Evelyn Reynolds

A 42-storey tower designed by Bates Smart is the latest building proposed for Sydney’s “Tech Central” precinct by Central Station.
To be located at the intersection of George, Pitt and Lee streets, the office tower will cantilever over the former Parcel Post Office heritage building and sit next to the now-approved Atlassian tower designed by Shop Architects and BVN, as well as the proposed Central Place Sydney designed by Fender Katsalidis, SOM and Aspect Studios
The tower, referred to as Toga Central, is being proposed by Sydney developer Toga. The developer says the building will cater to the “rapidly growing tech community at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD.”
Bates Smart’s design for the building, selected via a design competition, seeks to celebrate the heritage post office building while adding a slim, contemporary tower to the Sydney skyline. The heritage building will be refurbished, uncovering its original internal proportions, and will be occupied by restaurants, retail, co-working, conference and business club facilities, as well as a rooftop terrace bar. The existing plaza will also be spruced up, enhancing pedestrian connections from Central Station through to Railway Square and UTS.

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Toga Central by Bates Smart.

Office space will fill the top 21-storeys of the tower, with each floor designed with highly flexible layout options.
Allan Vidor, Toga Group managing director, said, “Bates Smart’s winning design pays respect to the heritage of the site while also creating a vibrant new food and beverage precinct that will anchor the precinct and create a world-class destination and connect Surry Hills across Central Station. The new public plaza and tower will become a welcoming destination for people to work, shop, socialise and enjoy.”
Toga says it plans to submit a development application for the project in mid-2022. More

The first MPavilion to be erected in Queen Victoria Gardens since the onset of the pandemic opened on 2 December. Designed by Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of Venice practice Map Studio, the installation dubbed “The Lightcatcher” is less a shelter and more of an “urban lighthouse,” featuring angled mirrored panels that reflect the surrounding […] More

The best of Australia’s early career designers have been recognized at the presentation of the Vivid Design Awards on 26 November.
The awards program is Australia’s longest running competition for emerging designers, and has unearthed talents such as Adam Markowitz and Lab De Stu.
“2021 set a higher standard than ever before, and many of the finalists and winners are already on the path to long and successful careers,” said Vivid curator Daniel Dalla Riva of Latitude Group.
The Judge’s Dhoice Award went to Dean Norton for a range of entries, including the Float coffee tables. Made entirely from glass, the tables explore transparency, texture and light.

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Float Collection by Dean Norton.

“I loved how well resolved Dean’s work was, and how it had a consistent language across all the pieces,” said Cassie Hansen, Vivid judge and editor of Artichoke magazine. “I can see a bright future for this designer and can’t wait to feature him in the pages of Artichoke soon.”
Winners were also named across categories of furniture, light, object and concepts, as well as for the Colour Award, and Authentic Design Alliance Award of Merit.
Joining Hansen on the jury were: Anne-Maree Sergeant (Authentic Design Alliance), Dalila Yorke (Showroom by Bowens), Rachel Oakley (Laminex), Andrea Lucena-Orr (Dulux), Bernadette Wilson (Design Institute of Australia), Edward Linacre (Copper Design), Georgia Danos (James Richardson Furniture), Adam Markowitz (Markowitz Design) and Filip Bjazevic (Latitude Group).
The winners are:
2021 Vivid Judges Choice Award
Dean Norton
Furniture Design Award
Arc Bench – Samuel Burns
Object Design Award and Colour Award
Optic Candelabra – Isaac Pelchen
Concept Design Award
Poly Chair – Julia Quirk
Light Design Award
Onu Floor Light – Samuel Burns
2021 Authentic Design Alliance (ADA) Award of Merit
Arc Bench – Samuel BurnsOn Hold Wall Hook – Zachary Hanna
The 2021 Vivid Design Awards were presented at Showroom by Bowens, and is supported by Artichoke magazine, Dulux, Design Institute of Australia (DIA), Authentic Design Alliance (ADA) and Houzz, as well as principal partner Laminex.
Winners’ and finalists’ designs are on display until 6 December. More

Australian projects are among the category winners of the 2021 Inside World Festival of Interiors Awards. Smart Design Studio’s own office in Sydney’s Alexandria was named winner of the Workplace (small) category while in the Workplace (large) catetory, CBA Axle South Eveleigh by Woods Bagot was highly commended. Bates Smart’s Gandel Wing at Melbourne’s Cabrini […] More

The central building in the Waterloo Metro Quarter development has been approved, despite objections that the developer has watered down its commitment to providing affordable housing. Designed by Hassell and Aileen Sage Architects, with Aspect Studios as landscape architect, the 23-storey Central Precinct tower is one of four major buildings proposed as part of the […] More

Local Adelaide practices Thomson Rossi and Brown Falconer have designed a new $84.4 million high school for the city’s north-east. Morialta Secondary College will be built on the site of the soon-to-be vacated Norwood Morialta High School Middle Campus, whose aging buildings will be demolished. It will be ready for a year 7 intake in […] More

Australian firm I2C Architects and UK firm Ryder Architecture have designed a build-to-rent apartment complex for Oakleigh South in south-east Melbourne that will also include a dedicated coworking space for residents working from home. Known as Fieldworks House, the eight-storey building will be the area’s first build-to-rent development. It will feature an 1,800-sqaure-metre podium with […] More

The ACT minister for the environment and sustainable building and construction Rebecca Vassarotti has announced the winners of the Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge.
Organized by a group of architects, the competition aimed to showcase exemplary homes that demonstrate significant reductions in their carbon footprint, while also drawing attention to the carbon intensity of the housing boom. Each new home built in Canberra contributes around 500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
“For every house built, we would need to plant around 3,000 trees to offset these emissions, or we can design our houses in a way that reduces carbon and provides climate positive outcomes,” said architect Melinda Dodson, who initiated the competition. “Examples are reduced house size, use of low carbon or recycled materials, solar passive design, efficient heating and cooling, and renewables such as rooftop solar.
“We’ve made great progress with energy efficient homes, but what’s missing is the broader assessment of the total carbon footprint – the carbon impacts of manufacturing and transporting materials, and the energy expended in constructing a house are an important part of the equation.”

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First prize for an alts and adds house:
Pettit and Sevitt Net-zero Makeover by Light House Architecture and Science. Image:

Courtesy Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge

The competition was open to registered architects in the ACT who submitted their designs to be carbon modelled using a a proprietary Rapid LCA software by E-Tool.
Dodson and students from the University of Canberra then worked with lifecycle assessors from E-Tool to analyze the modelling results for each house.
The jury of architects assessed the projects for “compelling and diverse architectural solutions to the crucial issue of lowering carbon [as well as] design clarity, value for money and innovative sustainable solutions.”
The competition included low- and medium-density housing as well as affordable housing. More than half of the entries were net-zero carbon.
“This is an impressive achievement on its own merits, but all the more important when you consider that Canberra could save over 18 million tonnes of GHG emissions if around half of its low and medium density new houses, expected to be built over the next two decades, were also net-zero,” Dodson said. “This would translate to more than 40,000 new net-zero houses and offers a real opportunity to help in the fight for our planet’s climate.”
The winners are:
New house category
First prize for a net-zero new house
Narrabundahaus – Michael Tolhurst Architects
Second prize for a low carbon house
Blackwood House – Mather Architecture
Commendations for net-zero new house
White House – Light House Architecture and ScienceCollector House – Open Principle Architecture
Commendations for low-carbon new house
Ironbark House – Allan Spira ArchitectsCanberra ‘Beach’ House – Light House Architecture and Science
Alts and adds (existing house renovations and extensions) category
First prize for an alts and adds house
Pettit and Sevitt Net-zero Makeover – Light House Architecture and Science
Second prize for a low carbon house
Little Loft House – Light House Architecture and Science
Multi-gen (medium density townhouses, duplexes, granny flats) category
Second prize for a low carbon house
Whitlam ‘Multi-gen’ Townhouses – Heyward Lance Architecture More