Evelyn Reynolds

Schools Infrastructure NSW is building a new Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Education within Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Campus in Richmond, west of Sydney.
Designed by NBRS Architecture, the education facility will comprise a series of single-storey, linked pavilions set within the landscape. Providing agricultural and STEM education for up to 325 students, it will include five science laboratories, 10 general learning spaces, practical activity teaching areas, a botany room, and accommodation for up to 62 visiting students and teaching professionals from regional and rural NSW.
There will also be covered outdoor learning areas, a dining/recreation hall, a canteen and kitchen, agricultural plots, and significant landscaping spaces.
In planning documents, NBRS Architecture describes linear open building forms with open spaces and lightweight construction techniques. The site will enjoy views of the Blue Mountains to the west. The architects note the design expression takes inspiration from the cultural practices of the local Durag people.

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Hawkesbury Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Education by NBRS Architecture. Image:

Schools Infrastructure NSW

“The circulation and building forms have been inspired by the natural environment, the Hawkesbury River, the flood plains, the weaving pattens found in food bowls, and fish traps,” the design statement reads.
“The buildings have been designed and orientated to capture views of the landscape and to maximise the connection between internal and external agriculture teaching spaces.
Another focus of the design is to develop a a strong axial link back to the main Western Sydney University. with a pedestrian plaza and promenade linking the facilities. At the heart of the school will be a square or “village green,” designed to capture views over the agriculture plots and the blue mountains.
“At the end of the square are large sliding barn doors designed to allow the space to be closed down to create a sun trap in winter and shield the square from cold westerly winds or open the site up in summer,” the architects note.
The NSW government says the centre will be available to students from across NSW for intensive studies, regular visits or excursions from regional, metro and overseas students.
A state-significant development application is on exhibit until 14 September. More

Australian tap manufacturer Sussex has introduced a new finish option for its range of tapware that offers a longer lifespan and is made with no contaminants or dangerous by-products.
The LUX finish is based on Physical Vapour Deposition technology, which creates a superior finish to standard electroplating by applying an ultra-thin film of scratch-resistant coating to metal.
LUX will be available across all of Sussex’s seven core collections, including an exclusive matt black finish.
The announcement comes as the Melbourne-based company becomes the first tap manufacturer in Australia to be certified as carbon neutral, achieved in partnership with Climate Active.
“The investment in the PVD technology, as well as the facility that houses it, makes Sussex a truly state-of-the-art tapware manufacturer, and the only in Australia to offer a carbon neutral, PVD solution for tapware,” said Sussex’s director Vanessa Katsanevakis.
The investment in the technology makes Sussex a fully vertically-integrated manufacturer, with design, manufacturing and finishing under one-roof.
“Sussex has been mastering the art of precision tap making for 25 years now,” said Katsanevakis.
“The launch of LUXPVD symbolizes a new level of mastery that we have achieved over our product offering, and it comes with the promise to our customers that they can always expect us to pursue manufacturing excellence within Australia.”
Sussex was founded 25 years ago by watchmaker-turned-jeweller Nicholaas Johannes van Putten.
Katsanevakis, his daughter, took over the company in 2011 in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. She said she was faced with a choice: take the company offshore to compete on price, or maintain its local footing and invest in renewable energy, marketing and design. She chose the latter, and in 2018 was awarded Young Manufacturer of the Year by the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame.
“Sussex has always been committed to investing in the future, and that means three key things: investing in people, investing in Australia and investing in our product,” she said. “From the craftspeople we employ to the solar energy we use, innovation and sustainability are both approached through a simple yet powerful proposition: to make it right.”
For further information head here.
Sussex is a suppporter of the Houses Awards, organized by ArchitectureAU publisher Architecture Media. More

Gibbons Street housing in Redfern, designed by DKO Architecture, has been completed, delivering a mix of 40 social and 120 affordable housing units over 18 storeys.
Built on the site of a former City of Sydney depot, the tower was developed by and is owned and operated by St George Community Housing. It was financed by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation.
The dwellings will include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with 27 units designed to be adaptable for residents with disabilities and 25 percent of the units allocated to Aboriginal households.
The tenure-blind design sees social and affordable housing units interspersed with diverse community spaces and a rooftop garden that allows people to connect and enjoy the views.
DKO Architecture director Nick Byrne said the design of the building drew on the built and cultural heritage of Redfern, including the ongoing significance of the area to Indigenous people.
“We’ve purposely used really familiar building materials at the ground level, such as the brickwork, to express the nature of what it is to be in Redfern,” he said.
The architects worked in consultation with Aboriginal artist Joe Hurst of the Boomali Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, whose work is integrated throughout the building.
“We’ve taken a bit of a different approach to thinking about public art – it doesn’t need to be down at the street interface, it can be in a soffit,” said Byrne. “If you look at the ceiling of the communal open space, it actually has some of the Aboriginal artwork incorporated within it.”
Environmentally sustainable design was anoher key concern of the architects and, in place of airconditioning, the building incorporates a fresh air system which supplies apartments from a roof mounted fan, battery system and a 50kW solar array. Double-glazed windows throughout promote the thermal qualities of the building and ensure the units will remain comfortable throughout the year.
The building has also been designed with zero carparks. It is situated directly opposite Redfern train station and is within walking distance to supermarkets and shops and 92 bike spaces directly adjacent to the lobby encourage people to ride.
Residents will be moving in over the next couple of months.
“We believe that Gibbons Street has raised the bar and has created an environmentally friendly living environment,” said Byrne. More

Transport for New South Wales has launched a design competition to find an architectural team with heritage and Connecting with Country expertise to design a cycle ramp up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
TfNSW will commence the competitive design process via an open Registration of Interest (ROI). Through this, three leading architectural design will be selected and the community will have the chance later this year to comment on the shortlisted designs, together with plans for the Alfred Street cycle path and the Lavender Street roundabout.
The announcement comes after a community consultation process found overwhelming support for a liner ramp over a looped design, the other option floated by the department.
Community responses showed that a clear majority supported the project, despite a push from North Sydney Council to oppose the ramp, supported by a $15,000 war chest.
Of the 2,578 survey responses received by TfNSW between 7 and 28 June, 68 percent supported the linear option, compared to 5 percent for the looped option, 9 percent for either option and 17 percent for neither.
The responses did show a split between those who lived in immediately proximity to the site compared to those further afield, however.
In the immediate community 60 percent preferred neither option, while 82 percent of respondents in the local area supported a ramp, and 97 percent in the wider area also supported the ramp
The majority of survey responses, 71 percent, were from people who cycle at least once a week, 21 percent were from occasional riders and seven percent never cycle.
Submissions made outside of the survey showed a higher level of opposition to the project. Of the 461 submissions received, 40 percent supported the project and 58 percent opposed it.
TfNSW said that the people who supported the project were impatient. “They believe the project is well overdue and is vital to making cycling a safe and accessible transport option for a wider group of people – not just those fit enough to manage the steps currently.”
Supporters also believed the ramp could help to activate Bradfield Park and bring recreational riders to the local area.
Those in opposition, however, believed the problem had been overstated and that the steps were “a minor inconvenience at worse.” They believed the impacts to open space were not worth the potential benefits.
In terms of the preferred design, supporters of the linear option thought it was the safer option due to its clear sight lines and separation of cyclists, pedestrians and motorists. They also considered it a more direct and easier connection for cyclists and though it looked better and was less intrusive than the loop.
More information about the project can be found on TfNSW’s website. More

A federal parliamentary inquiry has been set up to investigate the challenge of housing affordability in Australia.
Chaired by government MP Jason Falinski, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue will investigate the impact of tax and regulatory regimes on price, affordability, and supply of housing in Australia.
In early comments, Falinski pointed to supply as the key concern, arguing that restrictive planning laws and regulatory settings were to blame for ongoing unaffordability, rather than tax settings.
“Arguments about the impact of increased subsidies and tax concessions on housing have continued for some time,” said Falinski. “There is ample evidence that points to the small effect such measures have on supply, indeed the research points to limitations on land and restrictive planning laws as the major causes of shortages in supply. As consistently noted by the RBA and others, regulatory settings are directly responsible for the unresponsive nature of housing supply in Australia.”
“As data provided by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the Treasury and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows, home ownership, one of the building blocks of Australian society, has been falling for the last 30 years. In my view, this represents an urgent moral call for action by governments of all levels to restore the Australian dream for this generation and the ones that follow.”“The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted an analysis of Australia’s housing market, particular its very high ratio of housing prices to household incomes. The OECD concluded that Australia’s unusually high level of inelasticity in housing is the major driver of this ratio. This has resulted in our country having the fourth-fastest house price growth out of the world’s advanced economies over the past 20 years.”
However, researchers who conducted a 20-year review of planning regulations and house prices across 19 centres in Brisbane found no link between the two. “Locations with increased zoned capacity for housing saw increased (not reduced) property prices. Across the selected sites, houses increased in value by a factor of three and apartments by 2.3 over the two decades studied, as they did elsewhere in Australia,” researchers found.
“What is driving up house prices now has little to do with zoning, and it is happening worldwide.
“It is the liberalization of finance and the treatment of housing as an investment product that got us into this mess. Further liberalization of planning regulations is unlikely to get us out.”
The parliamentary committee is inviting submissions from individuals and organizations, which can be made until 13 September.
The parliament last investigated the housing affordability challenge in 2015 through the Senate Standing Committee on Economics. The committee made 40 recommendations, including the appointment of a minster for housing, a national affordable housing plan, and a seperate inquiry into prefabricated housing. The government rejected all but nine of the recommendations including a recommendation to study the effects of negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts on affordability. More

Amended plans for a $700 million Sydney mixed-use complex have been placed on exhibition, as the developer proceeds with an appeal in the NSW Land and Environment Court against the City of Sydney’s rejection of the proposal. Designed by MHN Design Union, Silvester Fuller and Sue Barnsley Design, the One Sydney Park project, to be […] More

Behind the mannered Greek revival facade of the Nicholas Building on Swanston Street in Melbourne, a vibrant, creative community of artists, craftspeople and architects has evolved organically over the past forty years.
Now this unique community – comprising more than 100 tenants covering almost every form of creative endeavour – is facing an existential threat, as the four families who own the building look to sell it off.
Designed by architect Harry Norris and built as a speculative office development by Nicholas Buildings in 1925-26, the building is listed on the National Trust and Victorian heritage registers. As architect and tenant of the building Andrew Milward-Bason says, no one is looking to tear the building down, what’s at stake is the future of the people who occupy it.
“If we let market forces take their course, it would likely see that creative community dispersed out of the building out across Melbourne,” he said. “It would be a continuation of the gentrification of the city, the mass-exodus of creatives from the city. All you’ll have left is people drinking coffee, sitting opposite people drinking coffee.”
Instead of resigning themselves to that fate, Milward-Bason and the Nicholas Building Tenant Association are scrambling to find a buyer who will support the current use, whether it be the City of Melbourne, the state government, philanthropists, or some combination of the three. Since the building was listed for sale earlier in August, a petition registering support for the tenants has received more than 12,000 signatures.
The tenants’ association is in talks with council and the state government and are hoping to come to arrangement as soon as possible, with buyer expressions of interest closing on 19 August. Milward-Bason says keeping the building as a creative hub wouldn’t just be good for the tenants, but also for the city.
“We could be a part of the recovery from the impacts of COVID as we try to get off our knees and breathe life into our city,” he said.
As well as hosting building-wide events in collaboration with organisation like Craft Victoria and White Night, the building is host to around seven grassroots art galleries that “foster and propagate and merging creative artists and art.”
The tenants’ association has developed a business case with the support of the City of Melbourne, and are hoping they can convince prospective buyers it makes economic and cultural sense to protect the building’s community.
“This has been a self-sustained, self-determined community that has evolved without any support,” he said. “We don’t need to invent this thing, all we need to do is pave a way for a sustainable, resilient future for the building.”
Milward-Bason’s firm Urban Creative moved into the building seven and half years ago. He notes that the building has “an almost Dickensian” level of amenity, with tenants freezing in the winter and sweating it out in the summer, but this is balanced out by the low rents and “soul-lifting” creative atmosphere.
The National Trust is also strongly supporting the association’s bid to protect the use of the building, with CEO Simon Ambrose, noting that action was essential to “secure the cultural significance of Melbourne’s creative heart.”
“While the bricks and mortar of the building are afforded protection under the Heritage Act 2017, the immeasurable cultural heritage value represented by the Nicholas Building creative community is likely to be lost if the building is purchased by a private owner,” he said. More

The design of Edith Cowan University’s proposed Perth city campus, unveiled on Sunday 15 August, will “completely defy traditional expectations,” said the university’s vice-chancellor Steve Chapman.
Designed by Lyons, Silver Thomas Hanley, and UK firm Haworth Tompkins, the campus will be located across two sites opposite Yagan Square, spanning Karak Walk.
“We have a clear vision and ambition for Western Australia’s first comprehensive city campus, and that is to deliver a remarkable university as well as a landmark for Perth’s CBD,” Chapman said.
The campus will integrate the studies of creative industries, business and technology with the university’s Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). It will an 11-storey building with stacked performance spaces, studios and digital labs.

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Edith Cowan University city campus designed by Lyons, Silver Thomas Hanley, and Haworth Tompkins. Image:

Courtesy ECU

“The campus will be purposefully embedded with industry and connect the commercial, cultural and entertainment precincts of Perth, and is designed to project life, energy, and opportunity into the heart of our city. Its proximity to industry is a game-changer for engagement and partnership with business,” Chapman said.
The campus will be open to William Street Mall and Yagan Square with an immersive entry that envelops the Perth Busport. A digital media façade will create vibrancy along with activated streetscapes and laneways that connect to the Roe, Queen and Wellington Streets.
“Students, staff and visitors will be treated to a sensory experience from the moment they step in. It will be like nothing they have ever known,” Chapman said.
“ECU City’s design, both physically and symbolically, reaches outwards, with a strong visual connection to its surrounds. It will be a university on show – inviting people to connect and be involved with what is occurring within.”
The ECU city campus is the centrepiece of the $1.5 billion Perth City Deal. The $695 million project is funded with $245 million from federal government, $150 million state government and $300 million from ECU.
“This is part of a once-in-a-lifetime transformation of our city centre, and will grow Perth’s reputation as an innovative and vibrant city,” said WA premier Mark McGowan.
Federal minister for cities Paul Fletcher added, “The economic impact of the development will also be significant, with the project supporting over 3,000 jobs during construction and providing an estimated $1.5 billion boost to the WA economy over the next four years.”
A development application for will be submitted in August with early works to start later in 2021. The campus is expected to accommodate more than 9,000 students when it opens in 2025. More