Architecture

Some years ago, I found a recollection from artist Rachel Whiteread, in which she described a lengthy process of making a piece of work resembling the safe, black, furry, childhood hiding space inside a wardrobe. She was seeking to abstract that experience through sculpture. Rachel is an artist whom you might categorize as a “seeker.” Rather than polish the same stone, seemingly making the same piece over and over in different ways, she seeks continually, through different materials, scales and contexts, to express abstract ideas, relationships and thoughts that hover – sometimes for years – just out of reach. Elliat Rich is also a seeker. While Rachel pursued the representation of a sensual, bodily experience, Elliat seeks to express and spark relations. Human to human, human to other-than-human, and, perhaps most importantly, connections between all things. For Elliat, it is the reorienting nature of the relationship stimulated by the object that is the desired outcome. She speaks of this as “designing mythology.”

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A portrait of Elliat Rich taken on the traditional lands of the Arrernte people. Image:

Martina Capurso

Elliat trained at UNSW in object design, and her career has been framed by a series of awards offering her time, space, promotion or other critical resources for practice development. These include being a finalist and people’s choice winner in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award (2008), winner of the Australian Furniture Design Award (2017) and recipient of the Northern Territory Creative Fellowship (2018). She has three arms to her practice: the first is centred around cultural questioning through objects, the second around service (responding to a brief), and the third, Elbow Workshop, is an enterprise she shares with her partner, shoemaker James B. Young. Elliat has continually resisted definition and has not settled within one area of design, developing works from the scale of a delicate glass set for brewing tea (Urban Billy, 2013) to a weighty, one-off chair, rough-hewn from sandstone (Strata Stratum Stratus, 2019).
In 2017, Elliat’s piece Place won the Australian Furniture Design Award. The prize included developing a collection with Stylecraft. Different Thoughts was launched by Stylecraft in 2020, encompassing a credenza, light and rug. Branching out from Place, Elliat also developed a collection for Sophie Gannon Gallery. Here she consciously left her linear working process behind and worked with creative intuition to create Other Places, which captured something of that which she seeks. She describes these pieces as having a kind of sentience, a quality that is impossible to design in, but is alchemic when it happens. Her current search is for a way to develop objects that reflect the “shimmer” in everything, a concept she connected with through an essay by anthropologist Deborah Rose Bird.

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Marta Figueiredo’s colourful, tactile creations provoke joy and delight, inviting viewers to interact, engage and play. But beneath the architectural and anthropomorphic forms is a strong sense of narrative, as Marta explores themes such as sustainability, waste and inclusion. “I’m intrigued by the idea of pushing the boundaries of what an object is traditionally thought to be, and I am particularly interested in elements that contribute to a more rich and layered interaction between the individual and the object,” Marta says.
Born in Portugal and living in Melbourne since 2013, Marta has always been interested in making things. She studied architecture in Porto and practised in Paris, London, Portugal and Melbourne, before establishing her own design practice in 2016 to follow her passion for creating objects that present a narrative and viewpoint.
Marta’s first collection, Prima Familia (2018), emerged from her desire to use burel, a traditional Portuguese wool fabric. Local burel factories have recently been revived in the Portuguese mountains, and the fabric’s vibrant colours and tactility inspired Marta to create life-size totems that abstract the human form. In 2019, The Cossack and Queen joined the family, their exaggerated forms and flamboyant colours prompting people to touch, feel and even hug them. “I was surprised by the emotional connection people had,” Marta says.

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Marta Figueiredo uses design to explore sensorial experience. Image:

Jonathon Griggs

This connection inspired her to think about the relationships people – including her sister, who is autistic – have with objects. Marta created Elementary Abacus (2020), a side table with movable and sensorial elements, to offer a playful, inclusive way of interacting with furniture.
The conceptual narratives of Marta’s designs originate from a topic, question or moment in time. In collaboration with musician and sound designer Jonathon Griggs, Marta developed Windgate during the Melbourne COVID-19 lockdowns, representing the “otherness” of architecture in a desolate urban environment. Like a twisted skyscraper, Windgate has tactile surfaces and interactive soundscapes, and it was performed at MPavilion in 2021.
To use the resin waste from Windgate, Marta designed the Stardust lamp (2021). Similarly, the Assembly chair, which was shortlisted for MPavilion 2021, is made with recycled household and industrial plastic.
Marta’s latest piece, Creatures of Light (2022), is an illuminated sculpture offering a narrative about climate change. The three-dimensional tapestry creates the effect of lichen, while black textured surfaces evoke volcanic rock. The vibrancy diminishes from top to bottom, pooling on the floor as a symbol of extinction. Like all of Marta’s work, it invites viewers to interact and engage with both the object and the topic.

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Transport for NSW has appointed a consortium to lead planning and design delivery for its Circular Quay Renewal project.
The Circular Quay Consortium’s (CQC) design proposal by Tzannes, Aspect Studios and Weston Williamson and Partners has been selected to proceed to the design and planning phase. The proposal was revealed June 2022 after the state government announced $216 million funding allocation for the Circular Quay Renewal.
“Our collaborative design proposal was central to the selection of the consortium of Capella Capital, Lendlease Construction and BESIX Watpac, who are partnering with the NSW Government to revitalise the Circular Quay precinct,” Aspect Studios said in a statement.
The consortium will work alongside First Nations advisors Michael Mossman, Alison Page and Christian Hampson and Chels Marshall and Emily McDaniel to ensure the plans have a strong connection with Country and heritage.

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Pre-concept designs of the revitalized Circular Quay precinct by Tzannes, Aspect Studios, Weston Williamson + Partners and supported by a team of First Nations designers and advisors. Image:

Courtesy of Transport NSW

The proposed revitalisation will include new wharves, an upgraded train station, new hospitality venues, more active transport connections and improved public green spaces.
“The multi-faceted proposal creates distinctive new public spaces, as well as retail, dining, arts and cultural offerings,” the architects said. “User and passenger experiences are transformed at one of Sydney’s busiest transport interchanges.”
Transport for NSW director Julie Sundqvist said the announcement of the partnership represented a major milestone for the revitalisation project.
“CQC will help to create a more dynamic precinct for visitors and locals to enjoy, and further elevate Circular Quay’s status as a stunning and unique destination revered globally,” said Sundqvist.
“We look forward to working with CQC to deliver new and improved public spaces, connections, infrastructure and buildings that will breathe fresh life into one of Australia’s most visited destinations and a critical transport interchange in the heart of Sydney.”
Detailed design, community consultation and statutory planning will commence in 2023. More

The 2022 MPavilion, designed by Bangkok-based All Zone, has opened in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens. The brightly coloured canopy structure experiments with fabric-based architecture and uses materials never before seen in Australia. “MPavilion is special because even though it’s called a temporary pavilion, it’s actually even more complex than a building,” said architect Rachaporn Choochuey, […] More

Architecture practice Schored Projects has designed a series of modular homes for women and children escaping domestic violence.
The Homes for Help project is designed to fit together in multiple configurations. Each three-bedroom home has large rooms, outdoor play spaces, and bathrooms suitable for families with young children. Designing to enable dignity, independence and comfort for the end users, the architects have considered accessibility and silver Liveable Housing standards, incorporating wider doorways and corridor widths into the design.
“Good design should be available to all and not just the few that can afford our skill set,” said Schored director Sophie Dyring, who has worked in the social housing space for 10 years. “With social housing, the big design objective is to design homes that aren’t obviously social housing, to avoid any kind of stigma.
“Our designs consider passive design principles: we orientate living rooms and external spaces to the north and we look at how the form can provide passive shading and cross ventilation, because those things don’t cost any more to help a home run efficiently – they’re just good design outcomes and help reduce running cost for tenants,” said Dyring.

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Schored Projects

Homes to Help is a collaboration between Platinum Institute Australia (PIA), a registered training organisation providing disadvantaged students with applicable training in the construction industry, and non-profit community housing provider Women’s Property Initiatives (WPI).
Homes for Help project partner Steve Michelson of Michelson Alexander said 10 prototypes will be rolled out in 2023 in Ballarat to provide much need affordable housing stock in the area, which has a higher than average rate of family violence.
According to a recent report by Homelessness Australia, family violence is now the biggest cause of demand for specialist homelessness services, with overall demand for services increasing at twice the rate of population growth.
“We know that 45,000 women across Australia will not have a safe and secure home to call their own this Christmas,” said Michelson. “Safe and secure, modern and modular homes that women and their families can be proud of and feel comfortable in; that’s precisely the type of social housing we want to be providing to vulnerable Victorians.”
Michelson said the organisation wants to work with the Victorian government to adjust the terms of the Big Housing Build to create a funding stream that would allow this type of initiative to expand across Victoria, benefiting disenfranchised young people as well as families who have experienced family violence. More

A development application has been lodged for a $13-million upgrade to the existing art-house cinema Palace Verona building in Sydney’s Paddington. On a site on the outskirts of the Oxford Street cultural and creative precinct, the existing Verona theatre would be transformed into a “vibrant mixed-use site that reimagines entertainment and activation,” the design report […] More

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has launched a national competition to select a design team for a 250-bed Indigenous residential college on its Ultimo campus.
The First Nations college will be built on the Gadigal Land of the Eora Nation and will be the first truly comprehensive Indigenous residential college of its kind in Australia, enabling Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to receive a university education in an environment that celebrates and nurtures cultural identity.
The facility will also include communal spaces public art installations; new through-site links from Harris Street to Omnibus Lane; and a new open space in the form of a precinct heart. The design, landscape and public art process should be led by deep consideration of and respect for Aboriginal Country.
UTS special advisors to the vice-chancellor on major Indigenous priorities, Professor Michael McDaniel, said Indigenous education is for all Australians, and it is about building a nation that cherishes and celebrates First Nations peoples.
“Most Indigenous people don’t have a history of participating in university education. By creating a place with Indigenous culture at its heart – not on the periphery – the college will help Indigenous people ‘see’ themselves at university,” said McDaniel.
“For the first time Indigenous people will be the hosts not the guests in a place based around their traditions and identity.”

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Indicative design of the UTS Indigenous college (2018). Image: UTS

The college intends to remove the barriers preventing Indigenous participation in higher education and the broader economy by raising the aspirations of young Indigenous people, maximising opportunities for entry to higher education, and supporting the pursuit of quality employment.
The purpose-built facility will offer a comprehensive range of services beyond accomodation, and will be “defined by its ethos of pride in Indigenous identity and culture,” UTS said.
The project will be funded through a multi-party model between the university, government, the private sector and philanthropic contributions. UTS announced in its initial 2018 plans that it estimates the college will cost around $100 million.
Expressions of interest for stage one of the design competition opened 2 December to eligible design professionals and will close 2 February 2023. An invited design competition for successful contenders will launch in April 2023, with submissions closing in July. Presentations to a jury will then take place within the following weeks, with a winner selected in September.
The college is slated for completion in 2027. For more information, visit the UTS website. More

Two landscape architecture studios have been awarded the contract for the City of Melbourne’s ambitious Greenline Project along the Yarra River. Councillors have unanimously endorsed the appointment of a multidisciplinary design consortium led by TCL and Aspect Studios to design five interconnected precincts making up the new riverside masterplan. The design practices will work closely […] More