Evelyn Reynolds

Hassell and SO-IL’s masterplan for phase one of the Melbourne Arts Precinct transformation (MAPT) is going before council on 1 February, as Development Victoria seeks approval for a planning amendment to pave the way for the development.
Phase one of the “once-in-a-generation” project will see the construction of the NGV Contemporary gallery as well as an elevated deck above Sturt Street supporting a new 18,000-sqaure-metre public realm and upgrades to the Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building, mostly back-of-house.
The masterplan outlines the preferred building envelope for the NGV Contemporary – the design team of which is to be announced in early 2022 – and describes the proposed design for the public realm and elevated deck.
NGV Contemporary will be built in place of the existing building at 77 Southbank Boulevard, and the masterplan proposes a built form with a height of 60 metres, cantilevering over Sturt Street reserve, Kavanagh Street and Southbank Boulevard.

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Melbourne Arts Precinct transformation phase 1 masterplan by Hassell and SO-IL.

The elevated deck would span the full width of the Sturt Street Road reserve, from City Road through to Kavanagh Street, interfacing with the Australian Ballet Centre along its western edge and connecting with the future NGV Contemporary building to the south.
The 18,000-squaremetre activated public realm, incorporating space for outdoor dining, art and performances, would be predominantly located above existing built form (The Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building and car park) and the new elevated deck structure.
“MAPT will enable visitors to move seamlessly from Southbank, the Birrarung and the city through the Melbourne Arts Precinct extending from Federation Square in the north and the length of Sturt Street in the south,” the masterplan reads.
“Featuring creative installations, activations, and performances in the public space, the MAPT will bring the excitement, colour, and inspiration that we find inside Melbourne’s theatres and galleries into the outdoors.”
Victoria’s planning minister is the authority tasked with approving the requested amendment, but it has been referred to the City of Melbourne for comment.
The council’s in-house urban design and landscape architecture team offered in principle support to the vision, noting that the raised public realm had the potential to unify the precinct, which has been historically fractured by geographic barriers.
However, the City Design team also recommended that “more robust contextual analysis, principles, strategies, staging plans and massing envelopes are established.”
In particular, the City Design team said built form encroachment over Kavanagh Street and Southbank Boulevard should be removed to maintain appropriate pedestrian network conditions and that “further rationalization and detail” is required to proposed gateways and connections between the Melbourne Arts Precinct and surrounding context.
Council management are recommending that the Future Melbourne committee advises the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning that further detail is required to be provided in the masterplan before council can support the proposed amendment. More

The Heritage Council of Victoria has resolved to include a Maggie Edmond designed amphitheatre and Paul Couch designed pavilion in the Victorian Heritage Register, contravening a recommendation from the executive director of Heritage Victoria. The amphitheatre and pavilion are part of the Fairfield Park Amphitheatre Complex in north-east Melbourne, which also includes a small kiosk […] More

Three purpose-built quarantine centres in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth have been designed by Billard Leece Partnership together with Aecom, the design team of the existing Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.
Known as the Centres for National Resilience, the facilities are being delivered by the federal government in partnership with the respective state governments, with the federal government funding construction and the state governments responsible for operation and maintenance.
The facilities will initially open with between 250 and 500 beds and there is scope to expand capacity to meet future demand.
BLP principal and project director Emily Gilfillan said the project had redefined the speed at which the buildings are delivered.
“This is a once in a lifetime type of project,” she said. “We have designed, documented, and delivered while concurrently undertaking briefings. With many stakeholders to consider, there are many moving parts. We have brought them all together, distilling everything into a workable understanding of what is needed.
“Through planning, design, and process, the outcome for the Centres for National Resilience will be a human-centric experience that promotes health and wellbeing and provides safety for the community through great design.”

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Melbourne Centre for National Resilience by Billard Leece Partnership with AECOM.

The Melbourne facility is being built on the southern side of the existing Post Entry Quarantine Facility at Mickleham, the Perth facility will be located on Defence-owned land at Bullsbrook and the Brisbane centre will be located at the Damascus Barracks in Pinkenba.
The Mickleham site is similar to the size of Melbourne’s CBD. BLP noted that the design incorporated modular and prefabricated components to expedite the speed of delivery.
“This project utilizes our experience in health, seniors living and communities, science and technology, and workplace design, to ensure that we create a project from best practice,” said managing director Tara Veldman.
The design also prioritizes sustainability, with high-efficiency fittings and fixtures, native landscaping, use of water-sensitive urban design principles, and carefully considered material choices with good life cycles.
“With such a large project, a comprehensive approach was required to design an integrated and interconnected facility,” said BLP design lead Ivan Turcinov. “Essentially, the design is focused on providing a positive experience for the residents who will come through this facility as well as staff and visitors. The design makes the resident’s journey as seamless as possible.”
The centres were scheduled to be complete in early 2022, however, according to tender documents from the WA government the Perth facility may not be ready to open until July 2022, the ABC reports. More

The NSW Land and Environment Court has approved a proposal for a five-storey apartment building designed by Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects after a dispute over its bulk and scale.
To be built at 351– 53 New South Head Road in Double Bay, Sydney, the building will replace two large detached houses and deliver 15 apartments, including 20 percent affordable apartments.
Hill Thalis notes in planning documents that the building will join a “heterogeneous mix” of buildings in the area, including a number of taller buildings nearby, and that the design represents an appropriate transition between the commercial area immediately to the east and the less built-up residential area to the west.
“The architectural expression is united by a palette of materials and balanced asymmetrical forms that should make it an exemplar of such an apartment building type,” the firm notes. “Well-scaled concrete blade walls set the outboard corners, framing projecting concrete slabs. The body of the building is a white face brick, with lightweight cladding on the angled projecting bays which provide modelling and well-proportioned articulation to the side elevations.”

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351– 53 New South Head Road, Double Bay by Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects.

However, since the proposal was first revealed in mid-2019 it has attracted criticism from residents concerned about its size and potential impact on views, overshadowing and vegetation, with some 57 submissions made over a number of notification periods.
Woollahra Municipal Council approved the development application in December 2020, subject to a number of conditions, including that “apartment 17” and the easternroof terrace on the top storey be deleted “in order to reduce the height, bulk and scale of the proposed development and to achieve the desired future character of the Wallaroy Precinct.”
The project’s developer Kingsford Property Developments appealed to the Land and Environment Court to strike out this condition, along with conditions related to construction hours. Hill Thalis amended the plans as part of the appeal, maintaining the fifth-storey apartment, but reducing the scale of that level and the building as a whole.
During the court’s hearing, Woollahra Council said it no longer opposed the fifth-storey apartment, but proposed some further amendments to improve the compatibility of the development with the character of the local area.
However, presiding commissioner Michael Chilcott found that the council’s proposed amendments would “provide only modest improvements to the view” and that the resultant reduction in available floor space for affordable housing would not serve the public interest.
The court upheld the developer’s appeal and approved the development application. More

A 10-storey residential development accommodating 315 apartments across multiple building forms would be built within the Belconnen Town Centre in Canberra under a development application before the ACT planning department. Designed by Cox Architecture, the development would occupy Block 20 Section 32 Belconnen, at the intersection of Belconnen Way and Benjamin Way. It would include […] More

Sydney architect George El Khouri was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2022 Australia Day Honours for service to architecture and the community. El Khouri is the director of George El Khouri Architects and has been a member of the Australian Institute of Architects since 1978. He is also a […] More

Melbourne Design Week returns in 2022 with an 11-day program exhibitions, talks, films, tours and workshops across the city and parts of regional Victoria. The 2022 theme “Design the world you want” is divided into two pillars – civic good and making good – encouraging participants to think beyond the individual and as well as […] More

Bates Smart has updated its design for a tower in Sydney’s Green Square town centre, originally approved in 2019.
An application to modify the mixed-use development submitted to the City of Sydney calls for a reduction in the number of apartments, from 104 to 81, with the average apartment size to increase from 70 to 90 square metres.
The development has been in the works for a long time, with Bates Smart appointed as the architect in early 2016 through a design competition. Submission of the development application was then deferred until the completion of the tower at site 17, designed by Tzannes and Mirvac Design, which the development is to share a basement with.
In planning documents, Bates Smart explains that Green Square has undergone radical change in the intervening years, as major public domain and community infrastructure projects such as the Green Square Library and Plaza and Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre have reached completion.

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Site 18 Green Square by Bates Smart.

“This changing context has seen a shift in the market from investor product to larger owner-occupied dwellings which has underpinned the re-thinking of the design of Site 18,” the firm notes.
The new bigger apartments will enjoy improved solar access and ventilation as well increased floor-to-floor heights.
The built form and scale of the tower, meanwhile, remains largely unchanged. The ground level has been designed with pedestrians in mind, with retail activation to all frontages.
“The base of the building is designed as a stone plinth with punctured window openings,” Bates Smart states. “The corners are defined by solid stone walls and are read in the round, ‘grounding’ the building with a heavy masonry base.
“The lobby is expressed as a crystalline glass box that hangs off the heavy masonry frame defining the edges of the building.
“The stepped building form results in the Neilson Square setback being more open to the sky and the ground plane is treated as an extension of the Square. A glass canopy provides a sheltered pedestrian thoroughfare along the Ebsworth Street and Neilson Square frontages.”
A key change made to the performance of the building is the integration of operable shading to the northwest and southwest facades.
“Operable rotating vertical louvers are proposed in front of windows and fixed vision glass to provide excellent shading in warmer months and adequate sunlight in cooler months,” state the architects.
The modification application is on exhibit until 28 January. More