Evelyn Reynolds

The Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (AACA) released the new National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA) today, 1 July, noting that the new standard prioritizes sustainability and engagement with Indigenous people.
Reviewed every five years, the national competency standard provides the assessment framework for the registration boards of each state and helps guide tertiary education institutions and other providers to tailor their programs to provide a pathway to registration.
AACA CEO Kathlyn Loseby said the reforms to the standard had been developed through an 18-month-long process of research and engagement with stakeholders
“It is incumbent upon us to ensure standards of competency not only keep pace with changes across the profession but also serve as a driver for further improvement,” she said.
“We are proud that the 2021 NSCA enshrines a greater focus on more meaningful engagement with our First Nations peoples. As this year’s NAIDOC Week theme – Heal Country! – so clearly highlights, we have a long way to go in achieving real reform and reconciliation.
“We recognize that fundamental change is needed in the relationship Australia has with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
“We also acknowledge that we have so much to learn from the rich history and oldest continuing cultures on earth, not least when it comes to how we care for Country.”
The standard makes repeated reference to the need to transition to a carbon-neutral built environment, noting that the built environment accounts for 36 percent of energy consumption, 38 percent of energy-related carbon emissions and 50 percent of resource consumption globally.
“Architects are at the forefront of our capacity to transform the built environment’s impact on our climate into a carbon-neutral one,” said Loseby. “The NSCA is a critical tool in this change.”
The standard has also been streamlined, with the number of competencies reduced from 70 to 60.
Australian Institute of Architects CEO Julia Cambage welcomed the reforms.
“Safety, sustainability and human-centric design are the driving factors shaping this latest iteration of the NSCA,” she said. “Architects are the most highly-qualified, closely regulated profession in the building and construction sector and the 2021 NSCA provides the framework to ensure they continue to best serve Australian communities.
“I commend the AACA on their collaborative approach and thank the Institute’s First Nations Advisory Working Group and Cultural Reference Panel and the Climate Action and Sustainability Taskforce for their expert input into the review process.”
A copy of the 2021 NSCA is now viewable here. More

The colours and tones prevalent among the finalists of the 35th anuual Dulux Colour Awards indicated “the need for a return to nature and its grounding effect in chaotic times,” said said Andrea Orr, Dulux colour and communications manager. Among the 105 finalists, 44 come from the two commercial interiors categories – Workplace and Retail, […] More

A $708 million proposal to demolish and replace Sydney’s Harbourside Shopping Centre – blasted by the City of Sydney as an “effective privatization of public space” – has once again been approved.
The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment approved the project in March, but the Independent Planning Commission was required to adjudicate because of the more than 50 unique objections it received.
Commissioners Dianne Leeson and Wendy Lewin announced the commission’s approval for the project on 25 June, stressing that conditions imposed on the approval would mitigate key impacts and ensure design excellence.
Leeson and Lewin said the commission accepted that there were “significant socio-economic benefits” the development would bring, but that there are a number of issues that needed to be addressed. They noted that “the bulk and scale of the podium (particularly at the northern end of the site) and the profile and positioning of the residential tower as proposed, would reduce solar access to the Darling Harbour foreshore and result in unacceptable overshadowing of the public promenade.”

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The proposed Harbourside Shopping Centre redevelopment, concept design by FJMT.

They also noted that the northern podium risked diminishing the state-significant heritage values of the Pyrmont Bridge and that the provision of 3,500 square metresof public open space across multiple levels above the podium would limit accessibility and use.
“In response to concerns raised by council and the community, the commission has imposed a suite of empirical and performance-based conditions, ensuring that the outcome being sought is clear, and emphasizing that detailed design solutions would be required as part of the design excellence competition,” Leeson and Lewin state in their report.
Among the conditions set by the commission are a number of “absolute limits,” including a minimum setback from Pyrmont Bridge and a maximum finished deck level height for the public open space above the northern podium.
But the conditions should also “provide the applicant enough scope to find design solutions to avoid, mitigate and minimize identified impacts without compromising the benefits of the project.”
A design excellence competition will be required for the final design, before any construction begins. More

The Australian Institute of Architects is calling on the federal government to extend wage subsidies paid to employers of trainees and apprentices to companies employing architecture graduates. The Institute says the change is urgently needed to improve employment prospects for graduates. “A national survey of our members at the beginning of last year found that […] More

A former ambulance station that was gutted by two separate fires 20 years ago could soon be transformed into a culture and arts centre in the central west New South Wales town of Forbes. The Forbes Arts Society purchased the Forbes and District Ambulance Station at 110 Lachlan Street in December 2019 and have since […] More

SJB and Health Projects International have unveiled designs for a new hospital precinct on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The 238-bed Northside Private Hospital in Gosford will deliver public and private health care with integrated operating theatres, intensive care unit, mental health ward, outdoor care spaces and ground floor retail services.
SJB director Adam Haddow said the project was the firm’s first health care precinct. “We are passionate about bringing thoughtful architecture to regional Australia, and we are committed to delivering a sympathetic design outcome that enhances the local area and delivers care and amenity to the local community,” he said.
The design prioritizes an active and permeable ground plane, with a triple-height main entrance providing an abundance of natural light and ventilation, improving wayfinding and mitigating the stress of hospital waiting rooms. Green rooftop gardens will also offer outdoor experiences for patients and staff.

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Northside Private Hospital by SJB and Health Projects International.

The 10-storey building is designed to integrate into the surrounding context, with the use of sandstone and terracotta referencing Gosford’s historic quarries and a generous colonnade wrapping the public domain retail spaces, creating a welcoming edge to the hosptial.
“Our experience in residential, commercial and hotel sectors has influenced the amenity-focused design of the ground plane and the considered facade modulation that will wrap the exterior of the building,” said Haddow.
The $172 million was approved by the state government in May and is expected to be open by 2025.
Local MP Adam Crouch said at the time of the approval that the hospital at Racecourse Road would improve health care access for the growing population.
“The former disused Ausgrid Depot will be transformed into this state-of-the-art health facility, which is vital given the population growth of 95,250 residents expected by 2041,” he said.
“The new hospital will be connected to Gosford by a shuttle bus, improvements to a nearby bus stop and more than 300 parking spaces for patients, visitors and front-line workers.” More

A wedge-shaped office building reaching 37 storeys could be built between Market and Park streets in Sydney’s Midtown precinct, under a proposal before planning authorities.
The building at 133–145 Castlereagh Street would deliver around 100,000 square metres of office space and include a series of terraces, above the podium and across the sloping top of the tower. It would serve as an expansion of Stockland’s Piccadilly Complex, which currently comprises two office towers of 14- and 32-storeys and a two-level shopping centre.
3XN has produced a reference design to support the application, which will require an amendment to planning controls, and a design competition will be held for the final design.
The building would incorporate a three-to-ten-storey podium to match adjoining building and podium heights, with floor space to be used for the Wesley Mission/Uniting Church, and a mid-block through-site link aimed at accentuating Piccadilly Complex’s active frontage along Castlereagh and Pitt Streets.
The proponents note in planning documents that Sydney’s Midtown was not long ago considered a retail shopping district with “antiquated” commercial office space, but that a handful of recently approved redevelopments within the immediate context of Piccadily would breathe new life into the area.
“The redevelopment of Piccadilly will not only add pedestrian activity to the public domain of the revitalized precinct, but it will also provide a variety of large, contiguous commercial floor plates in the heart of the CBD to meet market demand,” reads the urban study report. “The large floorplates utilise an elongated central core that eliminates the deep, sub-optimal daylight zone in the middle of most large office floorplates.
“The podium terraces over-look the dynamic, active urban street-scape while the tower terraces created by the sloped, solar access plane to Hyde Park provide valuable views to Sydney’s, large green space and Harbour views beyond.”
The planning amendment is recommended for approval and will go before a full City of Sydney council meeting on 28 June. It will then go to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment for gateway determination, followed by public exhibition. More

The Victorian government has announced two sites for building new social and affordable housing as part of its $5.3 billion Big Housing Build program. To be built alongside existing public housing in Collingwood and South Yarra, the houses will join a number of other projects already underway in the program to deliver more than 12,000 […] More