatre, dance and screen programming situated alongside a yarning circle for gathering.
The landscape idea continues as a “bush walk” within the pavilion’s exhibition. According to Buchan, this format “captures the experience of walking on Country” and was developed alongside Indigenous advisors Karrda as a way to amplify Indigenous culture and ways of knowing.
Buchan creative lead on the pavilion Dong Uong commented that the exhibition is an interactive journey that engages all the senses. “The experience ‘chases the sun’ across land, sky and sea Country, based on the structure and flow of the song lines that traverse the land and have shared knowledge between Indigenous people for millennia.”

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Throughout the exhibition, visitors are invited to engage with Australia’s natural environment and society. The exhibition aims to spotlight First Nations Australians’ connection to Country over tens of thousands of years, and how this ancient knowledge can help build a future society.
Alongside the exhibition, a special event zone features four function spaces, whose “colour and materials reflect Australian landscapes, and Australian design, art and craft features,” Buchan noted. The design of these spaces is intended to support the economic, cultural and social imperatives of Australia’s Expo participation, which include deepening Australia’s relationship with Japan, creating new opportunities for Australian businesses and showcasing contemporary Australia to the world.
“Our team is immensely proud of the Australia Pavilion, which showcases our unique country on the world stage and supports the enduring friendship between Australia and Japan,” Ernst said.
World Expo 2025 Osaka runs for six months from 13 April to 13 October 2025. More

A proposal for a mixed-use residential development is currently on exhibition on the NSW government’s state significant applications portal. Designed by A+ Design Group, the project involves the demolition of existing low-density, detached housing across 18 individual lots, and the construction of two new residential towers and two mid-rise apartment buildings in its place.
A total of 615 residential units are proposed on the site with 169 apartments (15 percent floor area) allocated as affordable housing, making the project eligible for increased height and floor space ratio bonuses under the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) (Housing). At its tallest point, the development is approximately six storeys above local council’s Development Control Plan (DCP).

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The proposal’s stepped architectural form ranges from 5 to 25 storeys in height and is situated above a landscaped podium. At the site’s centre, a terraced through-site link intended to enhance the site’s connectivity to its surrounds is also envisioned as a green corridor.
According to the design report authored by A+, this link “emphasises the immersive experience of nature […] with water playing a vital role in activating the garden space. As water flows through the site, it introduces dynamic changes in elevation, guiding movement and enriching the visitor’s connection with the landscape.”
Narratives around water have also informed the architectural articulation of the proposal. A+ notes that the interplay of vertical tower forms with the podium’s “rhythmic arrangement of vertical brick blades … reflects both the land’s movement and the fluidity of water, seamlessly merging architectural form with the natural world.”

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Developed in collaboration with Dharug artist Leanne Redpath, the proposal’s Connecting with Country strategy is, according to A+, “embedded in the development” through a visual language of “patterns and textures inspired by Dharug cultural motifs.”
Commercial and retail tenancies are proposed along the site’s north-eastern and north-western edges, totalling just over 8,000 square metres of floor area. Beneath the buildings, four levels of basement car parking are proposed.
The project is envisioned as a staged development, with the eastern tower and through-site link to be completed first, followed by the second tower and the communal open space on the west of the site.
The proposal is on exhibition and open to public comment until 22 April. More

Entries are now open for the Tapestry Design Prize 2025, a competition that challenges architects and interior designers to conceptualise a site-specific tapestry.
The competition, presented by the Australian Tapestry Workshop, invites architects and interior designers, either as individuals or as part of a team, to design a tapestry for a given site. This year’s chosen site is Boyd House II in Melbourne, designed by Robin Boyd for his family in 1957. Applicants will have the opportunity to create designs for five distinct spaces within the residence, with one finalist selected for each space.
The competition is open to architects and interior designers who live and work in Australia. The 2025 jury comprises director of design and product development at Nexus Designs Sally Evans; principal of Kennedy Nolan Patrick Kennedy, and the editor of InteriorsAu Cassie Hansen.

The most recent Tapestry Design Prize competition in 2023 was awarded to Beth George and Emerald Wise for their tapestry proposal titled Solstice, a design that was conceptualised for the hypothetical site of Bundanon Art Museum by Kerstin Thompson Architects. Other past sites include the National Gallery of Australia by Col Madigan, and Phoenix Central Park by John Wardle Architects and Durbach Block Jaggers.

Entries close 19 May 2025, followed by an announcement of five finalists in July. The finalist designs will be woven into tapestry and exhibited at the Boyd House II in November 2025. All five finalists will receive an artist fee of $1,000, while the people’s choice winner will earn an additional $1,000. The overall winner, announced on 13 November, will be awarded $5,000.
To find out more about the competition, visit the Tapestry Design Prize website. More

Gold Coast Open House (GCOH) will return on 27 and 28 September 2025. The free, annual program opens the doors to some of the Gold Coast’s most iconic buildings, inviting locals to discover the city’s architectural heritage alongside newly-complete projects.
Last year’s lineup included the Warehouses by J.AR Office, which won an Award for Commercial Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects 2024 National Architecture Awards. Winner of the Institute’s 2022 Queensland Architecture Awards, HOTA Gallery by ARM, and winner of the 2024 Gold Coast and Northern Rivers Chapter Regional Project of the Year Prize, Tallowwood Cabin by Fouché Architects, were also among the 2024 highlights.
Ahead of the September weekend, GCOH invites submissions from organisations and individuals, including building owners and custodians, architecture and design practices, urban and landscape designers and community groups who wish to communicate the importance of good design.
GCOH notes that community input helps them to curate a program that showcases the most intriguing and inspiring aspects of the Gold Coast’s built environment. Nominations can take the form of building submissions, or guided tour suggestions and pitches for panel discussions.
Expressions of interest can be made via the GCOH website until Monday 28 April. More