Evelyn Reynolds

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced it will rejoin the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in May 2021.
The 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale was originally scheduled to begin in May, but was postponed until August due to the COVID-19 outbreak in northern Italy. In May, it was postponed again to 2021.
The Institute previously withdrew from the event due to the pandemic and travel restrictions. In a statement, the Institute said, “Following the Biennale’s postponement of the event to next year, the decision has been made to take part in the 2021 celebrations.”

Curated by Hashim Sarkis, the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale will be themed “How will we live together?”
Australia’s exhibition, In Between by creative directors Jefa Greenaway and Tristan Wong, will explore connections between indigenous cultures across Australia and the South Pacific. Read our interview with the creative directors here.

“The theme of the exhibition – How Will We Live Together? – is now more prominent than ever before,” said Helen Lochhead, chair of the Australian Venice Biennale Committee. “In creating their response to this, our creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway have been exploring architectural projects that embrace Australia’s diversity and rich indigenous heritage. This is a hugely important topic in Australia and across the world and I look forward to seeing the pavilion come together.”

“We’re pleased to once again have the opportunity to bring Australian architecture to the world stage at the Venice Architecture Biennale. This event is a highlight of the architectural calendar and is an opportunity to showcase not just fantastic architecture, but new and innovative ideas that have a lasting impact on the built environment.”
The 17th International Architecture Exhibition will take place from 22 May to 21 November in 2021 while the 59th Art Exhibition has been postponed until 2022.

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The NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has approved a three-tower mixed-use development on the Central Coast designed by DKO Architecture.
Known as Central Coast Quarter, the proposed $150 million development on Mann Street in Gosford, on the land of the Darkinjung people, will comprise 295 residential apartments, a 183-room hotel as well as commercial and retail spaces.
The proposal was first submitted to the state planning department in October 2019, but was referred to the IPC because of an objection from Central Coast Council. The department’s report stated, “Council raised objections relating to design excellence, built form, landscaping, flooding, sustainability, traffic and parking, environmental health and planning considerations.”

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Central Coast Quarter by DKO Architecture.

A number of changes were made to the original proposal, including changes to the form of the southern tower, following the initial exhibition of the designs.

The department then considered the proposal acceptable, in its report to the IPC.
Commissioners Chris Wilson (a planner) and Wendy Lewin (an architect) were appointed to consider the proposal. The commission determined that the proposal should be approved, but it required that the gross floor area be reduced in order to reduce visual impact of the towers and overshadowing of nearby public open spaces. The commission also required a reduction of the building envelop of the podiums, in order to increase the width of the through-site link.
The development will be built in three stages with final completion in 2025.

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The City of Ballarat has appointed Sydney’s Studio Hollenstein to design the $2.5 million transformation of its library.
The Library of the Future project will see the Creswick Road library redeveloped to include an improved library entrance and a new children’s section. It will also see the first floor opened up as public space.
Studio Hollenstein was chosen through a competitive tender process in which 25 applications were received, with three architecture firms shortlisted to provide a final presentation.

“This is an exciting announcement for the hundreds of families and children who already [use] this facility and will take full advantage of the many new services that will be available to accommodate our current and future library users,” said Ballarat mayor Ben Taylor.
Studio Hollenstein with Stewart Architecture won a design competition for Sydney’s Green Square Library and Plaza in 2013, which then went on to win the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for public architecture in 2019.

The appointment has come in for some criticism from local architects, however, who have said the project should have been awarded to a local firm, according to local newspaper The Courier.
Planning and community engagement for the project is “tentatively scheduled” for September/October, subject to COVID-19 restrictions.
Council is funding the project to the tune of $1.9 million, while the state government is providing $500,000 through its Living Libraries Infrastructure Program.
The library is expected to be completed by January 2022.

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Construction is underway on a new National Herbarium of NSW facility in Western Sydney.
Currently housed in the Robert Brown Building at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, the herbarium will be relocated to the new facility to protect and preserve its collection of 1.4 million plant specimens.
The facility is designed by Architectus with 1999 Gold Medallist Richard Leplastrier and architect and landscape architect Craig Burton. Inspired by the seed pod of the Waratah – the floral emblem of NSW – the building will be made up of six multi-layered vaults that will protect the plants from bushfires and extreme weather events.

The vaults will have a sterile internal box and an external wall of rammed earth. A winged fly-roof will hover over the structure to further protect the vaults from heat and provide shading to the external terraces. The large roof will be used for solar power generation and rain water collection to irrigate the plant specimens.

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The proposed National Herbarium of NSW by Architectus, Richard Leplastrier and Craig Burton will have a large spanning fly roof that will generate solar energy and collect rain water.
Image: Courtesy Architectus
Architectus principal Luke Johnson said: “It’s a privilege to work with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust on this environmentally significant project. Plants are central to our planet’s habitability and sustainability, and the research and visitor interaction with the new Herbarium’s extensive plant collection will facilitate positive environmental and societal outcomes for generations to come.”
The new building will be co-located with the Australian Plank Bank, designed by BVN Donovan Hill (now BVN) at Mount Annan. The NSW government committed $60 million for a herbarium in Western Sydney as part of Western Sydney City Deal in 2018.

The new herbarium will form part of the Australian Institute of Botanical Science, which will bring together science facilities, research and living collections at botanic gardens across Sydney.
“In this challenging era of climate change, the new Institute and Herbarium will put NSW and Australia at the forefront of plant conservation and management for generations to come,” said Denise Ora, chief executive of Botanic Gardens Greater Sydney. “And this is just the beginning of super-charging NSW as a botanical science powerhouse and protecting plant life.”
The new herbarium is expected to be completed by late 2021.

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A number of education facilities and a planning policy for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis are among the $3 billion worth of projects in the NSW government’s latest tranche of fast-tracked projects.
Tranche five of the Planning System Acceleration Program includes 10 projects, with decisions on their assessments to be made by 11 September.
One project on the list is the $137 million Multi-Trades and Digital Technology Hub at the Meadowbank TAFE campus. Designed by Gray Puksand with landscape architecture by Tract, the hub will combine a Construction and Building Trades facility with an Information and Communications Technology/Cyber Security facility.

Gray Puksand describes its design for the hub as a “true building in the round,” in which each of the four facades actively respond to their context.
Also getting fast-tracked is the East Leppington Primary School, a new $50 million public school for up to 940 students from Kindergarten to Year 6 designed by Perumal Pedavoli Architects with landscape by Taylor Brammer Landscape Architects.

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East Leppington Primary School by Perumal Pedavoli Architects with landscape by Taylor Brammer Landscape Architects.

The school will be built within the Willowdale development on the traditional land of the D’harawal people and falls within the Raby Road Primary School cluster. The proposed design balances the built form and landscape design to create a harmonious streetscape with the built form broken down and articulated to reduce the bulk and scale, opening up key view lines, daylight and breeze paths across the site. The architects said these design concepts align with the input received from D’harawal elder Uncle Ivan who suggested they provide gaps between building to allow the sunlight and breezes to pass in between the built forms.

Another school project to be fast-tracked is Richard Gill School in Muswellbrook, on the lands of the Wanaruah and Kamilaroi peoples. Designed by Stanton Dahl Architects, with landscape by Moir Landscape Architecture, the project will involve the adaptive reuse of an existing council office building for a new primary school for 50 students from kindergarten to year 2.

The State Environmental Planning Policy for the new Aerotropolis to be fast-tracked will unlock rezonings for five new employment and environmental precincts around the new Western Sydney Airport including the Aerotropolis Core, Badgerys Creek, Northern Gateway and Agribusiness and Wianamatta-South Creek.

“The Aerotropolis SEPP is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lay the foundations for a brand-new state-shaping precinct, with the Aerotropolis set to support more than 200,000 jobs over 20 years in industries of the future,” said NSW planning minister Rob Stokes.
Other projects to be fast-tracked include a major highway, and industrial business hub worth $213 million and a facility for hand sanitizer production.
Only one more tranche of fast-tracked projects to be announced under the current program, and the government will reveal details on a new ‘‘recovery’’ focused acceleration program in the coming weeks.
“Our focus so far has been on fast-tracking shovel-ready projects that were already in the planning system,’ said Stokes.Now it is time to shift from urgent response to lasting reform by applying the same accelerated momentum to determine new projects with potential to create significant jobs, economic investment and wider public benefits.” More

Monash University has appointed Mel Dodd as its new head of architecture.
Originally from Australia, Dodd has led the school of architecture at London’s Central Saint Martin’s since 2013 and is currently Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange. In her time at the school she established the Master of Architecture and MA Cities programs and created an educational environment that “allowed for constant engagement with the ‘real world’ of external projects and professional networks, and an ethical engagement in societal challenges.”

At Monash, Dodd will be tasked with aligning the department of architecture with the university’s research pillars.
“I am committed to transformative architectural education and research, embedded in urban contexts,” she said, “and I know that my ambitions to widen participation with broader audiences, civil society, government and industry is in strong alignment and synergy with the department’s own mission. Given the unprecedented challenges facing society, a more radical engagement and interaction with cities, their systems and people, is now a compelling necessity.”

Shane Murray, dean of Monash Art, Design and Architecture, said, “We could not have made a better appointment. Mel is in the unique position of having led architecture schools in both Australia, at RMIT, and the UK at Central St Martin’s. She has a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing architecture in both locations that will drive architecture at Monash to prepare students for the changing realities of practice.”
Dodd will join Monash Art, Design and Architecture in January 2021, taking over the role from Naomi Stead, who will conclude her three-year term at the end of 2020.
“Naomi is a natural leader and I’m sure she will maintain her interest in the department and faculty as she returns to her role as research professor, and projects including her recent ARC Linkage on the work-related wellbeing of architects and architecture students,” Murray said. More

The Victorian government has pledged $20 million to rejuvenate Federation Square, with better connection to Birrarung (Yarra River) and Melbourne’s green spaces a key focus.
The funding announcement on 22 August coincided with the release of a review into Federation Square’s built environment, governance and operational arrangements launched in 2019.
Among the review’s recommendations, accepted by the government, are greater recognition of First Peoples culture and connection to the site and adoption of design principles that ensure future physical changes “must aspire to match the quality of the original,” with a design advisory board overseeing any changes.

Victorian government architect Jill Garner, who co-chaired the review, said the design principles “both acknowledge the heritage status on the place and inform future enhancement.”
Federation Square was added to the Victorian heritage register in 2019 following public outcry over a proposal to raze the Yarra Building to make way for a Foster and Partners-designed Apple shop.

The $20 million upgrade will go towards delivering a new immersive regional experience centre to showcase the state’s food and wine, music and culture, as well as new lighting to improve safety and highlight the architecture at night and new ramps and staircases leading to Birrarung. The Deakin Edge theatre will be upgraded to better support events and improvements will also be made to signage and accessibility at the site.

Donald Bates, whose practice Lab Architecture Studio originally designed Federation Square, told The Age that the ramps and staircases between the square and the river would be valuable but that there should be a more immediate focus on activating the riverfront.
“We designed Federation Square to be a place you can pass through or participate in, before or after your way to the MCG or to the tennis or the rectangular stadium, among many other things,” he told the paper.
“There’s this huge public domain on the south side of Federation Square but no place to stop and get a drink, a coffee or a sandwich, and I think it really needs it.”

Another key outcome of the review is that the management of the square will be transferred to the portfolio of the Minister for Creative Industries, Martin Foley.

Tania Davidge, the convener of the Our City, Our Square campaign, praised the move on social media, noting that the creative industries portfolio was “where it belongs — putting civic, cultural and community front and centre.”
Davidge has previously criticised the governance of the square by the public non-financial corporation Fed Square Pty ltd, writing that “ In recent years the square’s cultural and civic objectives have been marginalized as the focus at the square has shifted. Propelled by the narrative that the square is losing money, more and more “revenue-generating initiatives”3 and promotions have been taking place at the site…”
The review of Federation Square was co-chaired by Jill Garner and governance and financial expert Tim Eddy and including concultation with “community, cultural, tourism, design, planning, hospitality and government stakeholders,” as well as local, interstate and international visitors. More

The City of Sydney has released concept designs of a multi-purpose recreation centre in Alexandria by Collins and Turner Architects.
Sitting beside Sheas Creek, on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the project will see the adaptive reuse of an industrial warehouse, which consists of a large volume space which will be converted into indoor courts, along with a low-rise two-storey showroom space to the street frontage.
The wareshouse will be transformed to house four indoor multi-purpose courts, fitness, recreation and community spaces. The project will also include public domain upgrades and increased green space.

Council bought the building in 2018, having identified a need for more sporting facilities in the area, and engaged Collins and Turner Architects to design the warehouse’s transformation in December through a competitive tender process.

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Huntley Street Recreation Centre concept design by Collins and Turner Architects.

The design will prioritize transparency, with strong visual and spatial connection between internal and external spaces and increased access to natural ventilation and light.
Early concept renders show a sculptural frontage and verandah formed of multi-coloured battens, creating a “vibrant and welcoming” facility that will promote active recreation.
The concept design was presented to the Design Advisory Panel in April and received positive endorsement. The concept design goes before the council on 24 August, with the council report recommending that councillors endorse the proposed works for the purpose of proceeding with design development and the lodgement of a development application.

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