Evelyn Reynolds

The Northern Territory government has filed a development application for the proposed National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Mparntwe/Alice Springs.
The cultural institution, to be located at 7 Wills Terrace, will be dedicated to the display of works created by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The design team includes BVN, Susan Dugdale and Associates (SDA), and landscape architects Aspect Studios and Clarsen and Clarsen. The key themes prioritised during the design process were “Designing with Country, habitable gardens, identifiable presence, rooms with a view and logical planning.”
The main building is a five-storey gallery that consists of retail and cafe spaces at ground level, event spaces on the fourth floor, workshop spaces and a central spine atrium. The gallery envelope was inspired by a woven basket, which is reflected through the open weave of diagrid glazing and strategic apertures on the facade. A separate services building will also be established on the western side of the main gallery building.
Proposed external features include a publicly accessible open-air ampitheatre that overlooks the Todd River, a cultural space and landscape remediation area, on-site parking, a water play area named Kwatye Play and a main pedestrian thoroughfare called the Track, which will feature shade structures, seating and an offshoot network of smaller tracks.
An outdoor public amenities area has been proposed to serve users of the ampitheatre and Kwatye play area. The public amenities area takes the form of three disconnected pods under a floating canopy roof, with the separation of the pods providing greater visual permeability across the site.

View gallery

Shaded public amenities area. Image:

Courtesy Northern Territory government

Plans state that the National Aboriginal Art Gallery (NAAG) will empower and support the advancement of First Nations people as it will be governed, managed, curated and staffed by Indigenous Australians.
According to the December 2023 design report, the facility “will be an example of architectural excellence for national cultural institutions; a landmark building synonymous with Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and First Nations art, both nationally and internationally.
“The site includes a number of sacred sites. In addition, the surrounding landscape is culturally inscribed. Measures to protect the sacred sites and, where culturally appropriate, share stories will be incorporated into the design and landscaping.”
The development application is on exhibition until 5 April 2024. If approved, construction is expected to begin in late 2027 and the gallery is anticipated to open in early 2028. More

An exhibition displaying student designs and a symposium featuring architects who completed recent projects in Blacktown will soon be held in Sydney, as part of Western Sydney University and Powerhouse Parramatta’s Urban Transformation Summer School.
Now in its second year, the annual summer school is offered to Western Sydney University (WSU) Masters students studying architecture and industrial design. The two-week program supports students aspiring to become urban designers by offering them practical industry experience and guidance from established academics and practitioners on both a national and international scale.
Each year, the program engages a council from Western Sydney to develop a real-world design challenge for students to solve, using the local urban area as a model.
In 2024, 21 summer school students collaborated with Blacktown City Council to take on a design challenge focused on a pedestrian thoroughfare in Mount Druitt — from Mount Druitt train station to Mount Druitt Hospital. Students evaluated the walking route and proposed interventions that could improve the spatial, environmental, and practical amenity of the thoroughfare, while designing in spaces for rest, engagement and environmental protection.
Western Sydney University professor Michael Chapman said the Masters students were required to develop micro-architectures that have potential to optimise the landscape. “They were given a limit of 10 square metres for the footprint, but could site their project anywhere across the CBD. As these architectures became more resolved and considered, they reinforced the power of small things to make a meaningful distance,” Chapman said.
The designs will be presented in an exhibition between 20 March and 8 April 2024 at the WSU Engineering Innovation Hub in Parramatta.

View gallery

Woodcroft Neighbourhood Centre by Carter Williamson Architects. Image:

Brett Boardman

On the same day at 2 pm, a symposium titled Becoming Blacktown will be held at the university. The symposium will focus diverse architectural and design approaches to Blacktown’s built form, with presentations from practices responsible for recent projects, such as McGregor Coxall on Warrick Lane Plaza, Sam Crawford on Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre, Chrofi and JMD on Mount Druitt Town Centre, ARM and Architectus on Blacktown Exercise Sport and Technology Hub, Lahznimmo on the Disability Sport Centre of Excellence, Eoghan Lewis on Kings Langley Cricket Pavilion, and Carter Williamson on Woodcroft Community Centre.
For more information about the summer school program, visit the website. More

The federal and Northern Territory governments will jointly allocate $4 billion over 10 years for housing development in remote communities across the Northern Territory, in a move that they say will contribute toward Closing the Gap.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed the funding commitment during a visit to the Northern Territory’s Binjari community, near Katherine. Under the initiative, 270 new homes will be constructed each year, with the aim of reducing overcrowding in houses by half. The funds will also assist with housing repairs and maintenance.
“This landmark agreement between the commonwealth, Northern Territory government and Aboriginal Housing NT delivers a significant investment in remote housing in the NT over the next decade,” Albanese said. “The Northern Territory has the highest level of overcrowding in the country which we are working to halve by building 270 houses each year.”
The Wilya Janta Housing Collaboration — a not-for-profit Aboriginal cultural consultancy comprising Aboriginal Housing NT, Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation, Emergent Group, Original Power, King and Wood Mallesons, and architecture firms Office and Troppo – has welcomed the funding but is pushing for First Nations involvement during the design and planning process.
Wilya Janta CEO Simon Quilty said the “current model of community engagement in housing design is failing. Homes in remote communities are overcrowded and overheated, fuelling the social, health, and cultural inequities faced by Aboriginal communities.
“While commendable, this funding will only make a difference if governments are genuinely committed to engaging with community and working on innovative solutions to housing design and evaluation. Building houses is one thing, building trust and community is another.”
Jimmy Frank Jupurrurla, a Warumungu man and chair of Wilya Janta, mentioned that while the announcement is a positive step in the right direction, it is crucial that these new houses are well-equipped to withstand extremely hot weather caused by climate change.
“Governments focus too much on cost efficiency and doing things quickly, but in the long run, these houses are making our people sick, our well-being is forgotten. The new houses being built today are not designed for our culture or our climate,” Frank (Jupurrurla) said. “Us Wumpurrarni people really want to work with government.”
The announcement comes after the Australian Institute of Architects made repeated calls for the federal government to contribute $4 billion to First Nations co-designed housing in its 2024 and 2023 pre-budget submissions.
In addition to the $4 billion, the federal government will commit a further $120 million across three years to match the territory government’s annual investment, which enables housing improvements and infrastructure upgrades to be undertaken in remote areas.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said the funding will “make a difference to the lives of so many Aboriginal people living in remote communities. “Increasing the housing supply will ease overcrowding, which we know is a major barrier to closing the gap.”
Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler echoed those sentiments and said the partnership will see the delivery of “2,700 homes in ten years … for more than 10,000 people.”
To support the delivery of the new and improved housing, a partnership agreement will be established between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments, Aboriginal Housing NT, the state’s peak First Nations housing organisation, and Aboriginal Land Councils. The federal government will provide Aboriginal Housing NT $1 million over the next two years to support its role in the partnership agreement.
The governments stated the initiative would create local employment opportunities and support Aboriginal Business Enterprises. More

The National Gallery of Victoria has launched the program for the 2024 Melbourne Design Week, an 11-day schedule of more than 300 talks, tours, exhibitions, installations and workshops.
Themed “Design the world you want” the 2024 design week will focus on energy (how design can champion new technologies in the transition to renewables), ethics (how design can be guided by societal values), and ecology (how design can respond to the physical environment and the influence of nature).
Nigerian architect Toshin Oshinowo will be headlining the 2024 program with a keynote lecture on architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia and diverse design approaches to meet cultural and climatic needs. Oshinowo founded Lagos-based Oshinowo Studio in 2013 and has completed a projects throughout Nigeria. She is known for her socially responsive approaches to architecture, design and urbanism. She was co-curator of the Lagos Biennial in 2019 and in 2023 she curated the second Sharjah Architecture Triennial.

View gallery

DAAR’s Concrete Tent for the Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023, curated by Tosin Oshiwono. Image:

Edmund Sumner

The program also includes a satellite event presented by Open House Melbourne that will explore the relationship between design and death and how spaces of burial can provide insights on how we live.
Design week favourites including Melbourne Art Book Fair and the Melbourne Design Week Film Festival will also return, as well as the announcement of the Melbourne Design Week Award on the opening day. NGV and Stylecraft will also announce the Australian Furniture Design Awards on the eve of design week.
The winner of the 2022 Melbourne Design Week Award, Revival Project, will be back with an exhibition of 100 timber urns made from salvaged Cypress Macrocarpa trees from Box Hill cemetery.

View gallery

The making of 100 Circles for Revival Projects. Image:

Revival Projects

Popular Youtube channel Never Too Small, which focuses on compact living, will present Multi-Functional Pet Furniture – a collection of designs that combine pet housing with aesthetics and affordability.
A public symposium on speculative designs for Birrarung/Yarra River will be held, ahead of an exhibition later in 2024 that challenges eight landscape architects to reimagine and reinvent sites along the river for 2070.
Also along the landscape architecture theme, the Urban Landscape Design Cake Competition invites landscape architecture studios to reimagine an underutilised site in the city as parkland in cake form.
Melbourne Design Week will also extend to regional Victoria with events in Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and Shepparton.
The full program for the 2024 Melbourne Design Week will be available from 11 April. Events are free but some will require bookings. More

From textured brass taps to sleek towel racks, this curated list from Houses issue 156 can uplift kitchen and bathroom projects. Legrabox by Blum Legrabox by Blum. Image: Supplied Legrabox is more than just a box system with elegant drawer sides and superb functionality. Mix colours and materials; use printing, laser texturing and embossing to […] More

The Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) has appointed Kane Constructions as the early works contractor in the development of its Melbourne research facility, the largest infectious disease centre in the Southern Hemisphere.
The $650 million facility will accommodate services aimed at preventing, containing, preparing for and responding to infectious diseases and pandemics. The centre is to be established at 766-780 Elizabeth Street and 213-223 Berkely Street in the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct, nestled among institutions such as the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Illumina and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
The centre is designed by Wardle with Wilson Architects, international workplace specialist Studio O+A and laboratory specialist Perkins and Will. The centre will comprise high-containment laboratories, a human infection challenge unit, areas for robotic bio-banking, vaccine development facilities, dry laboratories, interview rooms and spaces for industry engagement and partnerships.
The building will be physically linked – across multiple levels – to its neighbour the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, designed by Grimshaw and Billard Leece Partnership.
Kane Constructions will prepare the site for development, as well as demolish four existing buildings. The early and enabling works will prioritise sustainability, including diverting at least 90 percent of materials from landfill.
University of Melbourne chief operating officer Paul Axup said it has taken a substantial amount of work spanning several years to get the project to the its current stage.
“Now in 2024, we are thrilled to engage Kane Constructions to lead the enabling and early works that will kick-off on-site activity and really bring this project to life,” Axup said.
University of Melbourne assistant vice chancellor and AIID co-chair James McCluskey said the news facility will “vastly improve the speed, equity and innovation with which we prevent, prepare and respond to future pandemics.”
The project is jointly funded by the Victorian government and the foundation partners – University of Melbourne, Doherty Institute and Burnet Institute – contributing $400 million and $250 million respectively.
Early works, including the demolition of the existing buildings, are expected to be complete by late 2024. All subsequent construction works are anticipated to be finalised by 2027. More

City of Sydney councillors have approved a project to restore the interior of a brick kiln at Sydney Park to create a space for art exhibitions and small-scale community events.
Sydney parks was once home to a large brick-making facility thanks to the abundance of clay soil. The remnant structures, including the brick kilns and chimneys, are locally heritage listed for cultural and historic significance.
The restoration of Down Draught Kiln 2 will be part of the Sydney Park Brick Kilns Precinct Renewal project, originally endorsed by the council in August 2022. Tonkin Zulaikha Greer and JMD Design were appointed to create a concept design for the renewal project.
“The history of the Brick Kilns Precinct has been made visible and celebrated as a sculpture garden. Lost elements such as the railway tracks, the processing plant, and some kiln structures will be reinterpreted in the design, unearthing and linking the narrative of its hidden history,” said Tonkin Zulaikha Greer in a statement on its website.
Since then, the council has undertaken investigation to determine the feasibility of activating one more kiln for community use.

View gallery

The history of the Brick Kilns Precinct has been made visible and celebrated as a sculpture garden. Image:

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer

Down Draught Kiln 2 was identified as the only one of the structures capable of accommodating internal gatherings. The newly endorsed scope of works also includes creating a raised lawn area and plaza spaces for small outdoor gatherings, improving access to Sydney Park from Princes Highway and stabilising the brick kilns and reinstating roofs on the structures. Two larger kilns – the Hardy and Hoffman kilns – will also be restored as part of the project scope.
“This is the largest intact precinct of brick kilns in the state and opening up a small part of it for art exhibitions and other community events is a fantastic result for our communities,” said lord mayor Clover Moore.
Sydney Park has space to move, sporting and fitness facilities, a cycling centre, playground, a skate park, our city farm and a host of native wildlife. This project to restore the brick kilns and chimneys site will further improve this award-winning park.”
Construction on the project will begin within the next year. More

Preliminary designs by Woods Bagot have been released for a mixed-use tower above Sydney’s Pyrmont Metro Station on Union Street – the latest over-station development proposed by Sydney Metro. The Concept State Significant Development Application proposes a tower be developed at the site of 37-69 Union Street, bordered by Edward Street and Pyrmont Bridge Road. […] More