Evelyn Reynolds

The British Museum has initiated an international competition to find a design team to assist with the reimagining of more than a third of the museum’s gallery spaces in London.
The British Museum Western Range Architectural Competition seeks to identify a design consortium led by an architect that can work alongside the museum and its curators on an ongoing basis to transform the galleries on its western side for contemporary occupation. This part of the museum currently houses collections from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Ancient Assyria and the Middle East.
Russell Torrance, director of estates and capital projects at the British Museum, explained that the competition is unique: “Rather than seeking a fixed outcome in the form of a concept design, the competition is structured around exercises that will assess the working methods and approach of the design teams: the competition format allows us to engage with shortlisted teams over an extended period of time and as such we’ve sought to make our requirements accessible and interesting. We want to meet the team with the vision and skill to collaborate with the British Museum on an ongoing basis as we embark on a hugely significant programme of work for our historic buildings and the collections they house, as well as our users – visitors and staff.”
Stage one of the competition will invite teams to submit a standard questionnaire, alongside documents, images, drawings, diagrams and references to explain the team’s understanding of how a contemporary museum should look and feel.
In addition, teams are requested to submit documents outlining their approach to design, heritage and context, technical and logistical challenges, sustainability and innovation within budgetary constraints.
Entries will be judged by a panel comprising George Osborne (jury chair), Yvonne Farrell, Meneesha Kellay, Mahrukh Tarapor, Sarah Younger, Mark Jones and Nicholas Cullinan, alongside representatives from the British Museum’s Board of Trustees: Tracey Emin, Charlie Mayfield and Alejandro Santo Domingo.
The competition marks a further step in the delivery of the museum’s masterplan, which will also see the new Archaeological Research Centre in Reading opening in 2024.
Chair of the British Museum George Osborne said that the museum is one of London’s most-visited landmarks: “… Like the city itself, it feels timeless as a space because it constantly evolves. Each generation makes its own contribution: two hundred years ago, our forebears commissioned the great classical facade; a hundred years ago, it was the King Edward VI building; a quarter of a century ago, it was the Great Court,” he said.
“Now our generation is calling out across the world, and across Britain, for an architectural practice with the imagination, the sympathy and the vision to help us rebuild and restore the most famous galleries of the museum, where our sculptures from Ancient Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia are displayed. In this home to the history of humanity, come help us – quite literally – build the future.”
The British Museum Western Range Architectural Competition is open for entries until 21 June 2024. Full details are available here and the competition tender documents can be accessed here. More

The 23rd Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Korean architect Minsuk Cho and his firm Mass Studies, has now opened to the public in London’s Serpentine South gardens. The pavilion, titled Archipelagic Void, features five structures or “islands” centred around a singular circular void. These islands form a constellation-like arrangement with the natural environment to thrive and […] More

Two “exceptional” Australian projects – both located in New South Wales – have been honoured in the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Awards for Excellence 2024, and will now go in the running for the prestigious RIBA International Prize.
In total, 22 projects received an award. Located across 14 countries, they were selected from the entries submitted for the RIBA International Prize 2024. Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge by Kerstin Thompson Architects and Punchbowl Mosque by Angelo Candalepas and Associates were the only Australian projects awarded.
Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge, in Illaroo, southern New South Wales, comprises an underground art gallery and collection store, a 165-metre bridge that accommodates bedrooms, and other indoor and outdoor spaces. The Budanon site and an adjoining property were once home to artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd. The pair donated both sites and their art collection to the Australian government in 1993, with the vision to create an artistic hub for public enjoyment. Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge is a component of this vision, with the realised project the result of an invited competition.
The jury praised the concept for both preserving and transforming the landscape setting. “The masterplan offers a paradigm shift in the way we think about landscape, from the purely picturesque to an ecological one. Ultimately Bundanon is extraordinary for the manner in which it attunes the visitor to the landscape, and in so doing to nature and climate, place and time.”

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Punchbowl Mosque by Angelo Candalepas and Associates. Image:

Rory Gardiner

Punchbowl Mosque was lauded by the jury as a “profoundly moving sacred space, magically conjured up in the everyday setting of a Sydney residential suburb.” Taking more than 20 years to deliver, the project demonstrates a meticulously planned use of space. Visual features and interior textures that reflect religious iconography have been carefully integrated.
In its citation, the judging panel wrote: “Entirely modern in its use of material and in its formal and spatial manipulation, the Punchbowl Mosque nevertheless seems to take its place confidently within the tradition of Muslim architecture. And although principally, and manifestly, designed to celebrate and intensify the experience of worship, the mosque also serves the wider community as a venue for meetings, festivals and events, and is already enormously valued locally for its openness and inclusivity.”
Simon Henley, chair of the RIBA Awards Group, said that each of the awarded projects makes a significant contribution to its local context and community, as well as demonstrating “a stimulating architectural response to RIBA’s stringent social, environmental and design values.”
RIBA president Muyiwa Oki said that supporting and working with architects and practices around the globe to promote excellence in architecture is central to RIBA’s purpose. “Now in its fourth iteration as an established part of the RIBA Awards calendar, the International Awards recognise and celebrate ambitious and impactful buildings across the world that create meaningful change.”
The awarded projects will now vie for the RIBA International Prize, with the shortlist and winner to be announced in November 2024. To find out more, visit the RIBA website. More

“Berlin is a city of many cities,” architect Hans Schneider, a partner at the J. Mayer H und Partner, told the winners of the 2024 Australian Institute of Architects Dulux Study Tour on their visit to his studio in the Berlin neighbourhood of Charlottenburg. “There is not one Berlin style.” The city’s architecture stands as a testament to the city’s tumultuous history, reflecting periods of prosperity, division and reunification.
“There’s certainly a lot of contrast,” said Flynn Carr, one of five winners on the study tour “a lot of interesting overlays when it comes to post war occupation, particularly with the Berlin Wall dividing East and West Berlin and the responses to that.”
The impact of the Berlin Wall acts as both a palimpsest in the city, and a marker of time. At the Senate Administration for Urban Development, Construction and Housing, two large-scale models delineate the built work carried out post-reunification, allowing visitors to see just how much of the city has emerged in the past 30 years.

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Berlin city models exhibition. Image:

Linda Cheng

“It seems that there is a balance between greenery and the construction, compared to other cities in Europe,” said Jamileh Jahangiri. “We’re seeing a lot of the landscape as well. It’s like a landscape that came out of a ruin.”
Most Berlin has a height limit of 22 metres, and much of its urban fabric is dominated by long blocks with a succession of buildings deep into the site and courtyards in between.
“Berlin, like Tokyo, has this juxtaposition old and new side by side, but within Berlin, it’s like within an overarching order. There’s more consistency of building high and set back and typology,” observed Emma Chrisp. “There’s a beautiful consistency of light quality and environment quality because there are no streets that are being grossly towered over.”
Simona Falvo added, “There is a kind of inherent consistency with the uniformity, within building heights, setbacks, et cetera. But the beauty of Berlin is because of the diversity of the streetscape, and of the varying neighbourhoods, you see that difference being expressed so clearly in the architecture. That’s what makes Berlin so unique and fascinating from an architectural perspective.”

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David Chipperfield Architects’ campus. Image:

Linda Cheng

We saw Berlin’s unique courtyard urbanism reinterpreted by different architects in their own studio sites. David Chipperfield Architects’ “campus” includes a series of concrete Seitenflügel (side wings) grafted onto the historic building fabric. At Terrassenhaus Berlin / Lobe Block by Brandlhuber plus Emde, Burlon and Muck Petzet Architekten, two staircases flank each side of the building to mimic the cocooning arms around a courtyard.
David Chipperfield Architects’ Leander Bulst explained that these long blocks could have up to seven buildings on the site, with wealthier residential blocks on the street front, and typically buildings at the rear would be industrial. The Chipperfield studio, for example, is located inside a former piano factory.
This history of residential and industrial functions collocated together, is something that Berlin should return to, says architect Martina Bauer of Barkow Leibinger, as a way of reducing distances between home and work, as well as reducing dead zones in the city. She said a new zoning category called “urban” would allow for a healthy mix residential and light commercial, creating a lively, 24/7 city.

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Wohnregal by FAR Frohn and Rojas. Image:

Linda Cheng

Wohnregal by FAR Frohn and Rojas is a project that does just that in the six-storey building that accommodates housing and work spaces. The project is the brainchild of architect Marc Frohn, who search all over Berlin for empty lots that could be developed. He sent more than 300 letters to owners of vacant properties and received three replies before purchasing the site for Wohnregal. The project also builds on the history of prefabrication in East Germany. A prefabricated construction system was adapted to create essentially six warehouses stacked on top of each other, with each floor accommodating two apartments. The shell of the building was constructed in just six weeks.
Over at Terrassenhaus Berlin, the ziggurat-shaped structure is also intended to the live-work typology. Although currently zoned for commercial use and housing a series of creative ateliers, the project has been designed to be flexible for potential use as housing in the future, should the zoning rules change.
Mike Sneyd said one of his key learnings from Berlin and the city’s architects is how the built environment is mitigating climate change and energy consumption. “The coolest lesson I took out of this – and it reaffirms what I’ve been doing in practice – is to build simply and move away from Passive House. Hans Schneider of J. Mayer H. und Partner explained that the Berlin approach to sustainability emphasises energy saving, requiring most buildings to function without mechanical cooling, instead opting for operable windows to provide ventilation. “It was really interesting to hear that perspective,” Sneyd continued. “It’s actually lower impact if you build simply.”
Linda Cheng is travelling with the 2024 Dulux Study Tour. Follow #2024DuluxStudyTour on social media and the blog. More

When Riken Yamamoto received the 2024 Pritzker Prize, he became the ninth Japanese architect to be awarded architecture’s highest honour. Japan has now produced one-fifth of all recipients in the 45-year history of the prize.
Tokyo, especially, wears its Pritzker associated architecture like jewels adorning the urban fabric of the city. The ultra-luxury shopping street in Omotesando is full of works by Japanese and foreign Pritzker-winning architects. Even the Tokyo Toilet Project includes four works by Japanese laureates.

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Tokyo Toilet Project by Tadao Ando. Image:

Linda Cheng

The five early-career architects on the 2024 Dulux Study Tour – a prize that they themselves have received – observed high quality of craftsmanship in Japan.
Jamileh Jahangiri said, “What the Japanese do perfectly is they keep what is there and do it in a modern way. You see the celebration of traditional culture but not in an ornamental way. It’s been truly transformed into a new way of living or a new way of understanding the environment.”
What we saw from the projects and practices visited was career-long dedication to the study of one aspect of architecture. Riken Yamamoto stressed the importance of community, particularly his own community of Yokohama in which he’s predominantly worked, so much so that he has a bar nearby, in a building he designed in 1986, where his staff all have lunch together every day. His practice is truly embedded in the community with this space where the architects can mingle with members of the public on a daily basis.

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The 2024 Dulux Study Tour winners with Pritzker Prize laureate Riken Yamamoto. L–R: Emma Chrisp, Flynn Carr, Riken Yamamoto, Mike Sneyd, Jamileh Jahangiri and Simona Falvo. Image:

Linda Cheng

“I found Yamamoto-san’s practice the most fascinating one,” Jahangiri said. “I heard so many times in the office people talking about community, and you could see it in the office culture. It wasn’t just about doing a project for the community outside but the actual office was a perfect community that you want to be a part of.
Another example is Studio TAB, a small practice in rural Japan whose director Keigo Kawai travelled to Tokyo to meet with the group, presented a series of Super Low-cost Big Houses (SLBH), some created for as little as $21 million yen (or a little over $200,000). All are made from simple and readily available materials and designed to maximise flexibility. In fact, Kawai said he gave the owners of his houses complete freedom in designing the layouts of their houses, he preferred to focus on flexibility.
“I think fundamentally it’s the people who make the project,” Mike Sneyd observed, “particularly for those small-scale ones, it’s the occupants, it’s not the project.”
This scholastic dedication breeds a sense of continuity in the work of many Japanese practices. “While every project is to some degree unique based on site or context, there are underlying elements that you do see repeated and I think there’s such a sophistication to that – seeing an architectural practice’s development through the years – it has been something that’s recurring through all the practices, regardless of the diversity of the work that they’re doing,” Simona Falvo said.

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Models on display at Kengo Kuma and Associates. Image:

Linda Cheng

Many of the Japanese practices we visited also engaged in model-making, both as a part of their design process as training tool for students entering practice. SANAA, Kengo Kuma and Associates, and Riken Yamamoto all had model making workshops, as well, the Archi-Depot museum has a basement warehouse full of models from Japanese practices.
For the practices that are able to work through physical models, I think it is an integral part of their design process and design practice,” Falvo said. “It’s also a very important part of my own practice and it’s something that I really enjoy doing and I learn so much from it in terms of my own architecture.”
Chrisp added, “It seems like it’s a part of the evolution in terms of what you get to do in the practice. You have a foundational period where you’re working with models. You’re probably learning a lot about how to think, how to put things together, and it’s probably embedding a lot of understanding of sequence.”
Tokyo itself is “a constant juxtaposition,” Chrisp observed. “You get really old buildings alongside really new and big-scale buildings next to tiny quaint entrances.”
Flynn Carr added, “It was really also interesting to see how curated and controlled the environment is here. We were shown images by our tour guide of how barren the landscape was [at the site of Meiji Shrine which is now a dense forest]. It really puts into perspective how much has been done to facilitate a city that has just grown exponentially.”
“There is also an element of people caring about what they care about,” said Sneyd. “When you look at the urban fabric, it’s really obvious what they care about and what they don’t care about, for better or for worse. That was a learning experience for us.”
“I was completely fascinated by the urban fabric of the city and the complexities that are at play there,” Falvo said. “It is a tremendous experience of being in the dizziness of Tokyo.”
Linda Cheng is travelling with the 2024 Dulux Study Tour. Follow #2024DuluxStudyTour on social media and the blog. More

Plans have been unveiled for a second Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) in the forthcoming Bradfield City Centre. The lodged development application proposes the establishment of a three-storey low-rise named Second Building. The facility would accommodate spaces for research and prototype development in manufactured products. Planning documents indicate the building would house a high-bay advanced […] More

After a successful launch in Melbourne in 2023, the ArchiBuild Expo now makes its debut in Sydney this June. The expo will shine a spotlight on the latest in architectural building products, materials, technology and systems. The event aims to equip architects, designers and specifiers with greater knowledge of the materials currently on the market. […] More

Australian architecture, engineering, urban design and planning projects can now be submitted for the 2024 Holdmark Innovation Award, with the winning entry receiving a $10,000 cash prize.
Now in its second year, the award is delivered by Powerhouse and supported by Sydney Design Week principal partner Holdmark Property Group, following Holdmark’s $10-million contribution to Powerhouse Parramatta in 2022.
The awarded project will be one that demonstrates both innovative excellence and solutions to industry challenges. This may include projects that have incorporated emerging technologies, adopted pioneering research, implemented strategies for decarbonisation or embraced regenerative practice. A “project” in this instance refers to an entire building, a built structure or a key component in a structure’s design or construction.
Phive in Parramatta Square by Design Inc with Lacoste and Stevenson, and Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, was the inaugural recipient of the award, in 2023. The project was selected for its “ingenious” rooftop design and passive climate strategies.

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Phive in Parramatta Square by Design Inc with Lacoste and Stevenson, and Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, was selected as the winner of the 2023 award for its “ingenious” rooftop design and passive climate strategies. Image:

Brett Boardman

Founder and managing director of Holdmark, Sarkis Nassif, said Australia is home to some of the world’s most innovative and dedicated designers, architects and engineers. He said that Holdmark is committed to promoting their achievements and raising their profile.
“We are honoured to serve as the principal partner for Sydney Design Week and look forward to seeing the applicants’ submissions.”
Applications for 2024 will be reviewed by a committee comprising Gerard Reinmuth, professor of practice in the School of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney and director of Terroir; Keinton Butler, Powerhouse senior curator of design and architecture; and Kevin Nassif, chief operating officer at Holdmark Property Group.
To be eligible, projects must have been designed in Australia and completed between 1 January and 31 December 2023 .
Powerhouse chief executive, Lisa Havilah, said the award honours forward-thinking Australian architects, engineers, urban designers and planners who design and shape our environments.
“We welcome applications from innovative projects that exemplify excellence in the industry.”
The application portal will close on 1 July 2024. The award will be presented to the successful recipient during Sydney Design Week in September 2024. For information on how to apply, visit the Powerhouse website. More