Architecture

The Australian Institute of Architects and the First Nations Advisory Committee have unveiled a new online resource that supports built environment professionals to deepen their knowledge on First Nations design considerations.
The First Nations Resource Hub aims to improve practitioners’ knowledge on culturally respectful and appropriate design for Indigenous Australians. The resource hub considers more than just aesthetics, but also provides insight on acknowledging the history and Traditional Custodians of the land, as well as how to interact with and learn from First Nations communities.

The platform includes educational materials that cover the cultural heritage of and current challenges faced by First Nations communities. It also provides architectural guidelines for creating spaces that honour and reflect First Nations cultures, along with strategies to ensure designs are culturally appropriate. Additionally, cultural protocols are included to outline respectful protocols for engaging with First Nations communities.
Outstanding projects that have incorporated best practice in First Nations design are showcased in the resource hub as examples of what can be accomplished through respectful engagement.
The new resource hub can be accessed via the Institute’s website. More

Curated by Clare Kennedy and John Ellway, The Architecture Symposium: Out of Office will explore the design possibilities that can emerge from being on site.
The two-day symposium, to be held on 11 and 12 October, will delve into collaborative prototyping, sketching and open conversation on site that can lead to greater design outcomes, inspiration and project relationships.
Twelve speakers from Australia and abroad will share stories from site, their work with builders, and their hands-on models of practice and education. Featured speakers include Tomoaki Uno of Tomoaki Uno Architects, Scott Burchell of Comb Construction, Lucinda McLean of NMBW, Yolandé Vorster of Architectus Conrad Gargett, Claire Markwick-Smith of Claire Markwick-Smith, Kim Baber of Baber Studio, Sascha Solar-March of Saha, Laurens Bekemans of BC Architects and Studies, Sarah Lynn Rees of Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, Daniel Burnett of Blok Modular, and Chloe Naughton of BVN.
The Architecture Symposium is a Design Speaks program organised by Architecture Media, supported by premium partners Planned Cover and Bondor, supporting partner Moddex, and hotel partner Ovolo.
To find more about Architecture Symposium: Out of Office, visit here. More

The ongoing NSW pattern book design competition open to Australian and international architects has attracted hundreds of entries, with the NSW government describing the response to the competition as “exceeding expectations.”
The competition seeks to increase the supply of quality and improve the diversity of low- and mid-rise housing through designs that can easily be replicated. The endorsed designs will be contained within a pattern book and will qualify for expedited development approval.
The competition has received 212 expressions of interests, 176 from Australia and 36 from Europe, the UK, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. This is only 18 entries less than the Sydney Opera House international design competition, which attracted 230 entries.
Among the expressions of interest were 171 submitted by professional architects and 41 from architecture students. With the expression of interest phase now complete, the next stage will involve selecting 15 professional practices and six students to progress to stage two.
Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully said Sydney and NSW need affordable, quality and sustainable homes.
“We have had a record turn-out from our Australian architects but I am also pleased to see entries from Spain, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, US, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, India and Iran,” Scully said. “The pattern book will be a useful resource for industry, architects, planners, councils and the community for years to come.”
He added that the designs which respond to climate and are sustainable, as well as improve energy, thermal and water efficicency will be looked upon favourably.
Shortlisted nominees will be announced in early September 2024, with final designs to be submitted by 11 October 2024. To find out more about the competition, visit the website. More

Carter Williamson Architects with Land and Form have won a design excellence competition for a mixed-used apartment building in Sydney. The successful scheme has embraced a material palette inspired by the angophora tree that the building will eventually envelop.
The building, fittingly named the Angophora, will be built on Cammeray Country in Chatswood.
The jury commended the design, variety, and size of the proposed residences, as well as the intention to create a community of homes rather than repetitive apartment modules.
Influenced by its context, the project encapsulates a series of strategic moves that define the landscape, building forms, and public areas while optimising natural light and solar access, cross-ventilation, district views, and lush green communal spaces.
At the streel level, retail and commercial spaces seek to activate the public domain, while above, the structure emerges as two towers splitting from a singular, united podium. This split allows for natural light and cross-ventilation throughout the building core. Additionally, landscaped communal spaces are located on the podium, surrounding the towers.

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“We’re delighted to have our design recognised by the jury, and I would like to congratulate our design partners: Land and Form, Prism Facades, and Choirender,” said Shaun Carter, principal at Carter Williamson Architects.
Drawing on the colours and textures of the angophora tree around which the design unfurls, the architecture practice describes the building’s material palette as “rich, robust, and refined.”
Ben Peake, principal at Carter Williamson Architects, explained, “the podium design draws on the character of the adjacent heritage conservation area. It is composed of brick to form a robust and texturally rich podium that is striking from afar but also works at a fine grain scale when experienced by the public up close.”
In collaboration with Land and Form, designing with Country was a priority from the outset, as was the activation of streets and open spaces with public art. Landscape design was approached as a complete ecology to support all living things, with a focus on native planting and the maximisation of deep soil, tree canopy, and landscape coverage. The design incorporates a series of green communal spaces to achieve this design intention.

The design excellence competition was coordinated by Mecone and endorsed by the NSW Government Architect and Willoughby Council.

The winning team is comprised of Carter Williamson Architects, Land and Form, Prism Facades, and Choirender. More

Shortlisted schemes from the 1921 competition to design Victoria’s Shrine of Remembrance have been revealed to the public in a new exhibition, which commemorates the memorial’s ninetieth anniversary.
Eighty-three proposals were submitted in the competition to design a place where Victorians could gather and pay respects to casualties of what is now called the First World War. The competition was open to Australasians and British subjects living in Australia, and it ran in two stages: a call for entries, and a six-project shortlist.
Designing Remembrance: Alternate visions for Victoria’s war memorial provides a glimpse into what the memorial might have looked like if Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop’s design had not been the winning scheme.

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The development of the exhibition involved a collaborative effort between Shrine of Remembrance curator Neil Sharkey and historians Katti William and Laura Carroll, with consultation from University of Melbourne School of Design professor and chair of architecture Philip Goad.
Through extensive searches of historical competition records in Melbourne and Canberra, submissions and design statements, the team managed to track down approximately 16 entries. And while the exhibition primarily revolves around the six finalists, it is supplemented by some of these entries: those that represent unique interpretations of the brief.
Acquiring the records proved to be quite challenging, as a fire at the Melbourne Town Hall destroyed many entries. Despite this setback, the exhibition team successfully dug out a published article from Art in Australia, which featured at least one image of each shortlisted scheme. The team then extracted the depictions from the article for the exhibition.
Sharkey said the display offers insight into the collective mind of a post-war community grappling with how to appropriately honour a legacy of service and sacrifice. “The hand-drawn plans, rendered in pencil and watercolour, are remarkable, showing the plazas, pylons and sculptures that could have stood where the Shrine now stands,” he said.
Most of the submissions were either in a Classical or Classical Revivalist architectural style, drawing inspiration from ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
Among the entries was a distinct design by American architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin with Australian architect Eric Nicholls. The submitted design was in the Prairie School style of architecture, common in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The building form, which Sharkey likened to a “Hindu shrine or temple,” featured a facade with layered modules, which could be reduced or added to depending on budget. Despite being a fascinating response to the brief, the scheme was not shortlisted.
The exhibition prompts visitors to question whether a war memorial should be grand and noticeable or restrained and private. It encourages attendees to consider the delicacy and sensitivity of the events that call for the creation of such a place, along with the varied requirements that such a space should fulfil.

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The shrine that was built was influenced by the design of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Turkey. The interior was designed to be a private, contemplative space for reflection and the laying of the wreath. In contrast, William Lucas’s design, which came in second place, was underpinned by an entirely different ideology. Lucas’s scheme features a large, open ampitheatre, as he felt strongly that the wreath-laying ceremony should be visible to all.
“When Lucas didn’t win, he really tore into the design of the shrine,” explained Sharkey. “He accused the winning architects of plagiarising the mausoleum. […] Because he had made this accusation, he was brought before the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects in a sort of disciplinary hearing and he was expelled from their organisation.
“For the exhibition, we actually have the documents from this disciplinary hearing on display.”
Designing Remembrance: Alternate visions for Victoria’s war memorial will take place from 13 August 2024 until July 2025 at the Shrine of Remembrance in Kings Domain, Melbourne. More

The Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence on Yorta Yorta Country in Shepparton opened on 7 August 2024 with a ceremony embracing the education, sport and public gathering space as a significant hub for learning, community engagement and cultural pride.
A Welcome to Country preceded speeches from deputy chair of all-First Peoples board Munarra Limited Uncle Paul Briggs and Minister for Treaty and First Peoples the Natalie Hutchins.
“The Munarra Centre for Regional Excellence and the Rumbalara Football Netball Club are so unique, they are nation leading. I am excited and optimistic about this investment’s potential to deliver the future to Yorta Yorta and other First Nations including the people of south-eastern Australia,” said Uncle Briggs.
Upgrades to the Rumbalara Football and Netball Club and creation of a new community and academic building followed a co-design process between Munarra Limited, ARM Architecture and landscape architect Bush Projects.
Evoking the Aboriginal flag when viewed from above, the new building features a central circular courtyard, indoor/outdoor learning verandah and firepit – all developed in close collaboration with stakeholders.
The new structure also incorporates the Nanyak Wall, a photographic representation of the community’s history that extends into the landscape and connects to the existing club site.
Club upgrades include new netball facilities, renovated clubrooms and a unifying canopy in the Rumbalara logo’s colours to reinforce community identity.
Munarra Limited oversaw the project and will manage the future operations of the centre as a place of learning, cultural celebration and community gathering. More

The Acticity Centre for Dance and Movement-based Arts in Hungary by Gall and Associates (Gall és Társai Építésziroda) has won the People’s Choice Award in the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2024 International Chapter Architecture Awards.
The international awards program honours exceptional buildings that are designed by Australian architects but situated overseas.
The building, a 120-year-old Children’s Hospital, had been vacant since 1995. In 2023, the European Capital of Culture in Veszprém decided to repurpose and reactivate the infrastructure to serve the needs of the community as a facility for movement and dance for all ages.

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The former hospital now accommodates flexible spaces for movement-based activities, such as ballet, wall-climbing and folk dancing. The building now directly interacts with its surrounding context, featuring a new outdoor urban piazza and landscaped areas.
The project also earned an Award for Public Architecture in the international awards program, with the project team applauded by the jury for reviving ”[…] a derelict but important brown field site, carefully knitting it back into the city fabric.”
“The architects took an uninspiring collection of buildings and addressed a complicated brief with rigorous aplomb. They confidently addressed many challenging issues, including urban design and connectivity, the creation of new public space, as well as heritage, restoration and sustainability,” commented the jury. “This is a fine example of placemaking and urban healing.”
To view the full list of 2024 International Chapter Award winners, visit here. More

Design concepts have been revealed for a Hassell-designed community building in Tanzania that would feature a structure 3D-printed from local earth.
The community centre is a component of a broader masterplan for Hope Village in Kibaha, Tanzania – a precinct that will include housing for 67 girls aged 3–18, spaces for childcare and skill development, and a 480-student school.
Clarke Hopkins Clarke is leading the village masterplan design in collaboration with Hassell, together with Australian charity One Heart Foundation.

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Hassell is leading the design of the new community centre. Available to local residents, the centre will contain an open area for cultural and community activities, as well as a kitchen, a bakery and storage space. It will be a hub for shared meals, performances, gatherings and educational programs.
The design brief called for a large, uninterrupted area that could accommodate versatile functions; as a result, a central steel beam will support a roof frame that resembles a draped blanket. Comprising short pieces of timber, the roof will further be supported by cladding made of readily available corrugated metal sheet panels.

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Sustainability is a key feature of the design. Walls will be 3D-printed from local earth, while sections of the roof structure will be crafted from locally sourced timber.
As both method and material, 3D-printed earth was selected for environmental benefits, which include being more energy efficient than sourcing off-site alternative materials. Rather than form a solid barrier, the walls will take shape as a series of interwoven layers, permitting ventilation and natural light to filter through.
Hassell’s head of design and innovation Xavier De Kestelier emphasised that creating physical mock-ups for testing – carried out on full-scale prototypes at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) campus in Barcelona, Spain – is a crucial part of the innovation process.
“We collaborated really early in the design process with IAAC. They are leading the research into 3D-printing with earth and were able to 3D-print a full-scale prototype at their fabrication lab in Barcelona so we could validate the technique of earth printing,” De Kestelier said.
The project has involved and will continue to involve local people and expertise, from conception to completion.
Construction on the first phase of the masterplan is anticipated to commence in 2025. More