Evelyn Reynolds

An office tower proposed for Melbourne’s CBD is aiming to set a new benchmark for sustainability with a “solar skin” that will generate 20 percent of its electricity needs.
The $1 billion development at 435 Bourke Street designed by Bates Smart will be one of the first office towers in the world to have energy-producing panels integrated into its facade, although, other types of buildings in Melbourne already do this. For example, the University of Melbourne’s Alan Gilbert Building, designed by Metier 3, has photovotaic panels integrated into its facade and the project won an award for sustainable architecture at the 2002 Victorian Architecture Awards; and in 2017, RMIT University began a project to retrofit the Design Hub, designed by Sean Godsell Architects, with solar technology in line with the original proposition of a “smart skin” facade.
Bates Smart director Cian Davis said the solar façade of 435 Bourke will be “made up of translucent, vertical glass photovoltaic panels.
“People working in the building will be able to look out the window and see where their energy comes from. This collected energy coupled with all-electric operations will help the tower save 430 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. The building will also reduce its embodied carbon by 30 percent through the use of finely tuned materials.”

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435 Bourke by Bates Smart

The “solar skin” is expected to generate around 20 percent of the electricity needs of the base building while the remainder will come from off-site renewable sources. The building is designed to achieve net zero carbon in operation and is targeting 6-star Green Star New Buildings rating as well as a Platinum WELL certified rating.
A previous development application for the project was approved in January 2020, but it has been redesigned since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the onset of the pandemic, we were not content to rest on the laurels of our first DA and strove to future-proof the design of 435 Bourke to bring workers back to the city and respond to an ever-evolving Melbourne workforce with a greatly enhanced focus on sustainability, wellness, collaboration, connection to the public community, nature and productivity,” said developer Cbus Property CEO Adrian Pozzo.
Davis added that the building has been redesigned to accommodate “a diverse ecosystem of workspaces.”
“We know that the relationship between the work we do and where we do it has been forever transformed,” he said. “We didn’t want to design a building that would be outdated by its completion. Instead, it will cater to any work setting and scenario, engage with its surroundings, be open to the neighbourhood at the ground, and achieve the best tall commercial tower performance in Australia. When it welcomes its first tenants, it will be Melbourne’s most flexible, sustainable and, frankly, human commercial building. It is architecture designed for the future, which is already here.”
A new development application has been submitted to the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). Construction of the project is expected to begin in 2022. More

A “green artery” of trees, cooling plants and green walls will run through the hottest and most barren parts of Adelaide’s CBD, with the state government promising $5 million for a range of greening programs.
The money will be split between greening projects led by the state government agency Green Adelaide, and grants and rebates for property owners.
There will be $2 million spent on the Greener City Streets Program and another $1 million for a project to create a “cool corridor” of planted streets and laneways through the city. There will also be $1.5 million in grants for green walls and roofs and $500,000 in water rebates for greening projects.
To be delivered over four years in partnership with the City of Adelaide and SA Water, are aimed at creating a “cooler, greener, wilder and more climate-resilient CBD.”
SA’s environment and water minister David Speirs said the Greener City Streets Program would be targeted based on heat and tree canopy mapping put together through joint state and local government investigations.
“Heat mapping data has been used to determine the warmest areas of the CBD and we will partner with the City of Adelaide to make a focused effort to green and cool these areas through planting trees and other plants and building green roofs and walls,” he said.
“The ‘cool corridor’ is a vision for a green walkway through the heart of the city through multi-use paths, shade and greenery that creates a more attractive and cooler city space for everyone to enjoy.
The “Wild Walls and Roofs” grants will provide CBD building owners with up to $50,000 to build green walls and roofs on commercial and residential dwellings, and the “Green Water Rebates” will trial the application of discounted water rates for new projects that are designed to cool and green Adelaide’s CBD.
“Green walls and roofs are an effective and alternative way to improve the visual amenity of the city, which improves wellbeing and encourages people to spend more time in an area which helps stimulate our economy,” said Speirs. “They are also a way to reduce heat impacts where there is little space for street trees and parks.”
The state government agency Green Adelaide is currently leading a push for Adelaide to become the next “National Park City, submitting its application to the London-headquartered National Park City foundation. Green Adelaide board presiding member Chris Daniels said, “These inner-city areas can play a valuable part in conservation, with trees along Leigh Street in the city already supporting the largest known roosting aggregation of native tree martins in South Australia.” More

The New South Wales planning department has approved a state-significant application for the $250 million redevelopment of the Griffith Base Hospital in the north-western Riverina region, on Wiradjuri Country.
There are currently more than 30 buildings at the hospital site “of various ages and condition,” according to planning documents. Most of these will be demolished to make way for the new hospital.
Designed by DJRD Architects, the hospital will deliver all clinical services under one roof in “a new, purpose designed building with logical zoning that incorporates contemporary models of care.”
The four-storey building will provide capacity for an expanded emergency department along with more aged care and rehabilitation beds, operating theatres and medical inpatient units. It will also boost capacity for maternity, medical imaging, paediatrics and outpatient services.

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The new Griffith Base Hospital by DJRD Architects.

The Griffith Base Hospital occupies a key part of the town plan of Griffith, which was designed by Walter Burley Griffin in 1914 using the same approach he employed for Canberra.
In planning documents, DJRD Architects explains that the city’s distinct radial pattern of tree-lined ring roads offers an ideal setting for an integrated health precinct. The entire D-shaped block where the hospital is located was earmarked for a hospital in Griffin’s original masterplan. Since then, three lots have been subdivided for private ownership and now contain St Vincent’s Private Community Hospital, a pathology centre and a medical centre.
“Griffin masterfully established the potential for a health precinct while at his drawing board but his radial road planning has also enabled a hospital site with potential for multiple access points. A hospital in the round,” the architects state. “The site area of 6.4 hectares and wide street verges presents as a regional hospital in a parkland setting.”
The new clinical services building will be located on the elevated northern portion of the site, capturing southern views across the Griffith city centre and beyond while also allowing for services and clinical linkages to the private hospital. The design aims to embrace the parkland setting and open the hospital up to the community by extending walking paths through the site.
An internal courtyard will “provide maximum daylight opportunities, district and nature views, provide clarity of wayfinding and reduce potential stress associated with hospital visits.”
A non-clinical service building, also being delivered as part of the redevelopment, was recently completed. Works on the main hospital are expected to begin in 2022. More

A design competition is asking emerging Australian architects and graduates to transform an Adelaide mansion into a community hub for a chance at a $20,000 prize.
The Living Village Design Competition is being organized by the SA Housing Authority, Citylab, the Australian Institute of Architects and the City of Unley.
Open exclusively to the Institute’s Emerging Architects and Graduate Network (EmAGN), the competition is offering three prizes: a first prize of $20,000, a second prize of $10,000 and a third prize of $5,000.
The brief calls for designs that incorporate an existing building, Mornington House, as a potential “Innovative Entrepreneur Community Hub.” Located on Thomas Street, Mornington House was built in 1857 and is today owned by the SA Housing Authority.
The competition will be judged by a jury featuring 2019 Gold Medallist Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg along with Jeremy McLeod of Breathe Architecture and Laura Harding of Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects.
The jury will be seeking “exemplary architectural designs that showcase high quality and affordable residential housing developed upon the principles of energy efficiency, environmental, community and cultural sustainability in the heart of a vibrant precinct in the City of Unley, South Australia.”
Registrations close on 10 December and entries are due by 17 December. The winner will be announced at the Institute’s conference in January. For further information head here.
Jury
Julie Eizenberg, Koning Eizenberg
Jeremy McLeod, Breathe Architecture
Laura Harding, Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects
Andrew Atkinson, SA Housing Authority
Erin Crowden, EmAGN
Peter Tsokas, City of Unley
Shannon Battisson (chair), Australian Institute of Architects More

A design competition is asking emerging Australian architects to transform an Adelaide mansion into a community hub for a chance at a $20,000 prize.
The Living Village Design Competition is being organized by the SA Housing Authority, Citylab, the Australian Institute of Architects and the City of Unley.
Open exclusively to Institute members, the competition is offering three prizes: a first prize of $20,000, a second prize of $10,000 and a third prize of $5,000.
The brief calls for designs that incorporate an existing building, Mornington House, as a potential “Innovative Entrepreneur Community Hub.” Located on Thomas Street, Mornington House was built in 1857 and is today owned by the SA Housing Authority.
The competition will be judged by a jury featuring 2019 Gold Medallist Julie Eizenberg of Koning Eizenberg along with Jeremy McLeod of Breathe Architecture and Laura Harding of Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects.
The jury will be seeking “exemplary architectural designs that showcase high quality and affordable residential housing developed upon the principles of energy efficiency, environmental, community and cultural sustainability in the heart of a vibrant precinct in the City of Unley, South Australia.”
Registrations close on 10 December and entries are due by 17 December. The winner will be announced at the Institute’s conference in January. For further information head here.
Jury
Julie Eizenberg, Koning Eizenberg
Jeremy McLeod, Breathe Architecture
Laura Harding, Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects
Andrew Atkinson, SA Housing Authority
Erin Crowden, EmAGN
Peter Tsokas, City of Unley
Shannon Battisson (chair), Australian Institute of Architects More

The Light Catcher pavilion designed by Venice firm Map Studio will play host to the longest ever MPavilion season, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced.
The first season back in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens since the pandemic, starting 2 December, will feature more than 500 guests from across Australia and around the world, including some big names in architecture.
Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel from Map Studio will discuss their pavilion design in conversation with architect and Grand Designs Australia presenter Peter Maddison, while a host of other firms will be represented, including Sean Godsell Architects, MVRDV (Netherlands), Snøhetta (Norway), SO – IL (USA), UN Studio (Netherlands) and Zaha Hadid Architects (UK).
The program also includes the fifth outing of BLAKitecture: The Manifesto, a three-day forum on Indigenous architecture. The forum will focus on education, asking the question: “As architecture curriculum changes, how can the wisdom of Indigenous culture become a mandatory part of university education?”

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The MPavilion staff uniform by Erik Yvon.

Outside of architecture, there will be the Melbourne launch of Skywhalepapa, Patricia Piccinini’s newest giant hot-air-balloon sculpture, fashion shows, and a series of talks and DJ sessions that celebrate the nightclub as a space for culture, design and expression.
The program begins with online events in November, before the in-real-life events begin in December.
“Following two years of uncertainty, MPavilion 2021 provides an optimistic beacon of post-pandemic recovery for the creative life of our city,” said Naomi Milgrom.
“Map studio’s MPavilion will bring the community together and renew connection in a safe environment for our first season back in the Queen Victoria Gardens … The diversity of this year’s program promises to reinvigorate the dialogue between Melbourne and the rest of the world.”
Along with the program, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation also revealed the designs for the MPavilion furniture and staff uniforms. Melbourne’s Nüüd Studio, led by designers Bradley Mitchell and Kerli Valk, won the chair commission with their design for a yellow bench-type seat dubbed The Dancer. In collaboration with Melbourne’s MUSK Architecture Studio, Castlemaine-based furniture design studio Like Butter has designed a periscope-inspired feature seating installation, which will be seen at the MPavilion in January. And Melbourne-based fashion designer Erik Yvon has designed this year’s staff uniform, drawing inspiration from his Mauritian heritage and the November program theme “Island Life.”
See the program here. More

A blue pavilion on display at the Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism is “an architectural postcard from Brisbane to Seoul,” its designers say.
The Blue Bower pavilion is a collaborative effort, with design leads Nicola White and Paul Hotson of Phorm Architecture and Design working with Silvia Micheli and Antony Moulis of the University of Queensland School of Architecture, together with select students.
It takes its name from the Australian satin bowerbird, which builds its nest from pieces of blue detritus – from pen lids to clothes pegs. The pavilion concept similarly takes bits and pieces of inspiration from here and there.
“For us, the colour blue is an iconic tie between the material identities of Seoul and Brisbane,” the design team notes.

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Blue Bower under construction in Seoul.

“When viewed from above, Seoul is a city of blue fragments: blue titles, blue roofing materials, the presidential Blue House. In Brisbane, the skeletal forms of blue-coated steel and blue-treated timber are a common sight across the city.”
The pavilion is made of Australian blue true core steel, in reference to this conceptual exploration.
Beyond the allusion to blue building materials connecting the two cities, the concept also interrogates some deeper shared urban characteristics and challenges, including how heritage is valued, and how boundaries between public and private and between work and home are mediated.

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A concept image of Blue Bower.

“As urban life atomizes, there is an urgency for architecture that can sensitively articulate the character of our urban histories,” the designers state. “For both cities, the ubiquity of blue construction materials presents a key to reconciling the changing nature of the modern city against the backdrop of urban heritage.”
The third iteration of the Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism, directed by Dominique Perrault, was titled Crossroads: Building the Resilient City. Running from 16 September to 31 October, it aimed to “gather different forms of intelligence to reflect on the city of the future as a more sustainable, resilient and comfortable place for its inhabitants.” More

A “long-forgotten” corner of Melbourne’s Federation Square whose tenancies have sat empty for more than three years will be revamped and adapted for a new restaurant, cellar door and tasting centre, under a proposal submitted to the City of Melbourne.
The ground-floor tenancies on the southern side of the Yarra Building, facing the river, have struggled to attract patrons throughout their lifetime, due to its limited visibility from the rest of the square and Swanston Street, and poor connection to the riverfront. The struggle to activate this part of the square was often cited by proponents of the plan to demolish the Yarra Building and build an Apple store.
Now Macedon Ranges-based practice Agents of Architecture has drawn up plans for hospitality group Renascence Gippsland to open up the underutilized corner and turn it into a food and wine venue.
The new tenancy will include a restaurant with a rotating, regionally-sourced menu; an “experience centre” in which food and beverage samples will be combined with visual and sensory experiences; and a “wine library,” that promises to “move beyond the cellar door experience to provide an educative approach with a focus on climate and soil.” There will be a focus on food and wine from reginal Victoria, emphasizing Federation Square’s role as “a place for Victoria not just Melbourne.”
Agents of Architecture’s design will see the existing terrace adapted for use as a dining area, with a steel portal frame, fixed to the slab, carrying retractable awnings between the existing fixed canopy and the proposed wine library, which will sit within the undercroft space at the east end of the terrace.

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Yarra Building ground floor tenancies adaptation by Agents of Architecture.

Within the footprint of the tenancies, the rhythm of the transparent curtain walls will be maintained but some panels that are currently fixed will be replaced with sliding doors.
Other proposed works within the terrace include: a new illuminated sign at the south-west corner of the tenancy; new soffit-mounted lighting; movable furnishings, such as a food cart, seating, chairs, umbrellas, planter boxes and a demountable bar; and a green wall facing the stairway.
Federation Square, designed by Lab Architecture Studio and Bates Smart and completed in 2002, was granted heritage protection in 2019 following the furore over the Apple store proposal.
In a heritage impact statement prepared for this latest proposal, Lovell Chen states that the reactivation of the riverside tenancies will not have a detrimental impact on the square’s heritage significance.
“The proposal does not involve the demolition of significant fabric or elements,” Lovell Chen states. “Further, there will be no threat to the dominance of the distinctive architectural language that defines Federation Square, with the new works being generally plain, simple and recessive.
“The works will also enable public use and access to a long-forgotten corner of Federation Square, in the process supporting the civic function of the place and facilitating connectivity with River Terrace.” More