Evelyn Reynolds

Five Australian landscape architecture practices have been shortlisted in a competition to design a two-hectare park in a new city development near the proposed Western Sydney Airport.
Arcadia Landscape Architecture, Aspect Studios, Hassell Studio, TCL, and Turf Design Studio are vying for the opportunity to create the “jewel in the crown” for Bradfield City Centre – a key arrival point for the development, and an important arts and culture hub.
Western Sydney Parklands Authority chair Jennifer Westacott said, “Investment in public spaces is important because a well-designed public space brings people and importantly businesses in, boosting the economic value of everything around it.
“Central Park is important to Bradfield City Centre because for many, it will be the first impression they have of Australia when they arrive from Western Sydney International Airport. It also needs to be a beautiful and functional space for visitors, workers and residents to gather, to play or rest and act as the perfect backdrop for performances and pop-up events.”

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Competition scheme for Bradfield Central Park by Aspect Studios. Image:

Courtesy Western Sydney Parkland Authority

The competing design teams will be consulting with Traditional Custodians throughout the competition process.
“As the principal gathering place with a strong identity celebrating First Nations people, recognizing culture and connection to Country, it was vital the Central Park design tells the stories of Country,” Westacott continued.
The competition will be judged by a jury that comprises James Corner (New York City’s High Line landscape architect), Abbie Galvin (NSW government architect), Kate Lucraft (Fluminis Design Advisory Services), Libby Gallagher (Gallagher Studio) and Clarence Slockee (Jiwah, and presenter on Gardening Australia).
“This is not just landscape, planting, and greening. Central Park will have significant cultural, economic, and environmental value,” said juror James Corner.
Bradfield City Centre is set to become Australia’s newest city, with the construction of the first building underway. Central Park is expected to be complete in late 2026. More

Held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne from 15 to 17 June, Design Show Australia is the nation’s largest exhibition for interiors, architecture and fit-out solutions, with a full program of speaker sessions across three stages. Here, we pick some of our stand highlights from the 2023 Melbourne show.
Nau / Cult

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Pa range from Nau by Cult Design, designed by Timothy Robertson. Image:

Amy Hemmings

High-end furniture retailer Cult showed an exclusive preview of its Pa range for its in-house brand Nau. Pa is designed by Sydney-based designer Timothy Robertson in a tribute to his father who is a furniture maker, and it is inspired by the peace and calm of Japanese gardens. The range of lounge and dining chairs and bar stools is made with native Australian timbers and American hardwoods, including silky oak, Victorian ash, blackwood and other standard Nau finishes. Pa is available on pre-order, with stock arriving in October 2023.
Klaylife

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Klaylife at Design Show Australia. Image:

Courtesy National Media

Klaylife is founded by Melbourne-based South African expats, who work with a community of women impacted by HIV in Kwazulu-Natal to create hand-beaded clay chandeliers. The pieces are made from raw clay that is then sun-dried and kiln-fired. Klaylife also stocks a range of clay lighting pieces from Spanish designer Pott.
Unox Casa

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Unox at Design Show Australia. Image:

Courtesy National Media

Commercial kitchen equipment manufacture Unox has launched a range of domestic ovens that allows the home cook to elevate their game to the Michelin-star league. Unox Casa’s SuperOven has features for grilling, frying, smoking, dehydrating, steaming and vacuum cleaning, and a built-in hood with carbon filters. All features are fully automated and can be activated with a touch-screen panel. Its Cook Like a Chef digital platform provides a range of demonstration videos, live masterclasses and real-time personal cooking training.
Zome Building Kit / Giant Grass
This do-it-yourself kit is made from precision-cut pieces of bamboo that clip together with nuts and bolts to create a geodesic dome that could be used as a backyard gazebo, a garden structure or a quiet hangout space in the office. The structure is lightweight and easy to assemble without the use of special tools. It is made by Giant Grass, which was founded by Australian-educated architecture graduates from India.
Space lounge

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Space lounge at Design Show Australia. Image:

Courtesy National Media

After a long day traversing the exhibition hall, you’re going to need a comfortable place to rest your feet, and the Space Furniture lounge was perfect for that. Featuring a collection of sofas and armchairs from B&B Italia, the Space lounge was a great place to sit, lie back and read a copy of Artichoke magazine. More

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced it will be purchasing a Karl Langer-designed former furniture showroom, which will be used for its new Queensland headquarters. The building at 620 Wickham Street in Fortitude Valley was originally designed by Karl Langer for West’s Furniture in 1953. A 2010 restoration by Riddel Architecture earned it a […] More

Bates Smart has designed a new commercial tower at Sydney’s Chifley Square in the CBD.
The proposed building will be a companion to the existing Chifley tower, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and Travis Partners and built in 1992.
The project will create 50,000 square metres of office space, with a reimagined podium that connects to the surrounding public realm.
“Our design challenge is to create an urban ensemble with Chifley North that simultaneously complements and respects it, while being clearly of the 21st century in terms of people amenity and environmental performance,” Bates Smart said in the development application for the project.

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The proposed Chifley South tower by Bates Smart. Image:

Bates Smart

The existing podium will be partially demolished and refurbished to create more public spaces. An existing shopping mall will be replaced with a double-height arcade that connects Hunter and Bent Streets. An urban room will create a meeting place in the middle of the arcade.
“The new Chifley verandah creates a more open and inviting entry to the Chifley precinct. Its transparent and operable facade engages with the public space while its masonry frame is consistent with the existing podium.”
Bates Smart won a design excellence competition for the project. Its scheme was unanimously chosen over rival proposals by Architectus and Kohn Pederson Fox, FJMT, Grimshaw, Koichi Takada and Tzannes.

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The proposed Chifley South tower by Bates Smart. Image:

Bates Smart

The jury found the scheme “achieved the objectives and principles of the Brief with interesting and rigorous design thinking without directly mimicking the existing Chifley North tower.”
“The scheme by Bates Smart was praised for balancing the objective for a sympathetic response to Chifley North with a modern interpretation of the existing building that results in a contemporary building for this iconic location in the Sydney skyline,” said the jury.
“The scheme through its form and selection of materials achieves sophistication and sits harmoniously as an urban ensemble with Chifley North and in its context, whilst representing a modern building of its era. The scheme also achieves the important objectives of optimising activation to contribute to a vibrant public domain, including a welcoming through-site link which has the potential to energise the precinct.”
“This development is set to re-energize the iconic Chifley precinct and contribute to the vibrancy of the Sydney CBD,” said David Harrison, managing director and group CEO of Charter Hall, which owns the site. “Chifley South will deliver the highest standard for environmental and social sustainability, security, smart technology, and wellbeing.” More

The Victorian government has unveiled the design for the largest infectious disease centre in the Southern Hemisphere.
The proposed Australian Institute for Infectious Disease (AIID) is designed by Wardle with Wilson Architects, international workplace specialist Studio O+A, and laboratory specialist Perkins and Will.
It will be built next to the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne Biomedical Precinct and will be the largest centre for infectious disease expertise in Australia.
Early concept designs depict a singular tower form with horizontal striations that demarcate the building’s various parts and a facade that will be made from natural, low-carbon materials.

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The proposed Australian Institute for Infectious Disease by Wardle, Wilson Architects, Studio O+A and Perkins and Will. Image:

Courtesy Wardle

The new institute will be a partnership between the University of Melbourne, Doherty Institute and Burnet Institute, which will relocate its headquarters to the new building.
“The relocation of Burnet Institute to the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct as a foundation partner of the AIID is an exciting opportunity that will strengthen collaborations across laboratory-based research and public and global health, and build our capacity to respond to significant global health challenges,” said Margaret Hellard, deputy director of Burnet Institute.
The building will house high-containment facilities, robotic bio-banking, vaccine development facilities, dry laboratories, interview rooms and spaces for community engagement and co-design work.
The ground floor will accommodate collaborative work settings while the floors above will house north-facing laboratories and south-facing work spaces. The building will also be physically connected across multiple levels to the neighbouring Doherty Institute, designed by Grimshaw and Billard Leece Partnership. Public outreach spaces and an external roof garden will be located at the top habitable level of the building, and collaborative working spaces will be scattered throughout.

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The proposed Australian Institute for Infectious Disease by Wardle, Wilson Architects, Studio O+A and Perkins and Will. Image:

Courtesy Wardle

“Despite its vast scale the AIID building will provide warm and empathetic spaces to support human endeavour, for it is human endeavor that will unlock the challenges we face,” said Wardle founding partner John Wardle.
The proposed centre will enable faster, more effective diagnostic tests, treatments, vaccines and public health interventions. It will be home to more than 1,000 scientists, academics, students and public health experts.
Meaghan Dwyer, project director and partner at Wardle, said the co-location of the founding partners will help protect Australia and the region from infectious diseases and future pandemics.

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The proposed Australian Institute for Infectious Disease by Wardle, Wilson Architects, Studio O+A and Perkins and Will. Image:

Courtesy Wardle

“Interdisciplinarity is essential for groundbreaking research. This building will provide a home for the three foundation partners while supporting collaboration between them and their many precinct and industry partners. This vast collective intelligence will advance Australia’s capability for detecting, preventing, and responding to pandemics and infectious diseases,” she said.
The $650 million project is funded by the Victorian government to the tune of $400 million, while the remaining $250 million will be funded by the founding partners.
“Victoria has long been the medical research capital of Australia – this world-class centre for research and innovation will ensure medical research breakthroughs keep happening right here in Victoria,” said Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.
Construction is due to begin in 2025, and the building is expected to be complete in 2027. More

The Australian Institute of Architects has announced Denise Scott Brown as the first keynote speaker for its 2023 Australian Architecture Conference, themed “precedent.” Scott Brown and the late Robert Venturi are among the most influential architects of the twentieth century because of their work and theoretical texts. With Venturi and Steve Izenour, Scott Brown co-authored […] More

Entries are now open for the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, the annual program celebrating home-grown design in all its forms. Now in their 27th year, the awards are open to designers, architects, design studios and businesses across eight categories: architectural design; communications design; design strategy; digital design; fashion design; product design; service design; and student […] More

Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting have unveiled their design for the biggest public cemetery in Melbourne in 100 years.
The team won an international design competition for the project in 2021.
Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust has appointed the consortium to design the first stage of the 128-hectare greenfield site in Melbourne’s western fringes, adjacent to Gilgai Woodlands Nature Conservation Reserve at Harkness.
The design has been informed by Wurundjeri culture and champions cultural awareness, knowledge exchange and understanding, the team said in a statement.
Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust also hopes to “reimagine” the public cemetery, transforming it from a “memorial park” to a place of multiple uses: grief and bereavement support, diverse communities’ events, exercise and recreation activities, and local habitat and ecology conservation.

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Arnold’s creek in Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting’s design for a Harkness cemetery Image:

Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting

“Cemeteries are one of the few places in urban areas that bring so many communities, histories, belief systems and lives together in harmony, to respectfully reflect and meaningfully celebrate what is important to them,” said Andrew Eriksen, CEO of Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT).
“GMCT’s cemetery project at Harkness is firmly rooted in our values of compassion, respect, integrity, and sustainability. It will provide the communities in that region the same social value as all our sites – a place dedicated in perpetuity to remembrance, thoughtfully designed and supported by dedicated staff.”

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A proposed smoking ceremony space in Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting’s design for a Harkness cemetery. Image:

Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting

The design team said, “The reimagined cemetery will be a place that repairs Country, connects Country to people to and people to one another. A place that adapts and reflects our changing society.”
“The design comprises three axes – ecological, cultural, and community. The Cultural Line presents a dramatic threshold that contrasts and amplifies the vastness of Melbourne’s West. The Natural Axis, Arnolds Creek, is a demonstration of the commitment to Caring for Country and a sustainable future. The centrepiece of the cemetery is the Core, which is positioned at the confluence of the three axes and celebrates Country and elevates the beauty of the landscape.
“The reimagined cemetery will embody fundamentals of Circular Economy – Regeneration, Resilience, Sustainability. The new cemetery aspires to be off grid, utilizing on-site sources for energy and water. A site-wide integrated water management plan will be created to capture, cleanse, infiltrate and detain water on site for reuse.” More