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    Architeam announces 2022 awards finalists

    Architeam has announced the finalists for its 2022 awards, marking its 15th awards year since its inception.
    Architeam is a membership association for Australian architects in small, medium and emerging practices. With 1,000 members nationally, the association has been supporting young and small-scale practices for 30 years.
    The awards were open to all association members around Australia and included categories for new residential projects; residential alterations and additions; commercial, community and public architecture; unbuilt projects; and awards for innovation and contribution.
    This year’s jury comprised chair Adam Newman of NWMN Architects, Fiona Dunin of FMD, Rory Hyde from Melbourne School of Design, Amy Muir of Muir Architecture, Jenni Officer of Officer Woods, Will Fung of CO-AP Architects, and Anthony Gill of practice his of the same name.
    Winners will be announced on Friday 18 November to coincide with Architeam’s 30th anniversary.

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    Light Scoop House by Molecule Studio. Image:

    Tom Ross

    Residential New Award
    Residential (new) awards were divided into three subcategories: new builds up to $1 million, and new builds over $1 million. Finalists in this category were recognised for their “creativity and innovation”, as well as their responses to site and budget.
    Finalists for new residential up to $1 million are:
    Jan Juc Studio – Eldridge Anderson Architects
    Canning Street – Foomann Architects
    Light Scoop House ­– Molecule Studio
    Burnley – Sonelo Architects
    Finalists for new residential over $1 million are:
    Bellbird House – Bower Architecture and Interiors
    West Bend House – MRTN Architects
    Beach Slice – Steffen Welsch Architects
    Bermagui Beach House – Winter Architecture

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    Periscope House by Architecture Architecture. Image:

    Tom Ross

    Residential Alterations and Additions Award
    Finalists for Residential Alteration and Additions awards have been broken down into three subcategories by budget: alterations and additions up to $500,000, between $500,000 and $1 million, and over $1 million.
    Finalists for residential alterations and additions up to $500,000 are as follows:
    Hawthorn I – Agius Scorpo Architects
    Mischa’s Place – Circle Studio Architects
    Pergola Extension – Krisna Cheung Architects
    Arthur – Oscar Sainsbury Architects
    Finalists for residential alterations and additions between $500,000 and $1 million are:
    Periscope – Architecture Architecture
    Weather House – Mihaly Slocombe Architects
    Northcote House – Mitsuori Architects
    Ponds – WOWOWA
    Finalists for residential alterations and additions over $1 million are:
    Wakanui Trail House – Ben Callery Architects
    Higham Road House – Philip Stejskal Architecture
    Carlton North Residence – Project 12 Architecture

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    Spring Bay Mill by Gilby and Brewin Architecture. Image:

    Adam Gibson

    Commercial, Community and Public Award
    The award for Commercial, Community and Public architecture could include multi-residential projects over $2 million, offices, hospitality venues, retail shops, community centres, places of worship, showrooms, architectural studios, warehouses and more. The finalists for this category are as follows:
    Spring Bay Mill – Gilby and Brewin Architecture
    Cowes Primary School New Gymnasium – Project 12 Architecture
    Butcher Shop Convert – Tsai Design
    Hampton Park Secondary College Senior Learning Centre – WOWOWA
    Unbuilt Award
    Entries for the Unbuilt Award should reflect unrestrained conceptual ideas, not-yet-realized architectural projects, or designs in other mediums based on architectural principles. This year, there were no finalists for the Unbuilt category: only a winner, which will be announced at the awards night in November.
    Innovation and Contribution Award
    The Innovation and Contribution Award recognizes contribution and/or innovation to architecture beyond the design and production of buildings. Awards in this category should contribute to industry discourse and can take the form of a blog, publication, organised tour or broadcast. An architectural building may also be awarded in this category if it exemplifies a high contribution to the industry and promotes the profession by provoking discussion or public interest. Finalists for this category are as follows:
    Black Diasporas ­– Culture as Creative
    Lost Lands Found Fence – Public Realm Lab
    Voting for the People’s Choice Award are still open until 27 October More

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    In post-war Paris, housing could be really radical

    Gailhoustet still lives in her self-designed apartment and studio at Le Liégat, Ivry – a scheme begun in 1971 and completed in 1986. The stepped concrete terraces with deep apartments pushing back towards the overspilling terraces and patios, with shrubs and trees intervening, were utterly at odds with the norms of 1970s housing. The contemporary effect, now mature, resembles those futile CGIs so beloved of architects struggling to assert their green credentials to credulous clients. At Ivry, the astonishing intricacy of the plan, the spatial verve and generosity, is best understood when caught by aerial photography.
    Internally, there is spatial generosity too, though often expressed vertically. Immensely high ceilings, doubling the heights of modestly sized, oddly shaped rooms, are a frequent feature, as are the eccentrically scattered groups of differently sized windows and angled walls – polygonal rather than rectilinear forms. The tenants discovered that they could use rooms as they wished, taking the inside to the outside, using them in daytime or night-time according to need. Behind this fluidity lay the architects’ understanding of the realities of modern urban society and their belief that shifting demo- graphics can and must be reflected within architecture. As master planner, and as a resident, Gailhoustet knew the local population and her neighbours. She and her team designed housing and amenities, as Moussavi said, that connect to ‘difference and autonomy as much as, even more than, for the nuclear family’.

    A recent report from the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. points out that in strong contrast to most of its peers, most notably the UK and the United States, French central government policy ensures that social housing remains central to the ‘broader social safety net’. With that recognition comes substantial funding and hence fresh thinking: as Gailhoustet herself said in 2018, the private sector tends to be reticent, since with innovation comes financial risk.

    On the discussion panel after the presentation of her award (in absentia, but with her daughter and other colleagues present), it was pointed out by the housing architect Peter Barber that Renée Gailhoustet achieved her results with freedoms allowed to architects that are the envy of her peers in rule-bound Britain. In 2021, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the most prestigious of all architectural prizes, the Pritzker, for their transformative work on several 1960s modernist blocks in Paris, Bordeaux and other cities, where they adroitly extended each floor with new ‘winter garden’ terraces and generous glazing, thus bringing more space and light into every apartment. Such masterstrokes in housing design, let alone redesign, do not come often or easily, but they richly deserve recognition when they do. Gailhoustet’s award, like theirs, is a marker of better ways, fresh ideas and social responsibilities, which all deserve our admiration.
    From the November 2022 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here. More

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    Sydney’s $3b tech hub approved

    A $3 billion “city shaping” commercial precinct has been approved for Sydney’s CBD. Central Place Sydney will comprise two towers of 35 and 37 storeys designed by Fender Katsalidis and SOM, and an eight storey “Connector” building designed by Edition Office. The project will contribute to the NSW government’s vision to transform a 24-hectare area […] More

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    Health and community hub designed as a ‘series of pods’

    Disability service provider Rocky Bay has released concept designs for a new health and community hub on its recently acquired Belmont site. Hames Sharley’s Perth studio was selected as the preferred design team following a competitive tender process. Rocky Bay managing director Michael Tait said the proposal demonstrated a strong understanding of the organization’s requirements […] More

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    Australia’s largest hospital project announced

    The Victorian government will deliver Australia’s largest hospital project in history through the creation of a medical mecca containing the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals.
    Designed by Hassell and McBride Charles Ryan, the masterplan will see the redevelopment and expansion of the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s hospitals in Parkville alongside the creation of a new biomedical precinct in nearby Arden.
    The premier revealed that the medical precinct will be built next to the new Arden train station, with the Parkville and Arden precincts linked by the Metro Tunnel. Once complete, Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop will connect the sites to other important health complexes, such as the Box Hill Hospital and the Austin Hospital.
    The $6 billion expansion and complete overhaul of the existing hospitals will take place over 12 years, providing an additional 1,800 beds and treatment spaces. Works on the Arden precinct are now underway.

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    Designs for Australia’s largest health infrastructure project, including the overhaul of existing hospitals and the construction of a new medical precinct. Image:

    Hassell and McBride Charles Ryan

    Hassell principal and health sector leader Leanne Guy said the redevelopment will ensure the ongoing viability of the existing facilities into the future, while creating a new precinct to support the needs of the growing state.
    “Together, our team understands how to take the Parkville precinct from where it is to where it wants to be, linking key elements of the existing precinct infrastructure so these two great institutions can fulfil their promising future – a future with endless potential.”
    Minister for transport infrastructure Jacinta Allan added that the government would support the improved health system via better transport connections.
    “We’re also investing in the transport infrastructure we need to make it easier for healthcare workers and patients alike to get where they need to go,” Allan said.
    Planned treatments, like births and elected surgeries, will move to the new campus once it is completed. By the beginning of next decade, an additional 10,500 elective surgeries and 2,500 births could be accommodated every year.
    Construction will start in 2025, once the Arden station is complete, and will take six years. Stage one of the hospital will be completed in 2031. More

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    ‘Heritage meets modern’: Intercontinental Sydney

    The Intercontinental Sydney has unveiled a $120-million makeover of its home inside the 171-year-old heritage-listed Treasury building.
    The revamp by Woods Bagot took several years to realise, with works including the redesign of its 509 guest suites, heritage restorations, and upgrades to the public and wellness areas.
    In September, the hotel debuted two new hospitality venues: the rooftop Aster Bar and the new ground floor hotel bar in the former lobby, The Treasury. Thirty-two levels up, the Aster Bar is an elevated sky bar and dining space with spectacular views over the harbour. The arched balconies of the former Treasury building now form
    The arched balconies of the former Treasury Building now form the Treasury bar, wrapping the space in the 170-year-old heritage sandstone alcoves and earthy brick archways. The new chevron tiled floor anchors the historic space in a contemporary context surrounded with flourishes of rich greenery.

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    The bar sits in the former lobby in a light-filled atrium and gathering space where the two buildings meet. Image:

    Trevor Mein

    Woods Bagot interior design lead Tracey Wiles said the aim was to integrate and enhance old and new elements of the hotel to blend the 1851 Treasury building with the 32-level tower completed in 1985. In response, the team took a “heritage meets modern” approach to the design language. “The heritage architecture gave us a beautiful palette of colours, textures and classic geometries, crafted in sandstone, brickwork, timber,” said Wiles.
    “It was so important for us to understand the historical lineage and the scale of the role we play in that,” she continued. “The spaces retain a long memory of what once was and this is complemented by contemporary insertions that announce themselves proudly, introducing a fresh hierarchy of graphic and biophilic elements.”
    The hotel draws from the grandeur of the past and introducing new materials, details and furnishings. Works included the creation of a new entrance and a redesigned reception area, using the same marble used to form the Treasury Bar, acting as a “continuous thread of materiality” as guests move through the hotel.

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    The conservatory restaurant on level one is a light=filled breakfast space with open cooking stations and a walk-in pantry. Image:

    Trevor Mein

    “We designed a plisse stone wall to invite guests from the porte-cochere through to the Treasury Bar,” said project leader Tim Davies. “The feature wall is highly dynamic – a mix of honed limestone with book-matched Verde Oceania marble that forms a unified image at a certain point within the reception.”
    Complementing the pleated stone feature wall, Woods Bagot used bespoke spotted gum reception desks to reference the naturalistic forms of Sydney’s coastal edge. The organic shape was achieved using a mix of computer-controlled milling and hand finishing to achieve the unique, textured outcome.
    In the rooms, Woods Bagot flooded the space with greens and blues, harnessing the palette of the subtropical Sydney landscape.
    “In the guest rooms, embracing the tonal layering of a blue and green palette was a bold approach that works incredibly well in connecting with the amazing views,” said Wiles. “It’s a strong departure from the standard beige on beige you so often see in modern properties.”
    Wiles said her favourite aspect of the transformation is the light-filled atrium and gathering space – the former Cortile – where the two buildings met in the heart of the hotel. “There’s something about sitting in history but being in a contemporary environment that is super, super special.” More

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    Architect appointed for Parramatta build-to-rent tower

    Rothelowman has been selected from a design competition as the architect to deliver a built-to-rent project in Parramatta for Novus Group. On a corner site at the intersection of Hassell and Harris streets, “Novus on Harris” will provide future residents with views over the CBD and Parramatta Park, maximising use of local amenity and transport […] More

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    Institute launches Smeg Tour Competition for 2023 Venice Biennale

    The Australian Institute of Architects has partnered with appliance manufacturer Smeg in a competition to win a trip to the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. The Smeg Tour Competition provides an opportunity for four winners to attend the Biennale and to participate in a tour Smeg’s headquarters in Guastalla and exploring the architecture of the Emilia […] More