Architecture

Following their earlier announcement, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City in the United States has launched an international design competition for the design of the museum’s expansion. According to a statement from the museum, “the goal of the expansion is to attract new audiences and design a centre that speaks to community, creating a museum for all.”
The current museum houses a collection of more than 42,000 art objects across two buildings – an original Beaux-Arts, neoclassical-style building and the contemporary Bloch Building completed in 2007, designed by American architect Steven Holl as part of an invited design competition. The buildings are connected by the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park.

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The Nelson-Atkins board of trustees hope that the next iteration of the site will expand the museum’s conventions so that it evolves as a more dynamic and inclusive place. Director and CEO of the Nelson-Atkins Julián Zugazagoitia said, “This expansion solidifies the Nelson-Atkins’ foundational desire to reach all audiences, particularly those for whom art is not familiar. It will enable the museum to better serve our community, and I envision a vibrant space for visitors to become energised by art and immersed in new and creative experiences.”
The competition brief specifies a partial renovation of the original building and 5,700 square metres of new floor area in the form of a single or multiple additions. The latter includes a primary entrance and welcome foyer, photography centre, featured exhibition galleries, learning and activity spaces, a theatre, and a restaurant.
The first stage of the competition requires architect-led, multidisciplinary teams – including a landscape architect, structural engineer and services consultant at a minimum – to submit details of their project approach, team composition and relevant experience. Successful entrants will have the opportunity to propose additional consultants – including lighting and exhibition designers and the like – in preparation of their design concept.
Competition director Malcolm Reading commented that the jury were looking for “a winning team that can honour and integrate both the [museum’s] historic and contemporary elements while creating a dynamic new addition that brings innovation and freshness. Sustainable design will also be paramount so the campus and art within may be enjoyed for generations to come.”
Up to five teams will be shortlisted as finalists and each will receive a fee of US$75,000 for their work at the competition conclusion. The chosen winner will then work with the museum to combine forces with a local partner firm to realise the project.
Entries for the first stage of the competition close on 29 October 2024. More

Childhood memories, geometric play and 1980s pop culture inspired the design of this eye-catching collection of pieces for the home.
Billy collection from Tait
Billy is an outdoor furniture range that delights in nostalgia for childhood summers. A tubular steel frame inspired by Hills hoists and pool ladders supports seats and tabletops in powdercoated aluminium or Accoya timber. Designed by Adam Goodrum and Tait. Visit website
Hemispheres by Bankston × Civilian
Australian hardware brand Bankston has collaborated with New York design studio Civilian to create Hemispheres: a range of levers, pulls, door stops and knobs with interchangeable components. The modular range offers welcome versatility and encourages playful applications. Visit website

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Geometrica from Beeline Design
A love for the Memphis design movement is palpable in this lively collection from Melbourne-based Beeline Design. Bold shapes, brave colour and playful material combinations ignite the imagination. Styling, art direction: Bree Leech. Photograph: Martina Gemmola. Visit website

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Mythos by Lee Broom
The Mythos wall light by Lee Broom features a brass frame supporting a globe. Curved and linear forms lend it a strong sculptural identity and play with notions of balance. Mythos is part of the Alchemist series: a collection of light fittings inspired by mythology and astrology. Visit website

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Insula sofa from Kettal
Low and luxurious, the Insula sofa is designed for indoor and outdoor settings. The modular sofa comprises an aluminium base, soft flat cushions and roll-shaped backrest in individual, double and corner sizes. Designed by Patricia Urquiola for Kettal. Visit website

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Four shortlisted design teams are vying for creative directorship of the Australia Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Here, we share their proposals:
Redux by Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley
This proposed exhibition explores the human impact on the Australian landscape, focusing on the impact of asbestos in Australia. The display traces the evolution of asbestos, from its rapid ascent as a favoured construction material to its classification as a substance to be avoided and dumped. The title Redux refers to revival and reinterpretation, and in this spirit, the design team stated they aimed to embody “redux” by showcasing new processes for transforming the repudiated material into harmless, carbon-negative-by-products.
Manifesting as a modular display, the installation is designed to be adaptable for re-exhibition. A central exhibition space features large-scale panels raked with former-asbestos mineral render mounted on spotted gum frames, along with tall free-standing columns of blue former-asbestos mineral glaze and scattered seating stools with glazed tops. Additionally, the display will feature maps of asbestos building stock and dump sites.
While Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley are the creative directors behind the proposal, the project also involved contributions from Bill Gammage, Rory Gardiner, Deborah Barnstone, Uma Ketheson, Kleopatra Ananda, Jasmine Sharp, Thomas Li, Asbeter and SDA.

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Precarious Actions – The Marked Home by Ian Strange, Fleur Watson and Jon Clements
This scheme, as described by the design team, “explores and reveals our increasingly fragile relationship with the experience of home.” The proposed exhibition builds on Australian artist Ian Strange’s research into the human history of making marks on homes to codify, symbolise and expose precarious housing conditions. Markings can be used to shame, separate or signify that a dwelling is no longer a home and conversely, they can also be co-opted by citizens to urgently bring attention to issues such as sovereignty, homelessness, climate change or conflict.
This curatorial framework of this exhibition revolves around two questions: What can we learn from the human history of markings on houses in relation to our precarious relationship with home? How are Australian architects taking action to respond urgently and with collective intelligence to the housing crisis today?
The exhibition consists of five interconnected parts, including a large-scale marking and light installation on the exterior of the pavilion, a “precarious home” installation, a scaffold structure with curated works by Australian architects responding to housing precarity today, a taxonomy installation of historical markings on houses, and a film contextualising the research.

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A New Normal by Georgia Birks, Ewan McEoin, Rachel Nolan, Dr Timothy Moore and Ross Harding
A New Normal builds on a movement led by architects who are working to transform Australia’s cities from being net consumers of energy, waste, and water into net producers by 2030, without any formal request from governments. The national movement originated from a manifesto launched at the National Gallery of Victoria during 2020 Melbourne Design Week. This manifesto inspired a large exhibition of tangible prototypes (several now built) that offered solutions to social and environmental challenges escalated by the built environment.
The exhibition is presented in two parts: in the gallery and in the undercroft of the gallery. The gallery space features a solar battery in the centre of the gallery space that powers a series of short films that tell the story of the architect-led movement and a future where humans have embraced the “new normal.” The films are interspersed with tongue-in-cheek fake advertisements which emphasise the immediacy and do-it-yourself spirit of A New Normal. In the undercroft, the project is augmented by other technological elements of A New Normal. This includes: a biogas BBQ to feed people, a rainwater tank to create mist and cool people down, and a composting toilet with a magical view. These elements demystify technology by putting culture at its centre – extending the promotion of A New Normal culture.
An expanded team of advisors provided consultation on this scheme. This advisory team comprised Nigel Bertram, Clare Cousins, Mark Jacques, Patrick Kennedy, Rachel Neeson, Philip Thalis, Kerstin Thompson, and Building 4.0 CRC.

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Home by Jack Gillmer, Emily McDaniel and Michael Mossman
This proposal conceptualises the Australia Pavilion as a “home away from home.” The exhibition presents physical, interactive, virtual and technological mediums, providing participatory opportunities for visitors and contributors of the project to storytell their understandings of home through the lens of Country. “Located within the context of existing and future colonial infrastructures, our proposal utilises methods to Indigenise place to introduce culturally considered innovations safe for ceremony, imbued of Country,” said the design team.
A monumental presence of rammed earth will feature prominently throughout the exhibition, highlighted by a curving rammed earth wall and bench seat designed to facilitate the flow of movement and embrace a sand-filled ceremonial space known as the beating heart. Visitors can choose to contribute by leave their mark and tell their story of home via a “living canvas.”
The creative directorial team behind Home were nominated to represent the voice of First Nations design practitioners: Clarence Slockee, Kayle Salvatori, Elle Davidson and Bradley Kerr.

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The winning consortium will be revealed on October 10 2024. More

The South Australian government has invited feedback on its draft Greater Adelaide Regional Plan (GARP), a 30-year vision for suitable future development.
The draft plan builds on insights collated from a three-month consultation process in late 2023. It presents a long-term vision for sustainable growth across the Greater Adelaide Region, an 11,000-square-metre area from Cape Jervis to Murray Bridge that encompasses the CBD and the townships of the Barossa Valley and extends to the boundary of Port Wakefield.
The region is currently home to about 1.5 million people, representing approximately 85 percent of the state’s population. This figure is predicted to increase by an additional 670,000 individuals by the year 2050. In an attempt to meet this future influx, the plan aims to proactively pinpoint appropriate land for housing, employment and commercial developments, as well as any supporting infrastructure. It highlights prospective areas for an additional 315,000 homes and the introduction of green spaces.
The key items on which the government is requesting feedback include: the nominated siting of new housing and employment developments, specific areas that should be protected from future development and the maor infrastructure needed to support such growth.
The consultation period for the draft closes on 4 November 2024, with the plan set to be finalised in the first quarter of 2025. To submit feedback, visit the Regional Planning Portal. More

On Bundjalung Country in northern New South Wales, an urban renewal project for Tweed Mall led by Elanor Investors Group, and designed by Chrofi and Turf Design Studio has been recently approved for development by Tweed Shire Council and the Joint Regional Planning Panel. The project reimagines the existing regional CBD site, providing increased retail amenity to an anticipated 4.2 million annual visitors.
According to the architect, the project seeks to redevelop the existing Tweed Mall into an urban destination while addressing the need for sustainable development to account for rapid population growth. “Centres like Tweed are beginning to follow larger centres such as Wollongong and Newcastle, focusing on densification and urban renewal … The project seeks to create an active urban precinct that reflects the area’s unique subtropical character while connecting the CBD to the surrounding natural amenity.”
Linking into the anticipated Gold Coast light rail extension and emerging growth corridor, the project is situated next to Coolangatta Airport, hospitals and Southern Cross University’s Gold Coast Campus. The proposal includes approximately 13,500 square metres of commercial floorspace, 39,000 square metres of retail floorspace and 1350 new dwellings – a portion of which comprises build-to-rent and seniors’ living, both planned for the first stage of development. In total, the proposed dwellings deliver 12 percent of the 2036 North Coast Regional Plan target without the need for new land releases.

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Having been developed over several years with input from the NSW government architect, the design is a collaborative outcome that, according to Chrofi, blurs “the lines between landscaping, urban design and architecture.” Aiming to strengthen the landscape connectivity with the Jack Evans Boat Harbour and Tweed River, the proposal consolidates large retail tenants away from the site’s edges.
Hybrid retail and public spaces are located around a central “green heart” and beneath a layered outdoor canopy, allowing for semi-outdoor, natural-ventilated environment to suit Tweed’s subtropical climate. According to the architects, landscaping across the design, “prioritises deep greening, incorporating multi-layered endemic plants across both ground and podium levels to create a comfortable environment that invites exploration and interaction.”

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Deferred commencement approval for the concept development application was awarded in mid-June, with the project planned for a three-stage development over the next 15 years. More

An Australian public library is one of four shortlisted international projects in the running for the title of Public Library of the Year.
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions/Baker and Taylor has announced the finalists of its Public Library of the Year Award 2024. Among them, the Yellamundie Library and Gallery, designed by FJC Studio (formerly FJMT Studio), was shortlisted for its functional and sustainable architectural design, as well as its contribution to strengthening local culture.

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The 5,000-square-metre library, located at Western Sydney’s Liverpool Civic Place, was nominated alongside the Shenzhen Library North by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten (China); Public Body Kaunas County Public Library by Raimundas Labutis, Ramūnas Grubinskas, Laura Amankavičiūtė and interior architect Laima Čijunskaitė (Lithuania), and Beijing Library by Snøhetta and ECADI (China).
Jakob Lærkes, chairman of the jury panel and head of libraries in the municipality of Gladsaxe, Denmark, said each of the four shortlisted projects are all quite distinct from one another in terms of design, programming and the user experience.
“The Public Library of the Year Award is all about paying tribute to role models, and each of the four nominated libraries stands out as libraries of the future. It is impressive to see the different take on how to respond to the changing needs of the user, sustainability as a more and more important factor, when we build new libraries as well as different takes on how to create welcoming reading and learning spaces for the local communities,” Lærkes said.
“The jury and I believe that each of the four nominated libraries are examples to follow.”
The Yellamundie Library and Gallery was established to replace a former library that was lost to a fire. The library, operated by Liverpool City Council, accommodates public gallery spaces for exhibitions, working stations, children’s education areas, a sunken courtyard, and more than two kilometres of shelving for books and other resources.
The architects describe the curvilinear form of the building as being “inspired by the flow of the local Georges River.” Circular windows on the facade continue this theme of flowing water.
The project achieved a 6 Star Green Star rating.
The award will be presented on 7 October 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the International Library Meeting: “Culture, Knowledge and Community.” More

Designs for a new 17-storey, build-to-rent tower in Abbotsford have been released, with the project targeting the title of Melbourne’s tallest residential mass timber building.
Build-to-rent group Model released the designs for the proposed $120 million high-rise, which would be sited adjacent to the Victoria Park Railway Station at 276 Johnston Street. If approved, the building would accommodate 200 dwellings – 10 percent of which would be allocated to affordable housing – across a ground floor area of 13,000 square metres.
The project required collaboration from a diverse team of partners, including architects Fraser and Partners, sustainability consultants Hip V. Hype, structural and timber engineers BG&E, urban planners from Urbis, as well as quantity surveyors and carbon planners from Slattery. Feasibility testing was undertaken by Model and its partners over a period of six months before designs were released.
According to Model, the design approach was driven by “decarbonisation at scale,” with the project aiming to achieve a 50 percent reduction in embodied carbon compared to standard developments of a similar scale. Additionally, it aims to be entirely powered by renewable energy and to operate at net-zero emissions. The project is targeting Passive House certification, a 6 Star Green Star rating and a NatHERS rating of 9 stars.
The proposal has been submitted for planning approval via the state government’s Development Facilitation Pathway rather than through the City of Yarra. More

A provocation by 2024 Gold Medallist Philip Thalis at the upcoming ArchitectureAu Asks event challenges experts to consider the reciprocal relationship between architecture and the city context, and how it impacts the quality of urban life today.
The ArchitectureAu Asks event programme originates from an editorial series of the same name, where experts from various sectors of the built environment are presented with a question concerning current and critical issues faced by industry.
The inaugural event features a provocation from Philip Thalis, who has asked invited participants to address the question: “how can architects champion public interest?”
Speakers to offer their perspectives include Isabelle Toland of Aileen Sage Architects; Bradley Kerr of Winsor Kerr; Susan Phillips of Phillips Pilkington Architects; Eloise Atkinson of Deicke Richards; Trent Woods of Officer Woods Architects; James Legge of Six Degrees Architects; Ali Bounds of BVN; Jasmine Placentino of Parabolica, and Mat Hinds of Taylor and Hinds.
In their responses, participants will explore the “publicness” of public buildings, the engagement of our commercial spaces with the surrounding streets, and discuss future possibilities for public and affordable housing.
The event make its debut the day after the 2024 National Architecture Awards in Adelaide on Friday 8 November at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Attendees can earn 3.5 formal CPD points. To find out more about the event, visit here.
ArchitectureAu Asks is a Design Speaks program organised by Architecture Media (publisher of ArchitectureAu) and supported by premium partner Bondor. More