Evelyn Reynolds

Architecture Media has launched a new and unique award aimed at highlighting the potential of design practice to make difference in the lives of people.
The ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact is the only accolade of its kind in Australia and was established to reward practice that prioritizes empathy over aesthetics and empowers its end users.
Rory Hyde, jury convenor and associate professor at Melbourne School of Design, said, “Architecture has always been about social impact, about making change for people and society. And yet this aspect of architecture is too often overshadowed by the aesthetic and the visual. This award is long overdue as a way to recognize and celebrate the outstanding projects that make a difference to the public, to local communities, and underrepresented groups.”
Submission to this award may relate to issues such as social cohesion, racial justice, inclusive housing, accessibility, equity, and social sustainability. The judging criteria will focus on demonstrable social benefit.
“In this way, it is also about celebrating new ways of working and new forms of practice,” Hyde said. “Did the designer help to raise the funds? Did they shape the brief to raise the ambition? Did they work with the community to conceive and construct it? Are they advocating for those voices normally not invited to the table?
“It’s my hope that this award can change the conversation of the role and purpose of the design professions, and to recognize those clients and practitioners who are working hard to create change.”
The inaugural jury comprises Troy Casey (director of Blaklash Creative), Esther Charlesworth AM (co-founder and executive director of Architects Without Frontiers), Ben Gauntlett (disability discrimination commissioner, Australian Human Rights Council), Jeremy McLeod (founder of Breathe), and Katelin Butler (editorial director of Architecture Media).
Entry to the award is open to architects, interior designers, planners, landscape architects, urban designers and other built environment professionals. Only completed, not speculative, projects are elegible for entry.
Entries close 10 March 2023. The winner will be announced on ArchitectureAU.com on 27 June 2023. A cash prize of $5,000 is offered. To enter, click here.
The ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact is presented in partnership with the Melbourne School of Design and supported by Latitude, Peptolab, and NHO. More

Day one winners of 2022 World Architecture Festival/Inside Festival have now been announced. Five Australian projects are among the 20 recipients across categories including completed buildings, future projects, interiors and masterplans. WAF/Inside is the largest global annual event of architecture and interiors, bringing together members of the international design community in one city to celebrate […] More

The Sydney Terminal Building at Central Station will undergo a $350 million revamp to restore the heritage-listed sandstone building to its former glory, with improved pedestrian connections, heritage conservation, improved lighting and wayfinding.
Grimshaw and TKD Architects have produced the preliminary designs for the development, subject to change, as the project team prepares an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposal.
First opened in 1906, the Sydney Terminal Building has come to be recognised as an architectural landmark for its distinct sandstone facade and iconic clocktower.
NSW Minister for Cities Rob Stokes said the proejct will reinstate the 19th century features of the Terminal Building, including views of the heritage clocktower through new glass panels, “just as they were when Central Station first opened,” he said. The Booking Hall will be restored, with the original ceiling reinstated, with a design celebrating the hall’s existing stained-glass windows.

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Indicative designs by Grimshaw and TKD Architects for the Eddy Avenue Plaza at Central Station, subject to change. Image:

Courtesy of Transport NSW

A new market-style retail quarter will be established on the ground floor, while elswhere, multi-purpose spaces will be created for events such as exhibitions, film screenings, cultural experiences and concerts.
The project will include transforming the Eddy Avenue Plaza into a new community hub; a strengthened customer arrival experienced and improved wayfinding; and new retail, dining, and entertainment spaces.
The redevelopment will draw upon the Terminal Building’s heritage qualities to re-establish its “civil role” and provide an improved interchange to connect users to the city.
The government is inviting feedback on the proposed Sydney Terminal Building revitalisation project from customers, businesses and the local community, with feedback channels open until Monday 12 December. More

The Australian Urban Design Awards (AUDA) were announced on 30 November at an online ceremony, with five projects from across the country recognized.
The awards recipients were dominated by projects in Australia’s south-east states, with prizes awarded to two Victorian and two New South Wales projects, and to one project in the Australian Capital Territory.
The four awards categories celebrated in the program included: built projects of city and regional scale; built projects for local and neighbourhood scale; leadership, advocacy and research for city and regional scale; and leadership, advocacy and research for local and neighbourhood scale.
The Built Projects – City and Regional Scale award went to LXRA for the Level Crossing Removal Project, which commenced in 2015. The project has removed 66 level crossings in suburban Melbourne, rebuilt 34 train stations in “localized acts of urban repair” with a “metropolitan-wide impact”, the jury said.
“The Level Crossing Removal Project has been able to deliver a level of investment and design quality not seen in these suburbs since they were first laid out.”

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Bendigo Kangan Institute of TAFE by SBLA, Six Degrees Architects and Architectus. Image:

Trevor Mein

The Built Projects – Local and Neighbourhood Scale prize was awarded to SBLA, Six Degrees Architects and Architectus for the Bendigo Kangan TAFE Redevelopment. Built on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, this redevelopment created two new buildings and refurbished three, creating a new outdoor space and a revitalised campus.
“New buildings, using simple and robust materials respond to their heritage context and frame ground floor activity to create an exceptionally welcoming, inclusive and conducive learning environment for students, visitors and staff,” the jury said.
The award for Leadership, Advocacy and Research – City and Regional Scale was jointly given to two winners. The first went to a consortium comprising the ACT government, Hodyl and Co, Andy Fergus, Adam’s Urban, Oculus and Creative Environment Enterprises for their project “Delivering Best Practice Urban Design Through Planning”.
“The design team have successfully delivered an exemplary research project; one that sets a new benchmark in design and delivery guidance; and reinstates Canberra as a leading voice in urban design policy,” the jury said.
The second winner in this category was Green Track for Parramatta Light Rail by Transport for NSW with Urban Planning and Management, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University. This project studied the application of grass and vegetation along and between light rail tracks in Western Sydney.
The final award for Leadership, Advocacy and Research – Local and Neighbourhood Scale went to Campsie Town Centre Masterplan, delivered by the City of Canterbury Bankstown Council in NSW. The judges commended this project for its use of well-defined principles that include local character and provide a finer grain of mixed-se development than is typically seen in neighbourhood planning approaches.
First launched in 1996, the AUDA program has highlighted the critical role of good design in shaping Australia’s urban environment for more than 25 years. For more information visit the AUDA website. More

The long-awaited expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales – Sydney Modern by SANAA and Architectus – will open to the public on Saturday 3 December.
“It has been a wonderful honour to design such an important public building in Sydney,” said SANAA directors Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. “Working closely with the Art Gallery of NSW team, we aimed to design an art museum building that is harmonious with its surrounds; one that breathes with the city, the park and the harbour. We hope it will be a special place where visitors feel connected to art wherever they are in this beautiful setting.”
The project is the most significant cultural development in Sydney since the completion of the Sydney Opera House almost half a century ago. The new art museum campus now comprises two buildings and a public art garden overlooking Sydney Harbour, and almost doubles the exhibition space of the original gallery.

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Sydney Modern designed by SANAA and Architectus comprises three interlocking pavilions that step down towards the harbour following the topography of the land. Image:

Iwan Baan

The design includes three interlocking limestone-clad pavilions that step down towards the harbour, following the topography of the land. The new building features 250 metres of rammed earth made from materials sourced from across NSW and creates a dramatic curve through the building. An 11-metre-high atrium at the centre also serves as a sculpture gallery.

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Interior of Sydney Modern by SANAA and Architectus. Image:

Iwan Baan

The building also includes spaces for art research, education, as well as multipurpose spaces, food and beverage facilities and visitor amenities. A gallery shop designed by Akin Atelier features a unique handcrafted bio-resin installation by Hayden Cox, made from the same material used to make surf boards.
An original World War II naval fuel bunker on the site has been transformed into a 2,000-square-metre art space with a seven-metre-high ceiling.

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A World War II naval fuel bunker has also been transformed into an art space. Image:

Iwan Baan

The project also features a series of open spaces, including 3,400 square metres of accessible roof terrace and courtyards, a public art garden and a civic plaza, as well as improved universal walkways. The landscape was designed by McGregor Coxall and US landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, who also redesigned the forecourt of the original building that now features two black granite reflecting pools, as well as seating and shading opportunities. More than 8000 square metres of green roof has been planted with 50,000 Australian natives species and 70 percent more trees, which will increase the biodiversity of the site.
The Welcome Plaza canopy, which creates a sheltered space for visitors and community gatherings, is made with 108 pieces of curved, form-cast glass with ripple patterns that echo the glistening water in the nearby harbour.

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The Welcome Plaza canopy is made with 108 pieces of curved, form-cast glass with ripple patterns that echo the glistening water in the nearby harbour. Image:

Iwan Baan

“Our vision has been to transform the Art Gallery into an art museum campus with seamless connections between art, architecture and landscape,” said AGNSW director Michael Brand.
The project also creates a destination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art with a dedicated gallery space, Yiribana, which will be the first gallery visitors will encounter as they enter the new building.
The original 1896 gallery building, designed by Walter Liberty Vernon, has also been refurbished by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, and includes an upgraded members’ lounge and Australia’s first children’s art library, which has been added adjacent to a new Capon Research Library and the National Art Archive.
The Art Gallery of NSW is now the first public art museum to achieve a six-star Green Star rating. The gallery uses 100 percent renewable energy, with solar panels on the entrance pavilion roof generating 10 percent of the gallery’s energy needs.
The $344 million project is funded through a state government investment of $244 million while the gallery raised the remaining $100 million, making it the largest public and philanthropic partnership of its kind in Australia. More

A hybrid timber tower in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood has received a $70 million investment from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) as the first of many mass timber builds under the Timber Buildings Program. Designed by Jackson Clements Burrows (JCB), the sustainable commercial office tower will comprise 15 storeys: 10 levels of timber […] More

London’s Serpentine Galleries has announced the recipient of the 22nd pavilion commission is Lebanese-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh, whose structure will occupy the gardens of Serpentine South from June 2023.
Since 2000, from June to October each year, the pavilion commission has celebrated the best in architectural experimentation from practitioners around the globe in Kensington Gardens. It has become a highly anticipated showcase for emerging international talent and a highlight in London’s summer cultural calendar.
Titled À table, Ghotmeh’s pavilion will explore notions of memory, space and landscape through a structure that alludes to the the activities of interaction and unity through an organic design inspired by a dining table.
“À table is an invitation to dwell together, in the same space and around the same table,” said Ghotmeh. “It is an encouragement to enter into a dialogue, to convene and to think about how we could reinstate and re-establish our relationship to nature and the Earth.”
The pavilion will be built using sustainably sourced and low-carbon materials, incorporating timber ribs arranged like a skeleton to support a suspended pleated roof. “Echoing the structures of tree leaves, the Pavilion embraces the nature of the park in which it emerges,” Ghotmeh added.
The commission has been designed to be easily disassembled and reassembled, permitting it to be redeployed at other locations beyond its life on the Serpentine site.
Ghotmeh’s work is at the “crossroads of architecture, art and design”, a spokesperson for Serpentine said, and her projects include the Estonian National Museum; “Stone Garden”, a craft tower and gallery space in Beirut; “Réalimenter Masséna” wooden tower in Paris, to name a few.
Serpentine chief executive Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist said Ghotmeh’s pavilion draws on the natural elements of its surrounds, while furthering Serpentine’s mission to create connections between architecture and society by “promoting unity and togetherness” in its form and function.
The Serpentine pavilion commission was first pioneered by Dame Zaha Hadid in 2000. Previous commissions have included “Black Chapel” by Theaster Gates (2022), the 2020 pavilion by Counterspace, and 2019’s mysterious canopy by Junya Ishigami. More

Entries are now open for the 2023 Dulux Colour Awards. Architects, interior designers and design students from Australia and New Zealand are invited to submit recent projects that demonstrate a “pioneering, strategic and commendable” use of colour across six categories. Projects must have been completed between 1 September 2021 and 31 December 2022 and cannot […] More