Evelyn Reynolds

In Sydney’s prosperous post-war years, the city’s head architect, Albert Smillie, and its first head landscape architect, Ilmar Berzins, oversaw a plethora of transformative public projects, including libraries, welfare centres, pools, gardens and parks.
Many of these projects remain a pivotal part of public Sydney, while some, including the Sulman Medal winning Florence Bartley Library in Kings Cross, are no longer.
Now, the City of Sydney’s resident architect councillor Philip Thalis is calling for a renewed recognition of the contribution of these little-known designers, and, at his behest, the council has committed to a heritage study of their projects.
Albert Smillie joined the Sydney Municipal Council as an architectural draftsman in 1924, becoming chief architect in 1949 and principal architect from 1953 to 1969.
Thalis, the author of the recently published work Public Sydney, told council that while the period under Smillie might not have been as distinguished or prolific as those of early twentieth century government architects Robert Brodrick or George McRae, there are nonetheless many works from this period that deserve recognition.
“There are many buildings that we take for granted from this period… it would be worth us understanding their value when we modify or demolish them, or in fact refurbish them,” he said.

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The Arthur McElhone Reserve by Ilmar Berzins, 1964. Image:

City of Sydney archives

Projects completed under Smillie include sports facilities such as Victoria Park Pool, welfare centres, kindergartens, baby health centres, council housing in Pyrmont and Glebe and libraries including Anthony Doherty in Surry Hills and Catherine Sloss in Woolloomooloo. The Florence Bartley Library, demolished in 1997, was the best of the buildings according to Thalis, who described it as a “very beautiful, very calm civic building.” He says there is a risk that other significant public works by Smillie and the landscape architect Ilmar Berzins could be lost if they are not identified.
Berzins was employed the first qualified landscape architect to be employed in local government in Australia and is often credited as the first landscape architect to work in the Sydney, having received his qualification in Germany.
He was employed by the city in 1951 and became director of parks and gardens in 1984. His projects include the Arthur McElhone Reserve in Elizabeth Bay, Sandringham Gardens in Hyde Park, Chessboard Garden in Hyde Park and others which have been demolished, such as Fragrance Garden in Cook and Phillip Park.
At an extraordinary council meeting on 9 August, councillors unanimously passed Thalis’s motion noting the importance of Smillie and Berzins, and requested the city CEO to investigate the commissioning of a heritage study of projects completed under their purview.
Thalis noted that public design from the mid-century period is often maligned and could be at risk of demolition.
“We need to have an understanding of our own repository of good modern design from the post-war period,” he said. “Our aspirations have changed, and perhaps enlarged, since the more municipal works of that time but nonetheless we should stand on the shoulders of our forebears rather than kicking them out of the way.” More

London firm David Chipperfield Architects has won the commission to design a tower on the last piece of developable land in Barangaroo, together with Durbach Block Jaggers, Smart Design Studio and John Wardle Architects.
The Central Barangaroo development on Hickson Road will sit to the north of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners’ three International Towers and Wilkinson Eyre’s controversial Crown Barangaroo tower.
The Australian Financial Review reports that David Chipperfield Architects and the three Australian firms will each design their own building as part of the development.
Developer Aqualand says the project will link the “natural beauty of Barangaroo Reserve” with “the bustling commercial district of Barangaroo South.”
“More than 50 percent of Central Barangaroo will be public space and parkland – most of it adjoining Sydney Harbour,” the developer says. “Central Barangaroo will feature diverse, mixed-use cultural and civic spaces, restaurants, a retail centre, apartments and office space.”
David Chipperfield told AFR that, while it was still early on in the design process, “clearly, we want to make an architectural project which belongs there, enjoys its site and climate, and we’ll endeavour to make a building that seems to be right for the site.”
“To one side of us is the more robust commercial development, and on the other side is the slightly lower density and more cultural and social part of the site, and we’ve been seen as a bridge between those two things.”
The project will be Chipperfield’s first in Australia, after his firm previously missed out on the commission to design Circular Quay Tower, which went to Foster and Partners. It also lost out in the Adelaide Contemporary International Design Competition, won by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
SOM completed the Central Barangaroo masterplan in 2012. The precinct is expected to be finished by 2027. More

The Western Australian government is calling for expressions of interest from built environment professionals to join the state’s Design Review Panel. The panel’s role is to assess and provide advice on significant projects across the state against the principles of the Design WA guidelines. Since it was established in 2019, the panel has reviewed more […] More

Blight Rayner has designed a 29-storey campus style office tower that will sit high above a “gorge-like” open ground plane on Brisbane CBD’s northern edge. The 200 Turbot Street proposal, submitted to Brisbane council for planning assessment, will sit between Wickham and King Edward parks, across from a four-storey 1940s Neo Georgian heritage building, the […] More

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has released the design of its new forecourt, which will create a civic gathering place with two reflection pools outside the entrance to the existing historic building. Designed by American landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson and her Seattle-based practice GGN together with Australian practice McGregor Coxall, the forecourt […] More

The Design Institute of Australia has announced the winners for its inaugural Designers Australia Awards.
In an industry first, the awards dispense with tradition design disciplines such as industrial, interior, graphic, digital, product, environmental, textile, fashion, and others.
Instead, the awards emphasize the best design thinking and processes applied across projects, which are divided into three-cross disciplinary categories: Place, representing the places we live, work and play; Use, which describe the things we use; and Interact, which depict who and what we interact with.
Bates Smart was awarded winner of the Place category for the Gandel Wing at Melbourne’s Cabrini Hospital. “The new Gandel Wing’s natural finishes, rounded edges and neutral palette illustrate the power of buildings that can heal us,” said judges Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano. “The comforting interiors have been so thoughtfully reimagined that we thought it was a sustainable hotel concept — now that’s somewhere one should check-in! It’s time that hospital and hospitality go hand in hand.”
In the Use category, Design by Them took the top prize for DL Range by Gibson Karlo and Dion Lee. Juror Tuba Kocaturk said the range “presents a timeless process of experimentation with form and materials which brings together functional and purposeful production techniques from fashion and industrial design, translated into an innovative marriage of comfort and inspirational design.”
And finally Monash University XYX Lab was named winner of the Interact category for their HyperSext City exhibition. The judges found it “a testament to the changing role and position of design, moving from the traditional concept of a tangible product through to orchestration of new interactions and experiences,” Kocaturk said.
The judging panel comprised local and international design leaders including Alessandra Baldereschil, Susanna Bilardo, Lisa Cahill, Gavin Campbell, Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano, Marcus Fairs, John Gertsakis, Rafael Gomez, Peta Heffernan, Fenella Kernebone, Tuba Kocaturk, Scott Mayson, Nicole Monks, Lorenzo Palmeri, and Quan Payne.
The winners are:
Place
Winner
Bates Smart for Gandel Wing, Cabrini
Awards of Merit
Billard Leece Partnership for Susan Wakil Health Building
Cox Architecture for Parmelia Hilton Hotel, Sydney Coliseum Theatre (West HQ),
Cox Architecture and Neeson Murcutt and Neille for Australian Museum Project Discovery
Danielle Brustman for Brighton Street Early Learning
DesiginInc Adelaide for DesiginInc Adelaide Studio
Elenberg Fraser for Market Lane
Latitude for SBB
Mata Design Studio for Applecross Residence
Mycelium Studios for Mycelium Studios

Naomi Milgrom Foundation and Glenn Murcutt for MPavilion 2019

Phillips Pilkington Architects for Gunditj Mirring Keeping Place
Russell and George for Sarah and Sebastian
Skeehan Studio for Canberra Glassworks Shop
Studio-Gram for The Guardsman

Walter Brooke and Associates and Genesin Studio for ITL
Walter Brooke and Associates and Hecker Guthrie for EOS

Woods Bagot for Central Park Tower Refurbishment
Zwei Interiors Architecture for body of work
Use
Winner
Design By Them for DL Range by Gibson Karlo and Dion Lee
Awards of Merit
Cobalt Design for Keep Cup Thermal Cup and Press Fit Lid
Design By Them for August Lounges by Gibson Karlo
Hare and Klein for Bridge Table
Jam Factory for Solute Pendant Light
JDT Design for LEGO 3D printed Spinner

Naomi Milgrom Foundation and Board Grove Architects for MPavilion 2020 Stool Dolly

Skeehan Studio for Rou House, and Nave Collection
Yellow Goat Design for H2O
Interact
Winner
Monash University XYX Lab for HyperSext City
Ian Wong for 100 Objects and I-conic
United Studio for Markr
President’s Award
Edward Linacre for contritution to the profession More

Diller Scofidio and Renfro and Woods Bagot’s design for the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) at the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site on Kaurna land has been submitted for planning assessment.
Concept designs for the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre depicting a series of basket-like forms were released in early 2021 and have been refined for the planning application.
Diller Scofidio and Renfro partner Charles Renfro said a deeper and wider engagement with the Aboriginal Reference Group had allowed them to embrace Aboriginal shared values and reference forms found in Aboriginal art and cultures.
“Wholly connected to the landscape, the design embeds the lower ground level into the site and includes an outdoor gallery cantilevered over the terraced landscape,” he said.
Refinements to the design aimed at creating a stronger connection to Country include making the feature gallery completely outdoors, and designing the building to “more decisively originate from the earth with columns that appear to grow from out of the ground.”

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The Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre by Diller Scofidio and Renfro and Woods Bagot.

Oculus is the landscape architect for the project that will see a significant proportion of the site established with a combination of plants and vegetation, paving, walls, terracing, seating and a range of water features.
Interconnected pathways will wind around the building and flow into smaller, quiet spaces throughout the site to enable visitors to take time out from the city environment and immerse themselves in the landscape.
Woods Bagot principal Rosina Di Maria said the architects had felt a profound responsibility with this project.
“This project is a path to reconciliation, an important moment in setting the future for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people,” she said.
“We’re designing a vessel to hold – to nurture and care for – the stories of the world’s oldest and resilient, continuous culture on earth. The design must speak to the whole nation and especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia.”
Di Maria stressed the importance of collaboration with the Aboriginal Reference Group.
Led by AACC ambassador and community leader David Rathman, the reference group brings together people from a range of institutions and backgrounds. Its members include Jack Buckskin and Jessica Davies-Huynh, representing Kaurna people through the Kaurna Yerta  Aboriginal Corporation; Karl Telfer, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute; Sandy Miller, SA Museum Aboriginal Advisory Committee; Cara Kirkwood, Art Gallery of South Australia; Craig Ritchie, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies; and Kirstie Parker, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
“The design team’s role has always been to listen to and translate the aspirations and ambitions of the ARG into a design response,” said Di Maria. “The architecture evokes a sense of welcome to all visitors – particularly First Nations peoples – and a connection to culture offered through the human experience.”
Diller Scofidio and Renfro and Woods Bagot initially won the Adelaide Contemporary design competition for an art gallery at the same site before a change in government saw the gallery proposal scrapped and replaced with a proposal for an Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre. More

Brisbane City Council has finalized its design for the $67 million Breakfast Creek pedestrian and cycle bridge that will link Newstead to Albion in the city’s inner-east and connect to an extended Lores Bonney Riverwalk. Engineering firm SMEC is behind the 80-metre arch bridge design, now submitted for development approval. “The colouring has been chosen […] More