Architecture

“Material Intelligence” is the theme of this year’s Sydney Craft Week, taking place from 10 to 19 October, marking the ninth year of the Australian Design Centre (ADC)’s popular festival of craft and design.
When ADC director Lisa Cahill first had the idea in 2017, she envisaged a city-wide program embracing all forms of making. It now offers 240 events across Sydney and surrounding regions, from exhibitions and makers markets to hands-on workshops.
“Craft practitioners have a deep understanding of materials, and the skills needed to work with those materials, to source, combine and manipulate them,” Cahill says. “Intelligent use of materials also needs to consider environmental sustainability including the lifecycle of material use. These are also important factors in contemporary building and architecture – Sydney Craft Week aims to spark connections between these different creative communities.”

View gallery

Isabelle Toland, co-founder of Sydney-based practice Aileen Sage Architects, will be taking part in a series of digital conversations released during Sydney Craft Week. For Isabelle, material intelligence is a key ethos of her design approach.
“It is a huge consideration in architecture,” she says. “It’s using materials in a very considered and intentional way, really thinking about where they’ve come from, their cultural significance, who’s been involved in making and bringing that material into that particular form.”
It’s also an important element in improving environmental outcomes across the industry, she says. “A greater appreciation for materials is really key to a more sustainable way of looking at building, construction and design.”
Material intelligence has been at the heart of two recent Aileen Sage Architects projects – the Redfern Community Facility completed in 2024, and the Waterloo Community Facility now under development, both on Gadigal Country.

View gallery

One striking visual element of the Redfern building (designed in collaboration with First Nations designer Daniele Hromek and Heritage Specialist Architect Jean Rice) is the use of original bricks, previously concealed under render and paint.
“Once you realise how beautiful those bricks are, you’re not going to throw them away,” Toland says. “Especially the clinker bricks, which have those dense spots because of the firing process and material quality, with those imperfections and impurities in the clay bodies.”
These bricks are now exposed around the building’s new lift, along with salvaged dark and pale house bricks from other parts of Sydney. Clay was also salvaged from the lift excavation. “It was quite beautiful with white and red seams,” Toland says. This “wild” clay is now stored at the community centre, with plans for a series of workshops to use it for making.
Toland has worked closely with different First Nations designers and Knowledge Holders on these projects, including how to incorporate culturally significant materials into the design and build. One source of inspiration for the Waterloo building, which includes a childcare centre, is the possum skin cloak. This important material object has been reclaimed by contemporary First Nations women including local master weaver and Gadigal, Dharawal, Yuin, Wiradjuri woman Nadeena Dixon.
Toland learnt a cloak could start with one skin for a child or baby when they were born, which then grew with them, inscribed with their own story. The cloaks also represent a protective layer for children.
“It’s the weight and the density of the pelt, and the texture of the fur,” she says. “It does give you that sense of protection and security, which I think is quite beautiful.”

View gallery

The architects integrated culturally significant materials into the building design, including a masonry screen that offers protection while filtering light and views. Toland also joined a weaving workshop led by Dixon, alongside women from the project and the Waterloo-Redfern community. Part of Dixon’s Cultural Weaving Program, the workshop invited participants to wrap fish-shaped frames using a simple stitch. These were later added to a net Dixon had woven with her daughters, creating a shared artwork that celebrates cultural knowledge, community, and connection to Country.
“The weaving project was a way of connecting people through something tangible and immediate, marking the start of a long journey that we were all commencing together to create a new public place for community,” says Toland.
The 2025 Sydney Craft Week Festival runs 10-19 October, with events, exhibitions and hands-on workshops across all forms of contemporary making including ceramics, weaving and leatherwork. More

The state-heritage-listed flat where Australian modernist architect Sir Roy Grounds resided in Toorak has been listed for sale.
Located at 24 Hill Street, the flat is one of five units collectively known as the Hill Street Flats. The front unit, designed by Grounds for his family, is renowned for being a bold geometric experiment. At its centre lies a fully glazed, open-to-the-sky circular courtyard within a perfectly square building footprint, with every room oriented toward this central space.
The flats behind the front unit lack the precise geometric layout of Grounds’s residence, but still feature distinctive elements such as angled car park walls, small slatted balconies and double-height main living spaces.
At the time the Grounds family purchased the Hill Street property, Grounds had completed the Four Flats projects: Clendon, Quamby, Clendon Corner and Moonbria, all located in either Armadale or Toorak and completed between 1940–1941. An original scheme for the Hill Street Flats from 1952 featured a single-storey home for the Grounds family with 12 flats behind it. In 1953, that plan was modified to comprise five flats – a configuration that remains today.

View gallery

The same year Grounds revised the scheme, he joined architects Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd in establishing Grounds Romberg and Boyd, an architectural practice that operated until its dissolution in 1962. The partnership dissolved partly in response to Grounds’s appointment as sole architect for the National Gallery of Victoria – a building that echoed many of the themes found in the Hill Street flat, built a decade earlier. A newly published book by Maria Larkins explores the famed practice in depth, tracing how it operated and how it ultimately all came undone.
In another recent book, Roy Grounds: Experiments in Minimum Living by architect and historian Tony Lee, it’s noted that Roy and his wife Betty Grounds lived in the Hill Street house until his death in 1981. The home continues to be recognised and “celebrated as one of Australia’s most outstanding modernist houses. Grounds’ later projects, both residential and civic, including the Australian Academy of Science (1957) and the National Gallery of Victoria (1959) replicate details from these five flats, confirming his pattern of incremental design,” commented Lee.

View gallery

In its statement of significance, the Victorian Heritage Database describes the home as “inward looking” and possessing “an almost eastern character,” expressed through its projecting eaves and the central courtyard, which was originally planted with bamboo. The database further characterised the house as “a striking essay in pure geometry, a hallmark of Ground’s work during the 1950s, and one of the best examples of experimentation with geometry in the work of post war avant-garde architects in Victoria.”
For more stories on the architecture of Roy Grounds, explore the Revisited articles on Moonbria and Boyd Baker House, or read these features chronicling the history of the National Gallery of Victoria, published in honour of its fiftieth anniversary, and the Arts Centre Melbourne, marking 40 years since its completion.

View gallery

Expressions of interest for Grounds House are now being accepted. For details, visit here. More

The NGV’s latest design exhibition, Making Good: Redesiging the Everyday on show at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV International, aims to present tangible examples of how designers are reimagining everyday products and systems for the good of both humans and the planet. And it’s a cleverly titled show. The “making good” of the name invokes the positive contribution contemporary designers are making by prioritising ecological responsibility, ethical production processes and social impact. It also hints at what we, as designers, might not always want to talk about: that design, despite its often, good intentions, has been complicit in myriad issues and the cause of significant harm. So, how can we, as designers, begin to repair some of the damage that we’ve caused? How can design make good on its promise to contribute positively to the world?

View gallery

The work on display made some suggestions, and I found myself thinking again about British designer Kiki Grammatopoulos’s Rewild the run shoes numerous times after my visit. Learning from biomimicry, the shoes have a chunky, bristled outer sole that grips and distributes seeds, thus involving the runner in rewilding the city. Displayed nearby was the memorably named Full Metal Jacket made from an antibacterial copper textile, created by clothing brand Vollebak. Together, these prototypes prompted the imagination, conjuring visions of cities dense with greenery that had been spread by long-limbed runners, and bacteria-free hospitals teeming with staff outfitted in scrubs that would look perfectly at home in an early 2000s music video.

View gallery

Alongside these more evocative works, less glamorous items designed for daily use argued for the transformative impact that practical, functional designs can have. Items eradicating single-use plastic included compostable food wrap, edible coffee cups and plant-based ear plugs, while a dehydrated oat milk powder showed how product innovation can reduce packaging and the energy used in transport, in this case by significantly reducing the product’s weight. Collectively, these items underscored the impact of personal choice on the climate crisis.
Coming from a background in landscape architecture, it would be amiss of me not to mention the built environment work on display, from schemes for more sustainable architecture, to paint systems that purify the air. While the proposal for Hotel Optimismo – an energy-generating, waste-recycling, high-rise built from carbon-sequestering materials by Finding Infinity (presented in a short video) was no doubt thought-provoking, I lingered longer over a film that documented the already built and operating Regenerative Futures Studio at Woodleigh School. Designed by Joost Bakker with McIldowie Partners and Sam Cox, one could see the physical outcome and hear the testimonials of the building’s impact on the students who use it.

View gallery

Making Good should make you feel good about design as a profession. And the broad range of approaches on display offers much food for thought when it comes to interdisciplinary thinking. (Are there approaches to more ecologically responsible design that come from fashion design, for instance, that could be taken into architecture? Or vice versa?) Furthermore, as designers, there are the choices we make in our professional practice – how we frame a brief, the approach we take to a project, the materials we specify – but also the decisions we make in the everyday running of our studios, and at home in our domestic spaces. Making Good helps us to appreciate the many scales and dimensions of design, highlighting just how many (design) decisions we make in our personal and professional lives. More

German-Australian studio Laboratory for Visionary Architecture has been appointed to lead the development of a concept masterplan and legacy designs for Expo 2030 Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Expo 2030 is a planned World Expo, a large-scale international exhibition showcasing innovation, culture and global collaboration. The winning concept was developed by a consortium including Lava, landscape design consultancy firm Land, major events and expo advisor Christine Losecaat, expo design strategic advisor Samantha Cotterell, Buro Happold, 9 E, Redas, and Montana.
According to a communique from Lava, the Riyadh edition of the expo will be held between King Salman International Airport and Riyadh City, with plans for the site to remain functional after the event as a mixed-use precinct incorporating retail, dining and community facilities.
In a statement, Expo 2030 Riyadh described the event as a celebration of “breakthroughs in science, technology and cultural understanding.” They commented that they were proud to be working with a global team of design specialists led by Lava, and described the concept masterplan as reflecting the spirit of technological and scientific innovation “by interpreting the theme of ‘Foresight’ as a vision for a new way of living for current and future generations.”

View gallery

Lava stated the plan incorporates fractal geometries – repeating natural patterns – into the design to improve environmental performance and spatial efficiency. According to the studio, this approach “enhances airflow, light distribution and energy efficiency,” while also enriching the experience of the space for visitors.
Co-founder of Lava Chris Bosse said the design is firmly grounded in nature. “The masterplan exemplifies how nature and technology, environmental restoration and urban innovation can effectively coexist. Expo 2030 Riyadh is a prototype for future cities – linking the microcosm of nature with the global digital realm and creating a new urbanism.
“The design draws from the elegant efficiency and brilliance of nature, using cellular structures as inspiration to shape a futuristic, human-centric city. It enhances walkability and connectivity while ensuring adaptability for a seamless transformation into a global village after the event.” More

A hotel proposal granted planning approval a few months ago at Darwin Convention Centre, situated nearby an Indigenous sacred site, is facing new-found scrutiny from Traditional Owners, after developers were recently granted a new power to proceed construction of the project without further First Nations consultation.
The 11-storey hotel proposal at Stokes Hill, designed by South Australian practice Pact Architects, is part of the broader redevelopment of Darwin’s waterfront.
Developer CEL Australia lodged an application for certification with the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) in August 2024. According to the AAPA, this process involves consultation with Aboriginal custodians to determine “the conditions for carrying out specific works on an area of land or water near sacred sites.” However, earlier this year, NT News reported that Larrakia custodians expressed concerns that the hotel would overlook a sacred site.
At the time of their application, CEL Australia executive director Robert Lee told NT News, “We’ve done as normal and now we’re waiting for certificates to be approved … If they [AAPA] say ‘no’ we would have to consider the reasons why TOs [Traditional Owners] said no … and [if] there are no solutions we will seriously have to consider the future of the project. We do have to respect the locals and we don’t want to upset anybody. We’re not here to make people upset, we’re here to do a project.”
However, former AAPA board member Rachel Perkins recently told ABC News that the developer withdrew this application shortly before the NT government amended sacred sites legislation in May to allow the addition of new parties to an existing authority certificate. This week, AAPA confirmed in a media release that it had revised the site’s existing 2004 authority certificate to recognise both SH Darwin Hotel – the project’s development company – and the Darwin Waterfront Corporation as recorded parties.
Perkins said, “It [the 2004 certificate] was for marina-orientated commercial activities. Now the certificate is being revived for an 11-storey building.”
Chair of the AAPA board Bobby Nunggumajbarr agreed that the certificate is out-of-date.
“The board has very serious concerns about the use of a 20-year-old certificate to progress the SH Darwin Hotel proposed hotel project,” he noted. “The old waterfront certificate does not detail a high-rise hotel next to the Convention Centre or alongside the registered sacred site. Plans for a tower in that location were not part of the original Larrakia consultation.”
According to Nunggumajbarr, “More recent certificates for development around Stokes Hill, including for the Larrakia Cultural Centre, set strict height limits to protect the sacred site. Larrakia custodians have been very clear that the current SH Darwin Hotel design will impact the site.”

View gallery

According to ABC News, Treasurer Bill Yan “informed Larrakia stakeholders ‘of the NT government’s next steps to deliver the hotel’ and outlined its intention to use recent changes to the Sacred Sites Act to make that happen” in July. His letter stated that, “Importantly and in line with the new provisions, all recorded parties will be required to fully comply with these conditions under the 2004 certificate.”
However, AAPA’s communique notes that “the NT Government’s recent amendment to the Sacred Sites Act … compels the authority to process such applications without further consultation.”
Nunggumajbarr said, “This application has put the board in a difficult position but under the amended [Sacred Sites] Act we must add the recorded parties.”
The AAPA board will be escalating the matter to the federal government, in doing so expressing their support of Larrakia custodians and their objections to the hotel development.
“Sacred sites and development often coexist and the Darwin Waterfront Precinct is proof of that,” Nunggumajbarr commented. “The precinct demonstrates that with proper consultation and respect, development can proceed in a way that benefits all Territorians, whilst also protecting the cultural heritage of the Larrakia people.” More

In both Māori and Aboriginal cultures, there is a long and ancient history of architecture and building technologies. Before colonisation, buildings and structures weren’t labelled as “Indigenous architecture” – it was just architecture.
In this episode of Design Speaks Weekly, Carroll Go-Sam and Deidre Brown explore what, and who, is defining Indigenous architecture today. Along the way, they reflect on the progress of Indigenous recognition and representation in architecture across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Carroll (Dyirbal, Gumbilbara Bama) is a senior lecturer at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Queensland. Deidre (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) is a professor of architecture at the University of Auckland and the recipient of the 2023 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal.
During their conversation, Carroll and Deidre share how Indigeneity in architectural education has changed over time, with each reflecting on how past curriculums offered little exposure to non-Western heritage nor Indigenous typologies.

Design Speaks Weekly is presented in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects and with support from Lysaght. A fresh episode will be delivered every Tuesday. You can listen to it on major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Pocket Casts. The full interview can also be read here. More

The City of Moreton Bay has awarded a tender to the Comiskey Group to deliver a $180 million, 5-star hotel precinct – which they describe as a “mini-James Street” – 35 kilometres north of Brisbane in North Lakes.
Designed by Brisbane architecture practice Bureau Proberts, the proposal features a 130 room-hotel, and a “high-end” retail and dining precinct. According to a media release from the City of Moreton Bay, it captures qualities of the award-winning Calile Hotel in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, designed by Richards and Spence.

View gallery

Mayor Peter Flannery said the project’s vision captures the council’s ambition to grow a strong visitor economy ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“We put the call out in August last year for an iconic proposal that would elevate [the] City of Moreton Bay on the tourism map. Comiskey Group’s vision ticks every box with a world‑class design from architects Bureau Proberts, quality dining and genuine community benefit and serious economic horsepower for our city as we head into 2032,” he said.
In addition to targeting tourism attached to landmark sporting events, including the 2027 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Women’s Softball World Cup Finals, the hotel is designed to cater for business travellers through meeting and conference spaces.

View gallery

Comiskey Group director Rob Comiskey said, “The resort will blend luxury accommodation with premium food, boutique retail, generous green spaces and event experiences to create a destination locals will love, and visitors will travel for.”
Detailed design and approvals for the precinct are expected to progress this year, with construction scheduled to begin in 2026. More

Following the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Awards in November, industry leaders will gather to address the flaws in the design competition system today and what needs to happen for reform.
Read up on the provocateur and nine respondents below:
Camilla Block of Durbach Block Jaggers
As a founding director of Durbach Block Jaggers, Camilla Block brings decades of experience to the practice, with contributions across all project stages, from broad site strategies to detail resolution – and, crucially, design competitions. One of the firm’s recent competition wins is the renewal of Powerhouse Ultimo (with Tyrrell Studio, Youssofzay and Hart, Akira Isogawa, Yerrabingin, Finding Infinity and Arup). Block is the provocateur for the ArchitectureAu Asks symposium, posing the question, “the competition system is under scrutiny – how could it be better?”
John Wardle of Wardle
John Wardle is a Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medallist and the founder of Wardle, an award-winning practice whose portfolio spans domestic dwellings, university and healthcare buildings, museums and large commercial offices. Among the firm’s competition-winning schemes are the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre and the Batman Avenue Bridge (with NADAAA and Oculus).
Felicity Stewart of Stewart Architecture
In 2013, architect and urban designer Felicity Stewart won an international competition for a new Green Square Library and Plaza (with Studio Hollenstein). She now leads the Sydney studio of Stewart Architecture as a director. Stewart prides herself on her commitment to inclusive city-making, and is dedicated to defending the public interest and creating innovative design solutions that enhance urban life.
Phil Harris of Troppo Architects
Phil Harris is a founding director of Troppo Architects, and has led the practice’s involvement in information and cultural centres, public realm, and village centre projects nationally. The practice received the Global Sustainable Architecture Award in 2010 and the Institute’s Gold Medal in 2014. Their competition-winning schemes include Henley Square (with TCL), affordable eco-housing at Whitmore Square, and a design for a new city in the NT’s Top End.
Kerry Clare of Clare Design
Along with her husband Lindsay, Kerry Clare co-founded Clare Design in 1979. The pair were together awarded the Institute’s Gold Medal in 2010. Their practice’s award-winning work includes diverse projects from self-sufficient houses to major urban and public buildings, including a competition-winning design for the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) (with Architectus).
Patrick Kosky of Kerry Hill Architects
Having joined Kerry Hill Architects (KHA) in 1999, Patrick Kosky has held the role of director since 2014 and currently jointly leads the Australian studio. Under his directorship, the firm has been successful in design competitions in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane, including the Walyalup Civic Centre and EQ West development. Kosky was an inaugural member of Western Australia’s State Design Review Panel and has participated as a juror on multiple awards juries.
Kevin Lloyd of Hassell
With more than 30 years’ experience working as an architect abroad, Kevin Lloyd is one of the most experienced designers in Hassell’s Sydney studio. His award-winning portfolio includes the redevelopment of Herston Quarter, a mixed-use and health precinct in Brisbane. Hassell has won numerous design competitions across Australia and abroad.
Bradley Mapiva Brown of Bagariin Consulting
Bradley Mapiva Brown is the founder and managing director of Bagariin Consulting, a design-focused practice based in Ngunnawal Country in the ACT. He is currently leading the National First Nations Engagement Framework for the National Gallery of Australia’s competition project to revitalise the Sculpture Garden (with CO-AP), developing cultural design principles, FPIC/ICIP protocols and national yarning circles. He serves as deputy chair of the ACT Heritage Council and collaborates with government, cultural institutions and design studios to advance ethical, place-based practice.
Sue Dugdale of Susan Dugdale and Associates
As director of Susan Dugdale and Associates, Sue Dugdale is based in Mparntwe/Alice Springs, where she works with her team to create better outcomes for the community, the town and the environment. The firm’s work has won numerous awards and has been twice featured in the Venice Biennale – in one instance, as the result of a competition.
Marika Neustupny of NMBW Architecture Studio
Marika Neustupny is a founding director of NMBW Architecture Studio, whose projects have been awarded, widely published and exhibited in local, national and international contexts. NMBW’s designs been awarded first place in numerous design competitions, such as the recent NSW Pattern Book Design Competition (with Other Architects and Tarn) and Reimagining Where We Live design ideas competition (with BoardGrove Architects, BLOXAS and Glas Landscape Architects). In parallel with practice, Marika has been working in architectural design teaching and research for over 25 years, and holds a PhD from the University of Queensland.

Tickets are now on sale for the full-day ArchitectureAu Asks symposium on 7 November in Canberra. Architects can earn 3.5 formal CPD points. To find out more about the event and opportunity to purchase a ticket bundle with the National Architecture Awards, visit here.
ArchitectureAu Asks is a Design Speaks program organised by Architecture Media and supported by premium partners Bondor Metecno and Planned Cover, and hotel partner Ovolo Nishi. More