Architecture

Travelrite’s architecture tour of Japan returns after eight years following the Japanese government’s recent move to permit specialized group tours to enter the country for the first time since the pandemic.
Marking Travelrite’s 20th architecture tour, the 2022 Japan tour will cover 17 nights from 22 October to 8 November and includes six Japanese destinations: Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Mount Fuji and Hiroshima.
Led by recognized architect and former principal of Scott Carver Architects, Malcolm Carver, the tour will take place during autumn in Japan – a time of year Carver describes as one of the more spectacular to appreciate the country and its infrastructure.
Carver admires Japanese architecture for its “pure simplicity” and enduring timelessness. He said, “[Japan] is original and unaffected by Western styles; it stems from a long monocultural history.”
Carver added, “It’s a delightful journey to discover that the same building design principles are evident in its hard and soft landscape, in the people, and of course in the culinary delights.”

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Tadao Ando Gallery in Naoshima, Japan. Image:

Jo Quinnn via Unsplash

Following the success of the 2014 Japan tour, this year’s program has considered guest feedback to compose an itinerary with six additional nights featuring Japan’s world-class architecture, memorable contemporary buildings and striking temples along with authentic Japanese food.
The Pritzker Prize for Architecture has been awarded seven times to Japanese architects since its inception in 1979, with four awarded the revered prize in the past decade. Carver will take the tour to see works of eminent Japanese architect Tadao Ando and of ten other significant and internationally acclaimed architects including Tange, Ito, Sanaa, Isozaki, Kuma, Kidosaki, Piano, Pei and Vinoly.
“Japanese architects have excelled, mostly in Japan, over the past fifity years,” said Carver. “The international demand for their services today is extraordinary: just look at the new Sydney Modern by Sanaa and the Botanical Pavillion at the National Gallery of Victoria.”
The rich itinerary will include a tour of Peace Memorial Park and Museum; a trip to Naoshima Island, known for its art museums and sculptures; and journey to a modern Buddhist water temple, among other activities.
The tour is limited to 32 participants and includes accommodation, guided sightseeing, entertainment and meals.
For more information visit the Travelrite website. More

A contentious redevelopment on an historic north shore office block is back on the cards after state heritage listing on the site was successfully overturned. The Land and Environment Court has ordered the NSW Heritage Council to remove the heritage status of the 1950s MLC office building in North Sydney, permitting developer Investa Property Group […] More

The City of Melbourne has released a new blueprint outlining its vision for the future most populated city in Australia.
Melbourne is forecast to become the most populated city in Australia by 2026. In response to this, the City of Melbourne has developed a Municipal Planning Strategy to make Melbourne a better place to live, work, study and visit by investing in new growth areas.
The Municipal Planning Strategy plots how Melbourne will look over the next ten to 20 years, earmarking areas such as Docklands, Macaulay and Arden to cater for the thousands of new expected residents.
The strategy focuses on issues of climate change, affordable housing, jobs creation and the deliverance of high-quality development and design, in what acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece has called “one of the most forward-looking plans since ‘Postcode 3000’”.
Postcode 3000 was a planning initiative launched in the early 1990s, coordinated by the City of Melbourne and championed by then-premier Jeff Kennett, which aimed to boost residential development in the CBD.
“Over the past 30 years, our city has changed at a rapid pace, bringing both amazing opportunities and tough challenges,” said Nicholas. “If we want to retain our place as Australia’s most liveable city then we need to have a clear blueprint.”
The Municipal Planning Strategy underpins the vision for the future city with six goals. These are: creating more jobs for a stronger economy; protecting Melbourne’s distinctive cultural identity; addressing emissions reductions targets to net zero by 2030; reducing economic and social inequality; improving safety and wellbeing; and celebrating First Nations culture, lore, knowledge and heritage.
The strategy has been years in the making, informed by draft strategies like the City Spatial Plan, which outlines place-based strategies for growth across the municipality. The anticipated opening of five new metro stations across Melbourne has also fed into the projections for future living patterns.
The strategy will be considered by councillors at the Future Melbourne Committee meeting on 19 July, prior to being released for public exhibition and consultation. More

A development application has been approved for a Conrad Gargett-designed, 38-storey beachfront apartment complex submitted to council last year.
The Gold Coast high-rise will be located on Garfield Terrace in Surfers Paradise, right on the sands of Northcliffe Beach, and will feature an open podium design that engages with the natural elements.
Conrad Gargett director John Flynn said the building’s soft-edge form combined with organic landscaping will create a sense of “openness” and harmoniously blend with the natural rolling dunes of the site.
“The original landscape of the ocean, beach and dunes, continuing through to the waterways, has been broken over time by buildings,” Flynn explained. “So by lifting the tower up off the ground, we’ve been able to create greater transparency, which has been one of our key design moves.”

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A development application has been approved for a Conrad Gargett-designed, Image:

Conrad Gargett

Inspired by “longshore drift”, or the natural movement of drifting sand and water along the coastline, the building’s form is intended to respond to the ripples and deep recesses that occur in the sand as a result of the tides.
Raw and natural materials, such as concrete, stone and timber finishes, are intended to help the tower to sink into the natural landscape, while also providing a sturdy foundation to withstand the onshore elements.
The tower will feature resort-style amenities, including wellness spaces, a bar and a pool. It will house a mix of one-, two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom apartments, including half- and full-floor apartments with expansive outdoor living spaces. More

The World Architecture Festival WAFX Award celebrates international proposals that embrace “cutting-edge design approaches to address major world issues” ranging from the climate emergency to community resilience.
Twenty exemplary future projects addressing societal and environmental challenges have been selected for the WAFX shortlist, one of which has been designed by Australian practices on local soil.
The North East Link by Warren and Mahoney, BKK Architects and Taylor Cullity Lethlean is a concept for a 25-kilometre corridor on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country that uses First Nations knowledge to minimize impact and assist ecological restoration.
It is the world’s first road project to use the award-winning International Indigenous Design Charter principles, and adopts three Wurundjeri pillars to guide the design: Connection to Country, Caring for Country and Connecting People.
As a major infrastructure project, the North East Link involves smart engineering, architecture, landscaping and urban design, as well as extensive collaboration with First Nations consultants.

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The North East Link has been named in the shortlist for the World Architecture Festival WAFX Award. Image:

Warren and Mahoney, BKK Architects, and Taylor Cullity Lethlean

“This is the story of how a major infrastructure project could heal a city’s nature and biodiversity,” the design team said. “It may also help heal Australia’s relationship with our First Nations people.”
Other shortlisted projects include a cultural venue co-designed with an indigenous prairie community in Canada, a graduation hall in Johannesburg and a mega arena complex in Bristol.
WAF program director Paul Finch said that with today’s momentous environmental and social challenges, we require brave commitments to fresh and experimental ways of thinking.
“These future projects show that architects across the world are responding to complex problems in imaginative ways — with the bonus of some design delight,” said Finch.
WAF returns this year as an in-person event held in Lisbon from 30 November to 2 December 2022. The overall winner will be announced live during the festival, alongside other accolades including World Building of the Year, Landscape of the Year, Future Project of the Year and Interior of the Year.
More than 40 Australian projects have been named in the shortlist for the 2022 World Architecture Festival Awards.
Click here to view the full shortlist for this year’s WAFX projects. More

Open House Melbourne offers an impactful program of public lectures, workshops and exhibitions leading critical discourse on the value of place and design. Following our release of seven stand-out homes and seven tours of Melbourne’s newest buildings ahead of the 2022 Open House, we’ve compiled a list of events, screenings and programs to see over the weekend of 30 to 31 July.
Modern Melbourne premiere
Open House Melbourne’s Modern Melbourne documentary series makes a grand return with celebrated architect and 2017 Gold Medallist Peter Elliott. This premiere screening at ACMI will be followed by a panel conversation moderated by Heritage Council of Victoria’s Chair Professor Phillip Goad with special guests including Dimity Reed, Katelin Butler and Jon Clements. Read more.
This is Public: Built/Unbuilt
In this speaker series hosted at The Capitol, RMIT, architects, designers and creative practitioners are invited to respond to the 2022 theme “Built/Unbuilt” with a series of short presentations and conversations. Speakers include Kerstin Thompson with Jayne Josem (Melbourne Holocaust Museum), Amy Muir and Mark Jacques (Family Violence Memorial), N’arweet Carolyn Briggs and Jefa Greenaway with Christine Phillips and Jock Gilbert (Building on Country) with Caitlyn Parry (Cloud Studies) joined virtually by Samaneh Moafi. Read more.

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The Built/Unbuilt speaker series will be hosted in The Capitol, RMIT. Image:

John Gollings

Future Heritage: 2022 heritage address with Katrina Sedgwick
Newly appointed chief executive of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation Katrina Sedgwick will deliver the Heritage Council of Victoria’s annual Heritage Address at Federation Square. Sedgwick will reflect on her experience shaping Melbourne’s cultural landscape and consider the concept of “future heritage” in a free public lecture followed by a conversation facilitated by Open House board president Stuart Harrison. Read more.
Take Hold of the Clouds
Co-produced by Monash University and supported by the Victorian government, Take Hold of the Clouds is a curated exhibition featuring two key works by renowned international contributors – Forensic Architecture’s Cloud Studies (2021) and Cauleen Smith’s Sojourner (2018) – along with six newly commissioned, responsive works from local and national creative practitioners. Rather than in traditional galleries, these works will be embedded within some of Melbourne’s most significant buildings and urban spaces. Read more.

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Take Hold of the Clouds: a curated exhibition. Image:

Courtesy of Open House Melbourne

Australian Tapestry Workshop
Visitors will have special access to the tapestry workshop studio floor in a unique National Trust and heritage-listed building in South Melbourne first established in 1976. Explore the intersection between materiality, technology, geography and storytelling through traditional textile-based media alongside technological interventions and e-textiles. Read more.
Old Customs House – Unbuild and Re-imagine
Multidisciplinary artist Jenna Lee explores her own diverse cultural background through art. Working across sculpture, installation and body adornment, as well as moving image and digital, Lee – a Gulumerridjin (Larrakia), Wardaman and KarraJarri Saltwater woman – uses form to direct her Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Anglo-Australian ancestry. Held in Old Customs House, Lee will host a hands-on workshop where participants will be invited to repurpose colonial paper media to create a collective flower intervention within the Immigration Museum. Read more.
Click here to view the full program. More

Over one week in June, Student Organised Network for Architecture (SONA) members across the country participated in the 2022 Super Studio national conceptual design competition.
The student body of the Australian Institute of Architects, SONA’s competition followed the theme of sustainable and regenerative design, posing the challenge to designers to envision a future beyond sustainability, where design has the capacity to reverse the damage inflicted on the planet.
Designers were asked to select a familiar place to propose a design response that has the capacity to positively impact its community. More than 60 submissions were made, including presentations to local juries in each state and territory, after which a shortlist of designers progressed to national judging.
Submissions were judged on how well they responded to the brief; their design approach; the uniqueness and innovation of the submission; the concept’s promotion of sustainability and regenerative design; and the communication and expression of the submission components.

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The national prize was awarded to “The Rinse Cycle” by Caleb Lee and Nithya Ranasinghe. Image:

Courtesy of the Australian Institute of Architects

The national prize went to Caleb Lee and Nithya Ranasinghe (masters students, RMIT) for their proposal “The Rinse Cycle”: a concept for the reclamation of gas stations as laundromats with innovative greywater solutions for decontaminating the soil on the site.
In a two-pronged approach, the communal laundromat is envisioned to address social disconnection, while the water from the initial rinse cycle of the machines will be used in the process of “soil washing” to flush contaminants from the soil.
“The Rinse Cycle is an exemplary response to this year’s Super Studio brief,” the national Super Studio jury said. “The approach to the challenge is subtle, subversive, and powerful, providing not only a clever integration of regenerative design principles, but also a commentary on our social rituals, and current and future living arrangements.”
For their winning concept design, Lee and Ranasinghe received $3,000.
This year’s Super Studio state winners included a combination of systems, installations and policies that used architecture to generate better social and environmental outcomes.
The state winners were:
Australian Capital Territory
Community Hill by Jacob White, Ciaran French and Cameron Roxburgh – a “no phone dome” within the apex of Canberra’s federal triangle, intended to encourage connection and foster a sense of community.
New South Wales
Altogether by Kangcheng Zheng and Hongyu Huang – a network of living installations providing habitat for local species.
Northern Territory
Repairment of Community and Environment through Fragments of Paper by Albertina Ugwu – a system for recycling paper that gives back to the community.
Queensland
Textiles to Tectonics by Kaytee Warren, Maddi Whish-Wilson and Lucy Stefanovic – a pavilion for facilitating the exchange of unwanted clothes.
South Australia
Warnpangga Park by Wenxiu Zhang – a regeneration project intended to restore Warnpangga’s ecological integrity.
Tasmania
Re-Alley by Pei Kai Tan and Xing Ting Ng – a three-stage design to rebuild, reunite and regenerate a disused back alley.
Western Australia
The Usefulness of the Useless by Stephanie Alama Chavez – a design for a biodiversity corridor from the Canning River foreshore to Kensington Bush.
For more information visit the Australian Institute of Architects’ website. More