Evelyn Reynolds

Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi has been named the winner of the Royal Gold Medal 2022 by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the medal is one of architecture’s top honours. The honours committee said Doshi has influenced the direction of architecture in India and abroad over a 70-year career that has spawned more than 100 built projects.
“He has influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture,” said RIBA president Simon Allford.

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Atira Guest House, Ahmedabad. Image:

Fabien Charuau

“Influenced by his time spent in the office of Le Corbusier, his work nevertheless is that of an original and independent thinker – able to undo, redo and evolve. In the twentieth century, when technology facilitated many architects to build independently of local climate and tradition, Balkrishna remained closely connected with his hinterland: its climate, technologies new and old, and crafts.”
Doshi said it was an honour to receive the award. “The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953 when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal,” he said. “He said to me metaphorically, ‘I wonder how big and heavy this medal will be.’ Today, six decades later I feel truly overwhelmed to be bestowed with the same award as my guru, Le Corbusier – honouring my six decades of practice.”

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Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore. Image:

Vastushilpa Foundation, John Panicker

Doshi was born in 1927 in Pune and studied at the Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Bombay (now Mumbai), before working for four years with Le Corbusier as senior designer in Paris and for four more years in India to supervise projects in Ahmedabad. He also worked with Louis Kahn as an associate to build the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and they continued to collaborate for over a decade.
His practice, Vastushilpa, which he founded in 1956 with two architects, is today a multi-disciplinary practice with 60 employees and five partners spanning three generations.
The 2022 Honours Committee, chaired by RIBA president Simon Allford, included last year’s Royal Gold Medal recipient Sir David Adjaye, architect Alison Brooks, architect and academic Kate Cheyne, and cultural historian and museum director Gus Casely-Hayford. More

Fitzpatrick and Partners’ competition-winning design for an apartment and office complex in Sydney Olympic Park has been submitted for planning approval. The proposed development would include a 45-storey tower with 464 serviced apartments, a 12-storey office building with ground-floor retail, and two pavilion structures of two and five storeys. The pavilions are intended to act […] More

Concept designs by John Wardle Architects have been released for the redevelopment of the Port of Devonport in Tasmania, the headquarters for the Spirit of Tasmania ferries and the fastest growing port in the state. The Tasmanian government said the $240 million “Quay Link” development would be timed to cater for a new fleet of […] More

A new planning policy for New South Wales that prioritizes walkable neighbourhoods, housing diversity and thermal performance has been welcomed by the Australian Institute of Architects but slammed by developer and property groups.
The new Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy, now on public exhibition, is being described by the government as the state’s first comprehensive design policy. It has been designed to deliver greater housing diversity and choice, while ensuring that dwellings have adequate sunlight, more storage and usable balconies. It calls for more, better quality parks, as well as greater permeability in new subdivisions to make walking and cycling easier.
It also requires new commercial buildings to operate at net zero emissions “from day one,” as was signposted by planning minister Rob Stokes in November.
The president of the NSW chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, Laura Cockburn, said communities across the state would benefit from the proposed updates.
“It is imperative that the planning and design of cities and towns evolves to address the challenges of climate change, as well as social and cultural divides, if we are to ensure a high quality, sustainable built environment legacy for future generations,” she said.
“People’s basic rights to access sunlight, ventilation, privacy and open space must be protected and placing good design at the heart of the planning process will significantly improve outcomes for our communities. The Institute supports planning policy which enables community input in shaping the future of places, delivers certainty for investors and the resulting confidence in the system.”
The policy has been months in development, with the government consulting with industry, local government and environmental groups, and the Institute. In a submission made as part of the development of the policy, the Institute called for planning controls that protect solar access, cross-ventilation, privacy and access to open space; strengthen the role of BASIX; increase sustainability targets; focus on connection with Country; and demonstrate clear and consistent design principles in development applications.
“We welcomed the opportunity to work alongside government in the development of the Design and Place SEPP and strongly endorse what it aims to achieve,” said Cockburn.
NSW government architect Abbie Galvin said proposed changes to the Apartment Design Guide and Urban Design Guide aimed to respond to changing needs.
“During the pandemic we’ve seen our homes and apartments become schools, offices and gyms, and many of us have enjoyed walking or cycling more in our neighbourhoods. This timely policy seeks to reflect our new way of living,” she said.
“There’ll be quality apartments with outdoor space and plenty of room for growing families and friends. There’ll be quality streets, public spaces and neighbourhoods that are cool and connected. Places where people love to live.”
Planning minister Stokes said principles-based policy was an important step in defining what matters in planning. “This policy will allow designers to think outside the box and support innovation and creativity when building new homes, suburbs and cities,” he said. “Great places aren’t always the product of rules and regulation, they are the result of place-based design that puts communities at their heart.”
Property developers’ organizations Urban Taskforce and the Property Council have been less than glowing in their assessments, however, claiming that the policy will act as a break on investment.
“There are lots of pressures on costs at the moment and the last thing we need is a utopian SEPP designed by architects that further bumps out the costs of delivery at a time when we can least afford it,” Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said, according to The Urban Developer.
The draft Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy is on exhibit until 28 February 2022. More

Blight Rayner has designed a 14-strorey tower for 388 Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, overriding a proposal for the site from earlier in the year for a 29-storey tower by Elenberg Fraser. Whereas the previous tower was to house apartments and a hotel, the new proposal is for an office tower with retail at […] More

Herman Miller considers what the office of the future will be, in response to the changing face of work, in its latest investigation: Work, Redefined – The Design Challenge 2021.
Designers were invited to conceptualize a future workplace, submitting their concepts to a panel of expert judges.
The winner of the 2021 challenge was Melbourne-based design studio SLAB, which put community at the core of its imagined workplace. With remote work an ongoing prospect, SLAB argued that the office needs to offer “social opportunity, human connection and collaboration.”
There are four essential elements that make up SLAB’s concept – Pods, Gardens, Walls and Curtains. Each element responds to principles SLAB believes are essential to the future office: community, agility, collaboration, the individual, wellness, balance, accessibility, sustainability and flexibility.

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The office “should be able to shift, move, adapt, evolve, and change,” says the SLAB team. Image: SLAB

SLAB envisages Pods being ordered online in a range of sizes and configurations to suit an organization’s needs. The Temple pod is a space for reading, focus work and “doing things you love.” Resort is an in-office wellness pod for yoga, workouts, meditation and more. Home offers a comfortable setting with space for employees’ family to hang out, with the option of including a laundry or kitchenette. And Hall invites social interaction over meals.
The Gardens provide space for team building and food cultivation.
The Walls and Curtains – fluted glass sliding walls and white cotton curtains on tracks – allow organizations to turn large meeting spaces into smaller spaces geared at collaboration or focus work, or to close off sections when fewer people are in the office.
Modular and highly flexible, thanks to the prefabricated pods, this system allows companies to adjust their workplace. The office “should be able to shift, move, adapt, evolve, and change,” says the SLAB team.
The whole system is built on a grid. The high street and gardens are the only permanent elements, and they form the underlying structure that allows other elements to operate dynamically.
SLAB has conceived an agile, accessible workplace that adapts to users’ requirements. The concept is a realistic, functional and original approach that offers insight into the potential of the office.
Herman Miller More

A design representing layers of human connections and relationships has taken out the People’s Choice prize in the Australian Tapestry Workshop’s 2021 Tapestry Design Prize for Architects. Entitled World warp and woof: Understand the space between weaving, the creation by Iranian architecture graduates Hamidreza Majnooni, Samaneh Khatamirad and social worker Maryam Khatamirad is inspired by […] More

Italian furniture studio Minotti has launched its 2021 collection, curated with Rodolfo Dordoni and featuring designs by Gam Fratesi and Marcio Kogan of Studio Mk27. Embracing rationalism and brutalism, the range includes sofas, beds, dining and armchairs, stools, tables and sideboards. The Roger seating system by Dordoni himself is designed to be versatile, with a […] More