Evelyn Reynolds

Liverpool Civic Place, a $600 million development that combines council chambers, community facilities, commercial offices and a hotel, is taking shape, with the first stage of the precinct topping out on 17 May.
Designed by FJC Studio (formerly FJMT Studio), Liverpool Civic Place will set two office towers, a public library and an art gallery around a new public square.
The most prominent building on the corner of Scott and Macquarie Streets will be the new library, distinctive for its circular plan and offset levels.

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Liverpool Civic Place by FJC Studio. Image:

FJC Studio

Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun said the precinct, which is being developed in a public-private partnership between Liverpool City Council and developer Built, would be fitting for Sydney’s so-called “third CBD.”
“South West Sydney is one of Sydney’s fastest-growing districts, and the opening of the Western Sydney International Airport and Aerotropolis has catalysed investment in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries that will also generate significant employment and economic opportunities for the south-west region,” he said.
“Liverpool will be at the centre of this growth and will strategically connect businesses from east to west. It will also be home to one of the city’s fastest-growing and most inclusive populations, which is expected to double to half a million people in the next 20 years. It represents the modern face of multicultural Australia, with more than 40 percent of our residents born overseas and half of our population speaking a language other than English.”

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Liverpool Civic Place by FJC Studio. Image:

FJC Studio

The first commercial office tower is expected to be completed later in 2023. Stage one will also include the opening of the new council chambers and offices, public library, art gallery and public square.
Stage two of the precinct will include a nine-storey hotel and the second commercial tower, with construction expected to begin shortly.
“Liverpool Civic Place will also be one of Greater Sydney’s most connected precincts, offering just a 30-minute connection to Sydney Airport and the new Western Sydney International Airport, less than four minutes’ walk to Liverpool train station and direct access to the M5, M7 and new M12 motorway connection to the new airport,” said Built development director Jono Cottee. More

The Western Australian Planning Commission has approved a proposal to build the state’s largest spa facility: the $25 million Tawarri Hot Springs, designed by Plus Architecture.
Looking out over the Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River in the ritzy Perth suburb of Dalkeith, the facility will be built on the site of the run-down Tawarri Reception Centre – once home to the historic open-air Dalkeith Hot Pool, which was known for attracting skinny dippers.
The facility will feature pools, saunas and Turkish baths alongside a restaurant, rooftop bar, cafe and day spa. It will cater to up to 220 guests at a time.
The built form will comprise a series of orthogonal pavilions, which Aspect Studios carefully integrated with the landscape design. Plus Architecture Perth director and project lead Patric Przeradzki said the design aimed to emphasize the site’s natural beauty through an interplay of natural materials.
“We have focused on a series of design contrasts in this project, such as hot and cold, dark and light, indoor and outdoor,” he said. “These encourage a sense of curiosity as guests explore the different pavilions and routes they can take across the site.”
Plus Architecture looked to Europe for inspiration, incorporating features seen in spas in France and Italy.

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Tawarri Hot Springs by Plus Architecture. Image:

KiP Creating

“Our research enabled us to understand how these wellness destinations serve both the individual and the community,” said Przeradzki.
“People use these places to relax in the spa, but they also want to explore the space, take photos and socialize. It was therefore also important to give equal attention to the moments that exist between the ‘spa’ experiences, such as dining and leisure time.”
Spearheaded by property developers Barry Jones and Kathryn Gunn, the spa proposal has proved controversial. The City of Nedlands council opposed the project, fearing floods and loss of public access to the foreshore.
At a public meeting on Thursday 18 May, Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle labelled the project a “monstrosity of concrete” and said its goal of 6 Green Stars amounted to “greenwashing,” WA Today reported.
The redevelopment of Tawarri Reception Centre was first proposed in 2016. The council refused to lease the land for the spa proposal in 2022 but was overruled by the state government, which deemed the project to be of state significance.
The State Development Assessment Unit unanimously approved the project on Thursday. Co-owner Kathryn Gunn said the Tawarri Hot Springs had already generated enthusiasm in Perth.
“While we expect to attract visitors from interstate and overseas, the Tawarri Hot Springs has been designed for and by the people of Western Australia and Dalkeith – using local materials and stories to deliver a peaceful and sustainable wellness destination for the suburb we’re proud to call home,” she said.
“There’s nothing like it in WA, which is why we are so excited to be working with our community to deliver the project.” More

The Australian exhibition has opened at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale with an immersive installation that reconstructs the semi-fictional “Queenstown.” At the end of the second Elizabethan Age, when the voices of First Peoples call for truth-telling and self-determination and the climate crisis feels increasingly like an unwinnable race, Unsettling Queenstown explores colonialism and its […] More

Melbourne Design Fair
More than 150 designers from across Australia and around the world will be showing their work at the Melbourne Design Fair, running from 18 to 21 May at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The fair is an annual platform for designers, galleries, design agencies and organizations to promote and sell collectible design pieces. Pick up a beautiful piece of glassware from Adelaide’s Jam Factory, a unique piece of jewellery from Munich-based Helen Britton or a transformative room divider from Melbourne designer Nicole Lawrence.
Waste Dream: from waste to furniture
Waste Dream is an exhibition presented by Melbourne furniture store Cult Design in partnership with Mater, a Danish company specializing in circular-economy furniture. Mater makes furniture made from fibrous waste materials such as coffee bean shells, fishing nets, sawdust and beer kegs. Book in for a free guided exhibition tour with Mater’s Ole Bjerg.

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Circular Materials exhibition by Cult x Mater. Image:

Cult x Mater

(No Things) Matters
These three annual design exhibitions are prompted by one question: “What matters to you?” (No Things) Matters is the first in the series, followed by (Some Things) Matters and (All Things) Matters in the coming years. Taking over the ground floor of the Villa Alba Museum, the first instalment hosts “a tactile cornucopia of material samples, interpreted tools, experimental forms, and visual documentation.”
Design House
Presented by Fitzroy gallery Oigåll Projects, Design House features 10 designers’ works – not as detached objects on pedestals to politely examine, but as functional art performing its function. “Design often gets the shitty end of the stick, plopped into white wall galleries to be examined at a 40-centimetre to 1.5-metre clearance,” says Oigåll Projects. “This is stupid. These objects inform our lives, improve them, sometimes inconvenience them but always enrich them. You need to pick ’em up, turn them on, move them out of the way of the screen while watching Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4. Not just look at them: get a chux on it, Daryl. See how she cleans up!”

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Viv’s Place by ARM Architecture will be discussed at Social Housing Deserves Good Design! Image:

Tatjana Plitt

Social Housing Deserves Good Design!
Well-designed social housing creates “happier, safer, healthier and wealthier citizens.” Responding to a new wave of high-quality social and affordable developments, this panel shines a light on the transformative potential of social housing. Presented by placemaking consultancy Village Well, the panel will include Vanessa Brotto, CEO of Haven: Home Safe; Jack Panton, director of Launch Housing; Jesse Judd, director of ARM Architecture; and Village Well CEO Valli Morphett.
Open Table
Flack Studio presents this curated exhibition, which responds to the idea of gathering around a table. Works of art and design will facilitate conversation and connection through creative responses to the table and the memories, rituals and habits we associate with it.
Numbulwar Pop-up Studio and Exhibition
Numbulwar Numburindi Arts, a collective of artists out of the east coast of the Northern Territory, is putting on a pop-up studio, exhibition and weaving circle in the Tait showroom. A focus of the collaboration will be an exhibition of master weavers Joy and Rose Wilfred’s works, which reimagine Tait’s iconic Tidal chair.

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The Silo Project is a group exhibition housed in six former grain silos in inner-city Melbourne. Image:

Josee Vesely-Manning

The Silo Project
The Silo Project is a group exhibition housed in six former grain silos in inner-city Melbourne. The work is specific to the historic site, while also presenting new and experimental design strategies. “Implications of material obsolescence and industrial labour, urban ‘renewal’ and gentrification and our collective response to the built environment are all suggested,” state the curators.
See the full program here. More

What does it mean to “reset” in the wake of a crisis – to return to “life as usual” in the face of changing social, economic and environmental climates?
The Architecture Symposium: Reset, curated by Jemima Retallack of Retallack Thompson and Aaron Peters of Vokes and Peters, will examine the residential work of architects and designers who question the idea of “usual” and challenge our perceptions of housing for the future.
Taking place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 28 July 2023, the one-day symposium features local and international speakers who have been invited to share “diverse and engaging stories about the home, reminding us, perhaps, of things forgotten, overlooked or misunderstood.”
“They will inspire us to reconsider the assumptions of the architect, the agency of the occupant, and the public role of the (supposedly) ‘private’ building,” the curators said.

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Torre Huergo 475 by Adamo-Faiden. Image: Adamo-Faiden

Among the keynote speakers will be Marcelo Faiden of Adamo-Faiden (Buenos Aires, Argentina), whose radical apartment buildings feature unprogrammed space for maximum flexibility. The practice’s Once Building, in the Buenos Aires barrio of Núñez, even resists the label “apartment building,” with its six modular units designed to be used as either apartments or offices.
Faced with a COVID-era exodus to the suburbs, Faiden advocates for a renewed focus on the city.
“Through [the city’s] density, we can have an intelligent usage of the territory, of the planet and its resources,” Faiden said in a 2021 lecture. “I believe architecture plays a fundamental role in enriching the urban culture.”
Hailing from New Zealand, Spacecraft Architects directors Caroline Robertson and Tim Gittos will discuss projects like their recent Block Party, which offers a potential alternative to developer-driven projects by fostering communality in medium-density housing.
“With a developer-driven model, the cost of a given housing unit is the cost of development plus a profit margin,” Gittos told ArchitectureAU. “In this model, which is loosely cohousing, you get the housing at cost price – there’s no profit margin. Whatever that leaves you, in the way of change, you can spend on the housing itself and make it better or make improved amenity.”

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Annerley House by Zuzana and Nicholas. Image:

Christopher Frederick Jones

From Australia, keynote speakers will include Chris Major and David Welsh of Welsh and Major and Nigel Bertram and Marika Neustupny of NMBW Architecture Studio.
Presenting case studies will be Zuzana Kovar, director of Zuzana and Nicholas; Kate Fitzgerald, director of W­­hispering Smith; and Andrew Power, who made a splash with his first project in Australia, a humble suburban take on the Palladian villa called House with a Guest Room.
Tickets for The Architecture Symposium: Reset are on sale now.
The Architecture Symposium: Reset is a Design Speaks program presented by Architecture Media, publisher of ArchitectureAU. It is supported by major partner Planned Cover; supporting partners Tasmanian Timber, Galvin Engineering, and Parkwood Doors; and hotel partner Ovolo Woolloomooloo. More

The restoration of Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion and the transformation of a rusty 1901 water tank into a “sound chapel” are among the 17 winners of the 2023 National Trust Heritage Awards.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects received the Judges’ Choice Award for the Bondi Pavilion restoration, described as “an incredible project that has completely revived this iconic building.”
The winner of the Adaptive Re-use category is Cobar Sound Chapel, a permanent sound art installation in Cobar, New South Wales created by composer and sound artist Georges Lentz in collaboration with Glenn Murcutt.

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Cobar Sound Chapel by Georges Lentz with Glenn Murcutt. Image:

Anthony Browell

Other winners include a gleaming six-metre-high sculpture by Aboriginal artist Judy Watson and a restored Art Deco Greek café in Gundagai.
The winner in the Advocacy category is the Millers Point Community Resident Action Group, whose “Don’t Block The Rocks” campaign sought to protect The Rocks from “developers’ greed” just as Jack Mundey and the Green Bans did in the 1970s.
“Congratulations to this year’s 17 winners and thank you to all of those who entered the awards,” said National Trust (NSW) CEO Debbie Mills.
“We saw a huge range of projects, and judges were truly impressed by the dedication and imagination that has gone into preserving special places for everyone.”
NSW heritage minister Penny Sharp said the projects showed the diversity of heritage across the state.
“These winning projects are a reminder of the many ways we can interpret and protect our shared stories. From Sydney to Gundagai, these projects show that it is possible – and imperative – to bring heritage to life for the people of New South Wales to enjoy and explore,” Sharp said.
Architect Matt Devine chaired the jury, which featured Barrina South, Caitlin Allen, Charles Pickett, David Burdon, Kathryn Pitkin and Lisa Harrold.
The 2023 winners are:
Judges’ Choice
Bondi Pavilion Restoration and Conservation project – entered by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Aboriginal Heritage
bara Monument for the Eora – entered by Judy Watson, Hetti Perkins, City of Sydney, City Plan Heritage, UAP

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bara Monument for the Eora – entered by Judy Watson, Hetti Perkins, City of Sydney, City Plan Heritage, UAP. Image:

Chris Southwood

Adaptive Re-use
Cobar Sound Chapel – entered by Cobar Sound Chapel Ltd
Advocacy
Don’t Block the Rocks – entered by Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc
Conservation – Built Heritage
“Ways Terrace” 12–20 Point Street, Pyrmont: Conservation and Upgrade Project – entered by Land and Housing Corporation, Department of Planning and Environment
Millers Point Townhouse – entered by Design 5 Architects

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Don’t Block the Rocks – entered by Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc. Image:

Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc.

Conservation – Interiors and Objects
The Yellow Dress Project – entered by National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
Conservation – Landscape
Northern Rivers Rail Trail, Tweed section – entered by Tweed Shire Council
Education and Interpretation
Remembered and Revisited: Victoria Theatre Newcastle – entered by Out of the Square Media, Century Venues and Gavin Patton
Events, Exhibitions and Tours
Building Bridges Emu Projection – entered by Clarence Valley Council
Mulaa Giilang: Wiradjuri stories of the night sky – entered by Orange Regional Museum
Resources and Publications
Storyplace – entered by Museums and Galleries of NSW
Gunyah Goondie and Wurley – entered by Thames and Hudson Australia

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Remembered and Revisited, Victoria Theatre Newcastle – entered by Out of the Square Media, Century Venues and Gavin Patton. Image:

Courtesy National Trust

President’s Prize
Restoration of the Niagara Cafe, Gundagai – entered by Luke Walton and Kym Fraser
Lifetime Achievement
Ian Stapleton
Heritage Skills
Ken Ellis
Cathy Donnelly Memorial Award
Sharon Veale More

Melbourne Design Week returns from 18 May with an 11-day program of talks, tours, exhibitions and workshops touching on all corners of design. Architecture Media associate editor Georgia Birks presents 10 events you won’t want to miss.

“From Country, materials are taken, transformed, and to Country, they ultimately return.” Presented by Wardle, this discussion will explore the stories that materials tell about the environment, the people who make them, and the transactional exchanges in their production and disposal. Practice partners John Wardle and Meaghan Dwyer will be joined by architectural graduate and researcher Michael McMahon, a descendant of the Bundjalung people. Rory Hyde of the University of Melbourne will moderate the discussion.

“We believe that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we design and acquire architecturally designed homes,” says Kirby Roper, founder of digital architecture platform @home. This panel discussion features architecture and digital technologies experts, who will share their insights on the latest developments in AI and how they can be applied to the field of architecture. There are three panelists: Kirby Roper and Evan Harridge of @home, and Peter Raisbeck of Melbourne School of Design.

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Artists weaving on the beach at Numbulwar. Image:

Courtesy of Numbulwar Numburindi Arts.

Visiting Numbulwar Numburindi artists Rose Wilfred, Joy Wilfred and Janette Murrungun host this weaving circle – an educational conversation and making experience. Artists will share their skills and processes with participants, who will have the opportunity to talk with the artists about their material harvesting and traditional practices. Numbulwar Numburindi Arts is a collective of artists based on the east coast of the Northern Territory. The artists harvest ghost nets and reclaimed fishing nets from their shores to create sustainable woven works.

“How do we build and embrace community participation around civic renewal and urban transformation?” Featuring thinkers across culture, infrastructure and communications, this panel will discuss the concept of “deliberate development” and highlight the role of design in consultation strategies. Speakers include Mary Parker, communications director for the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation; Justine Dalla Riva, CEO of the Victorian Pride Centre; and Caroline Bommes of Acciona Energía Australia.

Women and people of colour lead the conversation in this exhibition, critiquing the hyper-individualism of capitalism and calling for a more collaborative approach grounded in the principles of collectivism. How can the knowledge systems and cultural practices of Indigenous and diverse communities shape a more sustainable and equitable society? Perspectives is presented by Collective Futures and The Australian Institute of Architects.

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The Victorian Pride Centre by Brearley Architects and Urbanists and Grant Amon Architects. Justine Dalla Riva, CEO of the Victorian Pride Centre, will be speaking on social licence. Image:

John Gollings

“Would you rather embrace deep-fake technology, or destroy it forever? Design single-mindedly for accessibility, or for aesthetics? Make design awards free, or ban them altogether?” At this event, designers engage in debate on issues big and small, from AI to the environment. Which way will you go? Would You Rather? is presented by Re.Design.

Presented by Australian tableware company The Good Plate, this unique evening is a celebration of dining and tableware design. After an interactive four-course meal, guests will receive keepsakes to take home: the bowls and plates they used.

“If I am more fortunate than others, I need to build a longer table, not a taller fence.” Flack Studio presents this curated exhibition, which responds to the idea of gathering around a table. Works of art and design will facilitate conversation and connection through creative responses to the table and the memories, rituals and habits we associate with it.

Presented by Jingwen (Jina) He, this event will examine the roles of public art, “placemaking” and “activation” in shaping cities. Speakers include Jo Muir, project lead of creative urban places at the City of Melbourne; Stacie Ng, design strategist at Relative Projects; Lynda Roberts, senior adviser of creative communities at RMIT University; and Simon Abrahams, creative director and CEO of Melbourne Fringe.

Set beside the Birrarung, this two-hour workshop will speculate on a near-future flooded world. Participants will engage in “play design” thinking to intimately reconnect with water. The workshop will begin with the launching of a zine that recollects stories of water care in Melbourne. The zine includes a game to be played along the Birrarung, in which participants are invited to reimagine their own relationships with water through interrelational and intergenerational play. More

A massive project is unfolding in Sydney’s Western Parkland region. The building of a new city from the ground up is central to an infrastructure-led restructuring of metropolitan Sydney. The catalysts are the Western Sydney City Deal and the Western Sydney Airport being built alongside the new Bradfield City.
Bradfield city is being developed on unceded Aboriginal land with complex ongoing settler-colonial legacies and high stakes for diverse First Nations communities – including the largest urban Indigenous population in Australia. Yet it is named after a colonial figure with no connection to the land.
Our case study research acknowledges what is happening in the Western Parkland development as being at the forefront of urban and infrastructure governance across Australia. It’s particularly notable how all three tiers of government – federal, state and local – have come together in this massive project.
Yet we have also identified a range of concerns, including public consultation, project funding, urban heat and water demand, the need for affordable and public housing, and other social equity issues.

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The proposed Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility by Hassell, which promises to be Bradfield’s first building. Image: Hassell

City’s name is not a good start
The case study is part of a three-year (2020-2023) research project, the Infrastructure Governance Incubator, across three universities – Sydney, Melbourne and Monash. Our study includes 55 interviews with key stakeholders from all tiers of government, as well as non-government and community voices.
Participants from across the board have seen the “Bradfield” naming as a shameful decision. It’s in stark contrast to the positive steps towards supporting Indigenous voices throughout the project. These steps include the award-winning Recognise Country guidelines, Indigenous-led design projects, a Koori Perspectives Circle, and new Indigenous roles within government authorities to support engagement efforts.
In Australian cities, it is critical we explore the role of infrastructure in perpetuating settler-coloniality and in making space for Indigenous-led futures. The complex challenges of a case like this can inform important discussions about how we might improve infrastructure planning to produce just and sustainable approaches.
Our research participants saw a need for governments to give meaningful attention to building relationships and developing cross-cultural understandings. This involves early conversations with Aboriginal groups and adequate resourcing for engagement. Too often, these groups are brought on late in processes after key decisions are already made.
Interviewees stressed the importance of governments “learning to listen”. This requires having the openness to hear what is being said even if inconvenient. Many participants wanted to see Indigenous voices empowered in decision-making, not simply advisory.
“Listening” also means “listening to Country”. Part of demonstrating commitment to relationship building involves sustainably protecting Country. Early and ongoing public scrutiny is essential to ensure the project’s short-term approaches align with long-term perspectives on sustainable outcomes. It may also mean taking steps more slowly and carefully to get it right.

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Bradfield city centre concept image by Hatch Roberts Day. Image:

Hatch Roberts Day

The state government could take some key actions. These include committing resources to advancing the many Indigenous land claims and applying exemptions to development barriers such as biodiversity offset obligations. These currently treat First Nation stakeholders like a developer, ignoring their long and ongoing care for Country.
Many participants also raised serious environmental concerns, including water management and extreme heat in the new city. Heatwaves can be 5-10℃ hotter there than the rest of Sydney.
Some fundamentally questioned a massive greenfield development in such a vulnerable environment. Others saw this as a chance to make much-needed transformational changes to our planning systems.
Focus on jobs overshadows other issues
The political focus is on creating jobs in Western Sydney. Participants generally agreed it’s important to rebalance the metropolitan job market and economy.
However, many were concerned this focus has come at the expense of attention to other aspects of inequity, including access to affordable and public housing, public health and social services.
In terms of metropolitan planning, the centralised way the new strategy was adopted is a problem. The concept came from the then Greater Sydney Commission and was supported by the region’s councils.
The communities of the wider Sydney region, however, were not given strategic alternatives to consider. In particular, the concept was not put to traditional Indigenous custodians before being adopted.
One of the alternatives might have acknowledged the outer west as the hottest part of Sydney. It could instead have considered development in cooler parts such as Dural or the Central Coast. These sites might have been better placed to manage global warming challenges.
Governance is still a work in progress
Our participants agreed the complexity of urban challenges requires a concerted effort to better integrate infrastructure decision-making. Part of the challenge is to overcome legacies of fragmented urban governance. It’s a result of divisions of responsibilities between tiers of government and siloed decision-making across and within these tiers.
The Western Sydney City Deal is generally seen as a major step towards better integration of all levels of government. Nevertheless, participants note important shortfalls.
City Deal funding committed to date is likely too little, given the major place-making ambitions. While it’s useful for short-term projects, local governments need solutions for their major long-term funding issues, especially in the face of new growth pressures. Lack of funding fuels existing cultures of competition between authorities.
The Western Sydney City Deal has had some welcome successes in improving collaboration between the three levels of government. Local governments have secured “seats at the table”, where they have been able to renegotiate the terms of collaboration and governance.
However, important questions remain about how governments collaborate with community infrastructure sectors, non-government organisations and community advocates. Many have raised concerns about lack of meaningful inclusion or being engaged too late for meaningful impact.
An example of these issues is the three-year review required under the Western Sydney City Deal signed in 2018. An independent university group completed the review in 2021. It has never been released to the public.
Interviewees told us the review was productive and made useful governance recommendations. However, some suggested it was not released due to state government discomfort with the findings.
We strongly urge the newly elected state government to make the review public and commit to a timely release of all similar documents in future. This will help build trust with the community.
Tooran Alizadeh, Associate Professor in Urbanism and Infrastructure, ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney; Glen Searle, Honorary Associate Professor in Planning, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, and Rebecca Clements, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. More