Evelyn Reynolds

Cumulus has unveiled designs for five unique charred timber accommodation pods to be built on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula.
The country retreat, called Ponderosa, will include the five pods nestled among stone outcrops and grazing pastures with views of the Southern Ocean, along with an adapted stone-walled cottage. The pods will be built at Adelaide’s Tonsley Innovation District, before being transported to the site near the coastal towns of Victor Harbour and Port Elliot.
Cumulus associate architect Jet O’Rourke said the firm approached the project as six individual designs to provide a distinct experience for each location.
“Instead of creating a uniform set of cabins, we designed each pod as a different getaway experience for guests, offering a different way of connecting with their surroundings — the views, the flora and fauna — which you can do both from outside and inside of the pods”, he said. “To link the distinct designs, we selected surface charred timbers for the predominant exterior cladding.”
The pod designs include the Eucalyptus Tunnel pod, which takes inspiration from the Hindmarsh Valley vegetation, the In The Round pod, which features concrete culverts jutting out into the landscape, and the larger Split Level, a two-storey pod that can accommodate up to four guests.
The five-bedroom Cottage has been adapted to reference the gabled roof forms of the original structure. More

Shop Architects and BVN’s $1 billion tower for Australian tech company Atlassian has been approved. Billed as the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower when it was first unveiled in 2020, the 39-storey Sydney tower will house Atlassian’s global headquarters from level seven up, while levels one through six will used for the Railway Square YHA […] More

Bates Smart has revised its design for two residential towers at the former Store site at 854 Hunter Street in Newcastle’s west end.
The Newcastle and Suburban Co-operative Society, known colloquially as The Store, was once Australia’s largest and most successful co-operative, with 98,000 members and 1,450 workers across its many retail stores and other services at its peak in 1974.
The co-operative wound up in the early 1980s, squeezed out by suburban shopping malls. The NSW government purchased the site in 2015 “with a view to realising its transport and development potential.”
Following a competitive process, a tender was awarded to developer Doma Group with its plan for twin 90-metre apartment towers, carpark complex, commercial office building, public domain improvements and a new bus interchange.
“Redevelopment of the Store site is a multi-faceted and staged project and includes the already completed Newcastle Bus Interchange and Newcastle’s largest office building,” said Doma’s Newcastle development director, Chris Farrington.

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The Store, 854 Hunter Street by Bates Smart.

“While those works were underway, the architects and the Design Review Panel (DRP), made up of three independent architects, one of which represented the NSW government architect, had an opportunity to concentrate their expertise on development of the design for the residential part of the project.
“The DRP focused on making sure the residential towers are externally aesthetically pleasing and reflect the heritage of the site. This revised design was presented to the City of Newcastle’s Urban Design Consultative Group who have also been very supportive of the design direction.”
Bates Smart’s new designs re-work the two towers to make them different heights. The top of the towers have also been sculpted to ensure they read differently from different angles. “We really wanted to make sure the towers were attractive from every perspective, including ground level,” Farrington said. “By varying their size, making them less identical, they are much more striking, which is consistent with the state government’s vison for design excellence on this significant site.”
In order to gain approval to demolish the former Store buildings, Doma was required to prepare a Heritage Interpretation Strategy and respond to several recommendations made by the Heritage Reference Group.
Bates Smart’s design references the original façade and window shapes of the former Store buildings, while the masonry at the podium level takes it cues from other historical buildings in Newcastle.
“In the first two stages of The Store redevelopment we have interpreted elements of the site’s former history in the ground floor paving, in the bus interchange, and through a light show projected on the underside of the colonnade of the office building that provides a story telling platform for First People’s history,” Farrington said.
“We will extend our heritage interpretation of the site into Stage 3 and continue references to the site’s history consistent with the Heritage Interpretation Strategy.” More

Terroir has designed a mass timber office building in Launceston that is aiming to become “the most sustainable and carbon positive office development in Tasmania.” The building will house the Launceston headquarters of health insurer St. Lukes Health. To be located on the CBD fringe, the building will rise from the remnants of an existing […] More

Architeam Cooperative has announced the finalists for the 2021 Architeam Awards.
From 115 entries, the jury chose 29 finalists across eight categories. The residential categories were this year split according to the cost of the houses. The jury said that each of the entries brought “an element of intrigue and delight.”
The awards are open to ArchiTeam members. The People’s Choice Awards will be judged by members of the public, with voting open until 27 October. Winners will be announced 17 November.
2021 Architeam Finalists
Residential Alterations and Additions: $1m +
Arcadia – Architecture Architecture
Deco House – Mihaly Slocombe
Open Shut House – WALA
South Yarra House – Pop Architecture
Residential Alterations and Additions: $500k – $1m
Gantry House – OOF! Architecture
Mosman Minka – Downie North Architects
Terrace House 1 – Dreamer
Vivarium – Architecture Architecture
Residential Alterations and Additions: Up to $500k
Engawa House – Inbetween Architecture
Norwood – Architecture Architecture
South Yarra Apartment – Rosanna Ceravolo Design
Spencer’s Slope – Cloud Dwellers
Innovation and Contribution Award
Jenny Edwards – Light House Architecture and Science
Mini Maddern – Public Realm Lab
Plan Rand – Regional Design Service
The Cobargo Santa Project – Breathe
Residential New: $1m+
Coastal Court Flinders – Bower Architecture
Franklin – Ola Architecture Studio
Judo House – Nervegna Reed
The Hutt 01 Passivhaus – A Beacon of Hope – Melbourne Design Studios
Residential New: Up to $1m
Corner House – Archier
House for Eva – MRTN Architects
Macdonald Road House – Philip Stejskal Architecture
Commercial, Community and Public
Narrandjeri House – Public Realm Lab
Mainview Boulevard – Canvas Projects
Quakers Stage 2 – pH architects and Nervegna Reed Architects
Victorian Pride Centre – Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects
Unbuilt Award
Gas Stack – Simulaa
Lisieux – Topology Studio More

A museum proposed for the remote Queensland town of Charleville, 683 kilometres west of Brisbane, will celebrate the diversity of the Australian outback and “unveil some of its mysteries.” The Outback Museum of Australia, a project of the Murweh Shire Council and Griffith University, will be built in the town’s existing Top Secret Tourism Precinct, […] More

OMA’s Australian office has designed its second suburban mall for outer-Melbourne, unveiling plans for a $100 million town centre in Sunbury South.
The Dutch firm unveiled its design for the first town centre in Wollert in 2020, having set up a permanent office in Australia following the delivery of the WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth.
T he Sunbury South project is larger than than the $40 million Wollert precinct, and will be delivered over several stages from 2024, with the first stage to include a supermarket and discount department store, commercial and retail spaces, dining and outdoor amenities, including a pedestrian-friendly environment, urban interfaces, green space, seating, undercover areas and wetlands.
OMA regional director Paul Jones said the overall vision was about prioritizing pedestrians and the public realm to give people reasons to visit beyond just shopping.
“We definitely looked to reinvent the concept of a town centre,” he said. “We’ve consolidated uses around very clear public circulation strategies; rather than spreading uses broadly around the precinct, we’re tightening it up and bringing it closer together, so there’s a better concentration of use, activation and connection for people.
“We’re using good urban principles and planning strategies to bring urban design, architecture and landscape together to deliver a completely different type of outcome – I don’t think there is anything like it.
“The suite of different uses and buildings will be broken-down, instead of being singular and monolithic in their form – they will be humanized, and the connection between inside and outside will be massively different to what people are used.”
Sandhurst Retail and Logistics, which is also the developer the Wollert town centre, says the project will be supported by and will complement the projected population growth in the suburb which is expected to more than double in the next 20 years from 42,494 in 2021 to 86,640 in 2041.
The developer has submitted an urban design framework for Sunbury South to the City of Hume. More

Durbach Block Jaggers has won a design excellence competition for a new building in Parramatta Square. Proposed for a site adjacent to the Leigh Memorial Church, the building will house the staff of the Parramatta Mission and be a place of meeting and a centre for social services. Parramatta Square is the site of a […] More