Evelyn Reynolds

The NSW government is planning to roll its two state environment planning policies into one in an effort to “reduce complexity without reducing rigour.”
The 20-year-old SEPP 65, which provides guidelines the design quality of apartment buildings, and 2004 SEPP BASIX (Building Sustainability Index), would be folded into a new Design and Place SEPP. The combined policy is now on exhibition for public comment.
A focus of the new policy, according to the government, will be to encourage good design across neighbourhoods and throughout public spaces, in comparison to the current policies that are more focused on outcomes for individual buildings.

“The proposed policy helps shift our thinking away from only designing beautiful buildings to designing beautiful neighbourhoods,” planning minister Rob Stokes said.
“Under the proposal, new developments will now have to show how they respond and contribute to the surrounding area. We want to create places that have beauty and character; that are green, liveable and bring people together with access to open space and active transport connections.”

The explanation of intended effect for the policy lays out a number of other aims behind the move, including facilitating ecologically sustainable development and establishing Country as a foundation for design and planning.

A number of specific proposals are put forward, including new targets to retain or increase the provision and diversity of public space across NSW and a baseline residential density target in urban areas.
The Design and Place SEPP also proposes that a registered architect would be required for all buildings with three or more storeys and for all multiresidential buildings with four or more dwellings. A registered landscape architect would be required for all open spaces of more than 1,000 square metres.

NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin is overseeing development of the policy.
“This will guide us all to design and prioritize healthy places for people, community and country,” she said.
“Design is about people, our shared history and our future. This policy will help integrate the things we value about the design of our local communities and our cities.
“It is about including considerations like character, heritage, quality public spaces, thriving local areas that we can access easily, tree-lined walkable streets, parks, environmentally sensitive buildings and spaces into policy that’s easily understood.”
The explanation of intended effect is on exhibition until 31 March. More

It’s been a pipe dream for more than 150 years, but a bridge linking Kangaroo Point and Brisbane CBD will finally be a reality.
Brisbane City Council has lodged a development application for the bridge, with Cox Architecture and Arup behind the design.
Expected to be completed as early as 2023, the single-mast cable-stay structure will run from the corner of Alice and Edward streets in the city to Scott Street at Kangaroo Point.
Measuring 470 metres long and 6.8 metres wide, the bridge will include dedicated cycle and pedestrian paths and “high-quality bridge landings, transitions and public realm.” There will be shading across the full length of the bridge, along with nodes and viewing platforms to engage with the river and green spaces.

In planning documents, Cox Architecture states, “The bridge landings touch lightly on the river’s edge and protect and integrate adjacent green spaces including the City Botanic Gardens as well as the rich history and heritage of the Gardens, Brisbane City Centre and Kangaroo Point.

“The bridge celebrates Brisbane’s identity; its sub-tropical environment, and river city image.”

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Kangaroo Point Green bridge by Cox Architects and Arup.

A bridge across this section of the Brisbane River was first proposed in the 1860s and a design was even developed by 1890. But economic recession and the devastation of the 1893 floods meant the idea stayed on the drawing board. Council announced it would progress with the project in March 2019 as part of its $550 million plan to build five new “green” bridges over 10 years.
A preliminary business case was released in September 2019 and a range of different structural forms and design options were developed for consideration before a draft reference design was put out for public consultation. The design was largely popular, with 71% of respondents registering their support.
Construction will begin on Kangaroo Point green bridge will begin this year, as will construction of a smaller green bridge at Breakfast Creek.
Community consultation will continue on the proposed bridges from West End to St Lucia and West End to Toowong. The council is looking for a new location for the fifth bridge after the initial plan to build it between Belbowrie and Wacol proved unpopular, according to the ABC. More

Olympic swimmers could be racing in a new pool above Brisbane’s Roma Street railway station in 2032, according to planning documents released this February and comments by Queensland’s premier.
The $2 billion Brisbane Live entertainment centre, which was a market-led proposals that first emerged in 2016. In discussing the long-mooted proposal, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told local media, “Brisbane Live is one of those infrastructure projects that could be used for a 2032 Olympics as well. It could be used possibly for the swimming.”

The International Olympic Committee announced on 25 February that Brisbane is the prefered host for the 2032 games.
Architecture firms Archipelago, Woods Bagot and Populous have prepared a concept design for the Roma Station precinct, included in a proposed development scheme document published by the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority.

The proposal outlines how the development of a major sport, recreation and entertainment facility would besome a centrepiece for the wider precinct that would create an attractive and human-scale interface with Roma Street and Albert Street.

The design team note in a statement, “Our design response creatively unites the disparate topographies of these key CBD destinations in providing an Emma Miller Place design as the arrival forecourt for Brisbane Live and a civic gathering destination with its own distinctive but complementary identity.
“In emphasizing its current and historic importance as a workers gathering place the design integrates equitable and cycle access and hostile vehicle management throughout the precinct whilst concurrently delivering rich subtropical shade and catering for event activation, security screening and crowd management.”
The government has not said how long negotiations with the proponent are likely to go for.

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The Victorian government and the National Gallery of Victoria have announced four new jurors for the competition to design the NGV Contemporary gallery.
The new jury members, who hail from across the globe, will join NGV director Tony Ellwood, Victorian Government Architect Jill Garner, and NGV trustee, architect and jury chair Corbett Lyon. The new jurors include three architects and an Indigenous artist and curator.
Dutch architect Francine Houben is founding partner of multi-disciplinary practice Mecanoo, which she established in 1984. The practice has an extensive portfolio of award-winning buildings. Houben was named Woman Architect of the Year by the Architects’ Journal in 2014 and in 2015, she received the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize from Queen Máxima of the Netherlands for her career achievements.

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Xu Tiantian.

Xu Tiantian is founding principal of DnA Architecture in Beijing. She studied architecture and urban design at Harvard University and worked as a senior architect at OMA in Rotterdam. She was awarded the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture in 2019 by The Architects’ Journal and Architectural Review and has also received the Young Architects Award from The Architectural League New York and the WA Award for Chinese Architecture from World Architecture magazine.

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Gerard Reinmuth.
Image: courtesy NGV
Australian architect Gerard Reinmuth is the founding director of Terroir, which has studios in Sydney, Hobart and Copenhagen. Reinmuth was a creative director of the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2009 National Architecture Conference as well as creative director of Australia’s exhibition at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Terroir’s recent projects include the Penguin Parade Visitor Centre, the Puffing Billy Railway Visitor Centre and the Tornhuset Maritime Museum in Malmö, Sweden, designed with Kim Utzon Architecture.

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Maree Clarke.
Image: Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre
Finally, Maree Clarke is a a Yorta Yorta/ Wamba Wamba/Mutti Mutti/Boonwurrung woman and an independent multi-disciplinary artist and curator. She has worked in the contemporary and cultural First Nations arts sector for more than three decades. Her work involves possum skin, kangaroo teeth, echidna quills, glass and photography. She is also a curator of the Koorie Heritage Trust and Wyndham Art Gallery.
The announcement of the new jurors also coincides with the opening of expressions of interest for the design competition. Registrations for the competition close on 9 March.

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Construction is underway for a 14-storey tower that will sit behind the facade of the Sands and McDougall building in central Adelaide, one of the earliest examples of Art Deco architecture in South Australia.
Designed by Cox Architecture, the tower at 60 King William Street will house 40,000 square metres of office space, which will make it one of the biggest office buildings in the city.
The original designs called for the complete demolition of the heritage shop building, but a campaign from heritage advocates and an intervention from environment minister David Speirs to fast-track the listing of the façade forced a redesign. The State Commission Assessment Panel approved the new design in November 2020.

Along with 14 levels of office space, the building will include a rooftop terrace, which the proponents are calling “Adelaide’s first sky lobby.”
A ground floor retail and food precinct will include cafes, restaurants, a supermarket and bar.

The tower will appear as a contemporary glass form emerging behind the heritage façade.
The Art Deco shop-front was a 1933 addition to a 19th century building, likely designed by architects Lionel Gregory Bruer and Norman Fisher in association with Philip Claridge and Russell Ellis, who was in his final year of architectural studies and articled to Bruer at the time.

Its statement heritage statement of significance describes the facade as an outstanding and early example of Art Deco architecture in South Australia.
“The facade is highly intact and demonstrates many of the key attributes of the style, including vertical form; concentration of ornamentation at the top of the building; and stylised decorations made from coloured-pressed Portland cement, copper panels, and metal grilles to the upper storey windows,” the statement reads.
The tower is expected to be completed by 2023 and Services Australia will be the anchor tenant of to the building. More

A consortium led by Oculus has been appointed to develop an updated master plan for the invigoration and protection of Exhibition Reserve, a key public precinct in Melbourne’s inner north suburb of Carlton. The site of Exhibition Reserve encompasses the grounds surrounding the Melbourne Museum and the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building, constructed in 1880.
The reserve combines significant heritage buildings and gardens, civic and event spaces, architectural icons and institutions, including Museums Victoria, the custodian of the Royal Exhibition Building and grounds.

The updated master plan will seek to enrich opportunities for public engagement with a mix of integrated landscape treatments, interpretation installations and spaces for temporary structures to support commercial and civic events. It will form part of the review of the Royal Exhibition Building/Carlton Gardens World Heritage Management Plan, currently underway.

The public space must be able to balance day-to-day recreation by locals; heritage and museum engagement by visitors; and active programming by Museums Victoria and event hirers. It also needs to serve as a public thoroughfare for pedestrians and cyclists moving between Carlton and Fitzroy, as well as vehicles servicing events on site at the Royal Exhibition Building and Plaza. A press release from Oculus states that a particular focus of the masterplanning process (in accordance with current World Heritage practice) will be to invite First Peoples’ participation in the process and development of the document.

“Exhibition Reserve presents an unprecedented opportunity to create a dialogue about Australian identity,” said Oculus associate director, Claire Martin. “The development of the master plan will be as much about reframing and connection as it will be about structures and objects.”
The consortium led by Oculus includes Arup, Buro North, Conservation Studio, Finding Infinity, Greenshoot Consulting, Plancost, Right Angle Studio and Warren and Mahoney Architects.
The draft master plan is due to be released to the public later in 2021. More

South Australia’s State Commission Assessment Panel has approved the development of the Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre at Lot Fourteen, the research, business and culture hub taking shape at the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Designed by local firm Baukultur, the building will sit next to the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre designed by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro. Lot Fourteen is built on the land of the Kaurna people.
Baukultur has designed the building to be viewed “in the round.” It will comprise a podium and tower form, with floor plates shifting on different levels.

“The tower is broken down in its visual mass by a smaller intermediate floor at every third level and the slight shifting of the floor plates between these intermediate floors,” a design statement from Baukultur reads. “It is enclosed with a simple and elegant modular facade that is visually consistent on all building faces while responding to the solar orientation of each elevation.”

“Visual and physical connection and interaction are an important part of its design and the ‘slipped floor plate’ format with interconnecting voids and stairs strike a balance between maximizing horizontal connectivity within each floor and between floors.
“They also bring light down through the building to the ground floor spaces.”
The Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre is partly funded under the Adelaide City Deal, with the federal government contributing $20 million to the project.
The proponent says it will be home to tenants in “space, defence, hi-tech, creative industries and education sectors.”
Oxigen is the landscape architect for the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2021.

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The long-planned demolition of the 1960s modernist Ryde Civic Centre in Sydney has been put on hold after a last-ditch appeal from a seemingly unlikely quarter.
Heritage NSW confirmed on Friday 26 February that it had placed a 40-day stop-work order on the site after developer lobby group Urban Taskforce lodged a request for the building to be given interim heritage protection.
The City of Ryde is planning to build a $108 million civic centre on the site, with Plus Architecture designing the multi-building complex – the New Heart of Ryde – which promises to deliver a “four-fold increase” in community facilities. A report commissioned by council showed 85 percent community support for the proposal. But the Urban Taskforce has criticized the “hypocrisy” of the council in planning to demolish the International-style building, which was designed by Leslie J. Buckland and C. Druce and opened in 1964.

The lobby group is relying on the views of former NSW government architect Chris Johnson – who served as CEO of Urban Taskforce from 2011 to 2019 – to support its claim. He notes that the building is “a classic example of the post-World War 2 International Style” with “a dramatic appearance and iconic symbolism as the centre of governance for the Ryde area.”
But the city’s mayor, Jerome Laxale, dismissed the concerns, telling media that Urban Taskforce was only interested in the project because council had earlier rejected plans for two residential towers on the site.
“It is astounding that on the same day developers complain, the state government orders a stop to a project that has the support of 85 per cent of the Ryde community,” he said.
“We will fight this developer-led push. They have no interest in the Ryde community, all they want is our land to build apartments on.”

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The existing Ryde Civic Centre by Leslie J. Buckland and C. Druce.
Image: The City of Ryde
The existing Ryde Civic Centre is not heritage-listed but is notable for its marked similarity with the Peddle Thorp and Walker-designed AMP tower at Circular Quay, opened two years earlier than the council building and now heritage-listed. According to Johnson, “The subtle curve and the gridded glazing pattern of the curtain-wall facade are very similar to the AMP building.” In 2015, SafeWork NSW deemed the civic centre building to be unsafe.
Urban Taskforce’s chief executive Tom Forrest insists his concern is for the building’s heritage value.

“This is the only building constructed in the twentieth-century in the entire Ryde LGA worth preserving – and council are knocking it over and replacing it with a community centre and facilities that have the architectural merit of a concrete toilet bowl,” he said.
“Ryde council has been quick to use heritage as a fig-leaf for NIMBY rejections of private sector development – but when it comes to their own history, they run down the asset then rush for the bulldozers. If a developer did this they would be hung out to dry.”
The demolition of the centre was due to begin today, 1 March. Works will be suspended for 40 days under section 136 of the Heritage Act and, should the Heritage Council find that the building might have heritage significance, an interim heritage order will be considered. More