Evelyn Reynolds

A major survey of the Australian architecture profession has found that personal wellbeing among the profession is “an urgent area of concern.”
A comprehensive report of the survey results was launched at the Australian Institute of Architects Lost Opportunities Symposium in Melbourne on 20 March.
More than 2,000 individuals responded to the survey, which is part of a longitudinal study undertaken by Monash University academics Naomi Stead, Julie Wolfram Cox, Maryam Gusheh and Brian Cooper, and Kirsten Orr, Registrar of the NSW Architects Registration Board. The majority of respondents were registered architects or those in the process of registration.

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The survey found architects scored lower than average on every measure of personal wellbeing.

The survey found that people working in architecture have lower than average quality of life than Australian norms, scoring lower than average on all measures of personal wellbeing with the lowest being “future security.”
Architects also scored higher than average on measures of psychological distress, including anxiety and depression and have higher than average levels of burnout.

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The survey found architects have higher than average levels of psychological distress.

Of the survey respondents, 42 percent reported that their career had a generally negative impact on their wellbeing and a large proportion also reported that their education also had an overall negative effect on wellbeing.
The survey report states that a number of factors are contributing to the poor wellbeing of architects, including compressed timelines, unrealistic deadlines and inadequate fees.
Working more than contracted hours was also found to be rife within the industry.
Dissatisfaction with remuneration was also a contributor to poor wellbeing; however, satisfaction increased with age with older respondents more likely to be satisfied with their remuneration than younger respondents.
The survey results will ultimately contribute to creating resources for workplaces and education providers to help improve wellbeing and change the culture within the industry.
The researchers have also launched a website of resources where the full report of survey results can be downloaded. More

Construction is scheduled to resume on Probuild project Uno Melbourne after it stalled following the company’s untimely collapse in February 2022.
The major Australian construction company fell into administration after its South African parent company WBHO pulled financial support.
The Australian Financial Review reports that Uno’s developer, SP Sepia, will directly fund the Probuild team to finish the project.
Probuild had 15 projects active projects across the nation at the time of its collapse, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed and $5 billion worth of projects grinding to a halt.
Designed by Elenberg Fraser, Uno Melbourne is planned to be a 65-level residential tower at 111 A’Beckett Street and was scheduled for completion in 2023.

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Uno Melbourne is planned to be a 65-level residential tower commissioned by Malaysian developer SP Setia Image:

Elenberg Fraser

The majority of Probuild’s incomplete projects are in Victoria, with others in New South Wales, Queensland. They include ‘The Ribbon’ – a $1 billion accommodation and entertainment complex designed by Hassell in Sydney’s Darling Harbour, and the corporate headquarters for pharmaceutical giant CSL, designed by Jacobs Group.
Uno is the third project to resume since the Probuild’s collapse. Two more are also being directly funded by their developers, including the second stage of the $1.2 billion Caulfield Village project.
Builder Roberts Co is reportedly considering the takeover of Probuild’s Melbourne projects, according to the Australian Financial Review.
However, it appears Roberts Co is nearing the end of its 10-day due diligence period without coming to a decision.
The AFR anticipates that it and Probuild’s administrator, Deloitte, are likely to agree to an extension to the due diligence period before coming to conclusion.
The fate of the five remaining Melbourne projects is still uncertain, while in Sydney, Roberts is also bidding to take over The Ribbon project. More

The Queensland government has released preliminary designs for a youth housing facility in Townsville.
Designed by local architects Counterpoint Architecture for the Gulliver Youth Foyer, the facility will be a mix of flexible shared living spaces that support recreation, social connection and educational activities.
The design includes 40 self-contained units alongside a communal kitchen and living area, as well as meeting spaces, training rooms, outdoor dining spaces and more.
Townsville was selected for the project for its high demand for independent and supportive housing for young people wanting to pursue education and employment opportunities.
The Townsville Youth Foyer will be located on the Pimlico TAFE site, chosen for its direct access to study and training facilities.
Once completed, the facility will provide housing for 40 young people aged 16 to 25 who are in need of safe, stable and affordable housing.

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The design includes 40 self-contained units alongside a communal kitchen and living area, as well as meeting spaces, training rooms, outdoor dining spaces and more . Image:

Counterpoint Architecture

Minister for Communities and Housing Leeanne Enoch said the plans have been based on similar initiatives in place in Logan and the Gold Coast.
Conditions of residence include that tenants must be undertaking study or training for work, and antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated.
Youth foyers are recognized as a vital resource to help young people to access education, training and employment through housing and support.
Townsville’s Youth Foyer in Gulliver will be managed by not-for-profit Mission Australia, who will provide onsite mentoring and support so that residents can access further training and employment pathways.
“Many of these young people come from backgrounds where their home life may not have been safe, so to have a facility like this gives them the opportunity to have a stable home where they can commit to studying or a job, and to have positive mentors in their life,” said Mission Australia leader for the region, Phil Flint.
The facility will to help young adults learn practical life skills to enable them to eventually transition into longer-term private rental housing.
Tenants will receive coaching and mentoring to learn basic skills including budgeting, financial management, cooking and how to be a good tenant.
The model provides young people with stable accommodation for up to two years in a supported living environment.
The project is expected to commence construction in late 2022, with completion anticipated for late 2023.
The preliminary designs are available for public comment via the Queensland government’s website until 7 April. More

FJMT has created a concept proposal for a mixed-use development on Williams Street in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo. The building will contain predominantly residential apartments but also retail, food and beverage outlets. The proposal also calls for two large communal courtyards with solar access, terraced roof gardens, and a publicly accessible through-site link between Dowling and Forbes […] More

Revival Project’s Zero Footprint Repurposing Hub has been awarded the 2022 Melbourne Design Week Award for best event.
The hub is a dedicated space for repurposing waste from construction and demolition. In line with one of Design Week’s pillars, Revival is exercising the credo of “making good,” salvaging and reusing building materials on a scale that hasn’t previously been achieved.

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The Zero Footprint Repurposing Hub is located in a 150-year-old warehouse in Collingwood that previously housed textiles. Image:

Sean Fennessy

Founder Robbie Neville started Revival in 2016 after he was confronted by the lack of sustainable construction practices Australia – in particular, the failure to incorporate perfectly good existing materials in new projects.
“When I took on my own projects as a building practitioner, it was so frustrating how challenging it was to incorporate recycled materials into my work,” said Neville. “I wanted to make repurposing fundamental to new design and construction, but our industry is not set up whatsoever to incorporate alternative recycled materials at an elemental level.”

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Robbie Neville (pictured) started Revival in 2016 after he was confronted by the lack of sustainable construction practices Australia. Image:

Sean Fennessy

Despite the impacts of the global pandemic, Australia’s construction industry remains prolific, with government investment in public infrastructure contributing to many states’ economic recovery plans. But with this growth comes an enormous amount of waste. Neville sees it as his responsibility to normalize responsible handling as standard practice.
“This industry’s been predicated on 200 years of reckless consumption. The paradigm is: harvest, fabricate, consume, dispose – it’s a legacy of the industrial revolution,” Neville explained.
In the current paradigm, almost half of waste worldwide comes from construction and demolition. In Australia, this accounts for a total of 44 per cent of all managed waste.

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Revival is working with Grimshaw Architects to put 100 per cent of the materials from the existing warehouse back into the new build. Image:

Sean Fennessy

Neville’s mission is to redefine our understanding of “waste.” He and the team want to work with architects and developers to help them to understand the value of what they already have. He wants to encourage a reappraisal of what the industry determines as “waste.”
When something is nominated in drawings for demolition, “there’s an abdication of responsibility in that moment when a council or architect or builder deems those materials irrelevant,” he said.
The Islington Street Zero Footprint Repurposing Hub came to life when Neville teamed with Grimshaw Architects, who were designing a multi-storey building out of a former textile warehouse in Islington Street, Collingwood. The 100-year-old warehouse has become a temporary home for salvaged materials before its own demolition in 2024. For the duration of its tenancy, Revival is working with Grimshaw to put 100 per cent of the materials back into the new build.

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Neville said 20-metre timber trusses in the original warehouse are undoubtably old growth most likely from North America, and could be thousands of years old. Image:

Sean Fennessy

Occupying an enormous 1,000 square metres, Revival’s Collingwood hub offers a free storage space for architects and builders to keep salvaged materials before they can go back into the new project.
“There is such a time gap between demolition and the project coming to life,” Neville said. “We’ve offered this free space to try and solve that last major barrier preventing people from using what they already have.” No one who uses the hub will be obliged to use Revival’s services, so long as they’re making use of the salvaged materials they keep on the site.
The Zero Footprint Repurposing Hub houses six years’ worth of Neville’s projects that each help prove the viability of his solutions. Neville is chipping away at reservations, debunking the myth that recycled timber always has to be rustic with beautifully refined case studies and bespoke furniture pieces. “Every shopfront of an R.M. Williams store across the country has been made from a building that was demolished in Fitzroy,” said Neville.
He’s also debunking the myth that sustainable methods are more costly than traditional builds with a project by Assemble, where there is a clear commercial upside of working within a circular system. “Every single one of the installations represents the ideas we’re putting forward and proposing,” he said.

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Standing at an enormous 1000 square metres, Revival’s Collingwood hub offers a free storage space for architects and builders to keep salvaged materials before they can go back into the new project. Image:

Sean Fennessy

“The fruit couldn’t be hanging any lower,” said Neville. “The city is built out of old growth timber and brick. We’re still demolishing first-round developments that are a couple of hundred years old, so the scope of opportunity is palpable.”
Neville hopes to harness the momentum, energy and exposure brought about by Melbourne Design Week to drive the mission forward. “The city is full of vacant buildings; there is no reason why with more cohesion between the different players, this couldn’t be transferrable on a larger scale.”
Revival Projects’ repurposing hub is open on Friday 25 March for Melbourne Design Week. Click here to view the exhibition details. ArchitectureAU is a media part of Melbourne Design Week. More

Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas have “invented” a new health care typology in their design for a children’s mental health facility in Melbourne’s north.
The $7.3 million Statewide Child and Family Centre in Macleod will provide mental health services for children aged up to 11 who have experienced negative or traumatic events. The 12-bed facility will accommodate up to three families on site in a residential setting, as they receive family-focused therapy and support for issues such as medication management, dispute resolution, school refusal and challenging behaviour.
The facility will include private rooms with shared living space, which include a kitchen, dining, lounge and laundry, family activity areas, outdoor garden areas and clinical consulting areas.
The centre will be the first in Victoria to provide live-in services for children and their families. Part of the therapy service that the centre will provide will involve observing family dynamics.

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The Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas is designed to have a residential feel.

Kerstin Thompson and Bloxas principal Anthony Clarke said their design emerged from the innovative model of care devised by the clinicians at Austin Health, which will be operating the service.
“The most interesting thing to us about this project was their model of care. It was innovative and, as yet, they didn’t have the typology to fit,” Thompson said. “We saw our role as developing a spatial typology that would support them and what they were wanting to deliver. It was really fascinating to see this synergy with what architecture can do and help them visualize it and apply it through space in ways that met their needs and didn’t feel institutional.”
Creating a residential atsmosphere, and also an environment where children could feel they have instrumentality and choice, as well as breaking down the dichotomous patient-clinical dynamic of the setting was a challenge for the architects. They explored a number of different types of children’s spaces, such as childcare centres, libraries for children, and Maggies Centres which provide support for cancer patients. “We had to pull many different types of programs as reference points for this because we were inventing a type,” Thompson said.

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In the Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas, activity areas for children are separated from therapy focused areas.

The architects also consulted with a group of former patients who gave insights about their lived experiences receiving treatment.
“”There’s been a lot of care involved in the overall planning and consideration for children in this project,” said Anthony Clarke, who is also undertaking PhD research into how architects can create spaces for people with unique neurological and mental conditions.
“A lot of [our ideas] focused on offering children choice, privacy, physical and psychological transparency, autonomy, and a sense of empowerment. The project offers young individuals the ability to self-regulate through a diverse spectrum of highly considered internal and external settings.
“One example is the ability to independently control lighting with dimmers. It seems like a very minor component however it offers a strong, and important sense of personal control.”
The project also separates the therapy-focused areas from other areas where the children might be undertaking other activities. “It was important to appreciate and comprehend the concept of ‘dual purpose’ spaces. Where the children watch movies, or free play for example, are not the same environments where the more formal therapy may take place.” Clarke explains “This assists to reduce any confusion between positive and negative spatial association. In addition to this, the introduction of transition zones was critical, offering the opportunity for individual decision making to occur.”

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The Statewide Child and Family Centre by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Bloxas is embedded into its neighbourhood with its landscape.

Thompson added that the landscape also contributes creating a residential feel for the project. The key spaces all have garden spaces “because of the therapeutic possibilities of gardens, the prospect of gardens, and also the sense of relief and not feeling trapped.” The gardens serve as spaces for children to undertake activities in and also as visual outlooks.
The proposed facility responds to key recommendations from Victoria’s royal commission into mental health. Construction is underway and is due to be completed in late 2022. More

Georgia Birks: Tell us a bit about yourself and what the original house was like.
Tamsin Cull: Brisbane has been my home-town since I was at university. I went away for a few years for postgraduate study and work but otherwise I’ve lived in my home in Annerley since 2007 – I’ve always loved the house and the area.
The original house was a very small cottage, which had been added to in the 1960s with a “handyman”-style extension. It had a tiny little window out to the garden from the kitchen. I knew that I wanted to change that, to make the transition into the garden as easy as possible.
GB: When did you decide to engage an architect?
TC: In 2018 I decided that I wanted to do the renovation. At first, I thought the logical thing to do was to raise the house. I spoke with some building designers who would do that, but there wasn’t a lot of conversation about how my family lived and how we engaged with the space. I left those conversations not feeling totally convinced. I was also very conscious of cost. The reality is that any building project these days is probably more expensive than you think it’s going to be. I wanted an architect who could work within the parameters of my budget. I did some further research and spoke to a friend of mine who recommended Nicholas and Zuzana. When I met with Nicholas and Zuzana, I immediately felt like we had a good rapport: their approach was to not intervene with the house more than they needed to and they were very interested in my ideas.
GB: What was your brief to Zuzana and Nicholas?
TC: My brief was to connect the interior spaces to the garden in order to generate more space. I knew the house wasn’t going to be really big, so it needed rooms that were versatile and able to grow as my family grew. The windows in these cottages on small inner-city blocks are often aligned with those of the neighbours, so I wanted privacy, but I didn’t want to be completely shut off from the street, either. I still wanted to feel connected to the neighbourhood.
GB: You mentioned that budget was an important part of your brief. How did you maintain a budget that worked for you?
TC: Going for quality over quantity. It really was about not trying to make things any bigger than they needed to be. This then allowed me to spend on quality finishes: because I only have one bathroom, I was able to use little Italian floor tiles. That wouldn’t have been possible if I had wanted three bathrooms.
GB: Connecting the interior spaces to the garden is a strong design driver in your brief and led you to collaborate with a landscape designer. What was that process like?
TC: It was probably halfway through the design process that I said to Nicholas and Zuzana that I really wanted to think about the garden as part of the whole project. I wanted the garden to be in harmony with the house. A friend of mine had just finished a renovation and she had worked with Jonathan Kopinski for the landscape design of her house. When I mentioned this to Nicholas and Zuzana, they laughed and said “he’s a good friend of ours and that’s a great idea.” Jonathan and I shared ideas and he came back with this beautiful design, which was about extending the architectural plan itself. Jonathan and I then spent a whole week planting the garden together, as I was determined to complete the landscape before moving the family in – I didn’t want to bring children and a dog into a big dirt pit.
GB: What are your highlights from the architectural process?
TC: I would certainly say [Zuzana and Nicholas] were pretty amazing in terms of how responsive they were to my suggestions. I love their aesthetic but they were quite encouraging of my ideas, particularly about colour. The conversations were respectful and it wasn’t a case of, “this is what you should do because I’m the architect.” However, occasionally they would politely say, “actually I think it should be this way …” That’s how you know you’ve got a good relationship.
GB: Was working with an architect what you expected?
TC: I would say it’s given me an enormous respect and appreciation for what architects do. There is so much more to it than I had ever realized. The way they think about light, spaces and the integration of new and old was absolutely worth it. Also, there was a drawing for everything. The builders were very complimentary when they talked about Zuzana and Nicholas’s documentation.
GB: What advice would you give to someone thinking about using an architect, and would you do it again?
TC: I would definitely do it again. I would advise people to think about the aesthetic you’re after and investigate the architect’s completed projects. You need to find someone you have a real affinity with in that regard. What is equally important is finding someone that you can imagine yourself having a really good working relationship with.
GB: You did a lot of research to find the right architect. Would you recommend this process for those looking to engage an architect?
TC: Yes. You want to actually like the person because you’re going to have a lot to do with them – you could be working together for a couple of years. It’s funny, I would liken my relationship with my architects to being a little bit like my relationship with my obstetrician [laughs]. You just see so much of them because you are preparing for a big life event!
For more, read the review of Annerley House.
Tamsin Cull and Zuzana and Nicholas Architects will be speaking about Annerley House at the Our Houses even in Brisbane, part of the Asia Pacific Architecture Festival. Book tickets here. More

Victorian Minister for Planning Richard Wynne has released updated plans for the Preston Market Precinct with new protection overlays for the fresh food market and stronger height limits on new builds following an eight-week community consultation period.
In May 2021, the Victorian Government released draft plans for community consultation, which saw a total of 386 written submissions made to the planning authority.
Retaining neighbourhood character and maximizing access to light were among the top priorities identified from community feedback that have heavily influenced the latest iteration of precinct plans.
These recommendations have led to a reduction in building heights and in the number of homes in the precinct, enabling a more open and light-filled space.
The Victorian Planning Authority forecasts that Preston’s population will double in size to 68,000 people by 2041. “We expect 4,500 to 6,000 new residents will call the precinct home with a minimum of 2,200 extra dwellings,” the VPA’s May 2021 community brochure stated.
In the original plan, buildings in the centre of the precinct were designed to reach up to 16 storeys, and up to 20 storeys near Murray Road, to accomodate new homes and workplaces.
“Planning for sustainable growth in the precinct while protecting the neighbourhood’s unique character is essential to tackle urban sprawl and housing affordability for Victoria’s growing population,” the update for the precinct plans read.
“We’ve listened to the community and updated the draft plan in line with their feedback around neighbourhood character, open space and sunlight,” Minister Wynne said.
Strong protections for the 51-year-old market have been retained, with the existing fruit and vegetable shed to remain in its current location, and its character safeguarded by a heritage overlay.
The 5.1-hectare precinct will include the market, new housing, jobs, and infrastructure to support the growing community. This also includes public open spaces, walking and cycle paths, and improved public transport access.
Objectives for the precinct include a thriving fresh food market; a diversity of land use and amenity; culturally diverse character and adaptable community spaces; a sustainable, liveable and accessible precinct; and flexible and efficient parking and access.
The new draft plan will be considered by the Projects Standing Advisory Committee and will be subject to further community consultation.
For more information visit the Victorian Planning Authority website. More