Architecture

The Australian Institute of Architects has awarded architect and public servant Fiona Gardiner the 2022 Paula Whitman Leadership in Gender Equity Prize.
Gardiner was CEO and director of heritage at the Queensland Department of Environment and Science, and is now adjunct associate professor at University of Queensland School of Architecture.
“Fiona Gardiner is a pre-eminent and respected role model for women who has consistently demonstrated relevant, sustained and active leadership,” said Catherine Baudet, jury chair and winner of the inaugural Paula Whitman prize.
Gardiner graduated from the University of Queensland in 1978 and later completed a master’s degree in conservation at York University. She championed the conservation of important Queensland buildings at a time when they were under threat from the state government led by Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
In 1983, she became the inaugural president of Women in Architecture, a group that raised the profile of female architects through exhibitions, events, and radio interviews.
“These early years of promoting women architects provided the foundations of an attitude that has been fostered since then and passed on to the many women who have encountered her,” Baudet said.
As a public servant, Gardiner created flexible work environment employees to accommodate family demands.
“Gardiner navigated a challenging working environment in the public service with professionalism and grace, showing the world that women were valuable team members and great leaders,” Baudet said. “She advocated for other women and worked to develop and implement non-discriminatory policies.”
She promoted the hidden heritage of Queensland’s female architects through exhibitions and protected their work through heritage listings. She also helped develop heritage policies at state and local government levels.
Gardiner was awarded a Public Service Medal in the 2019 Australia Day Honours for “outstanding public service through management of cultural heritage in Queensland.
The jury for the 2022 Paula Whitman prize comprised Kylie-JoAnn Hughes (Chair of the National Committee for Gender Equity), Erin Crowden (Past EmAGN President and Senior Architect at Proske Architects), Leanne Haidar (SJB Architects and past SONA President), and Alison McFadyen (Parlour Representative and Associate Director at Stallard Meek Flightpath). More

A new supporter program, the Parlour Collective, will create long-term funding security for the gender equity organization and professional opportunities for its supporters. Celebrating its 1oth year in 2022, Parlour promotes gender equity in architecture and across built environment professions. The Parlour Collective will enable those who join it to increase and share knowledge, demonstrate […] More

A vast $119 million school accommodating 2,700 students has been completed in the regional Victorian town of Shepparton.
Greater Shepparton Secondary College designed by Gray Puksand consolidates four existing schools – Mooroopna Secondary College, McGuire College, Wanganui Park Secondary College and Shepparton High School – into a single 22,000 square metre campus.
“The overarching concept for the Campus sees a little town, within its own bigger town. With students joining together from four schools, it was integral we sought to create a sense of community and a ‘home’ for varied groups to join as one,” said Gray Puksand partner Stephen Turner, who led the design of GSSC.

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Greater Shepparton Secondary College by Gray Puksand. Image:

Courtesy Gray Puksand

The spatial arrangement of the school is centred around a central hub, the Enterprise and Innovation Centre, which houses precincts for technology, performing and fine arts, and sciences. The centre allows students to connect to industry, tertiary institutions and trade organizations beyond their schooling years.
Three neighbourhoods, each with three “houses” are connected to the Enterprise and Innovation Centre. Each neighbourhood contains a library, canteen, tiered assembly area, as well as outdoor learning spaces including a rooftop terrace.
“The roofs – when combined on scale – create a silhouette of a town, composed together to see the oscillating features of the built form, acting as orientation points for the entire town,” Turner said.
“Students have their own front door to their own house. It’s their ‘home at school’, a part of their own smaller ‘neighbourhood’ where they can feel a sense of belonging. This was a central component of the design to soften the student experience of suddenly being a part of such a large school that many aren’t, or weren’t, used to.”
A second central hub at the school contains the physical education centre, which includes two multi-sport courts, fitness and weights room, movement studio, game strategy hub, multi-purpose learning studios and amenities.
The design palette of the school buildings draw inspiration from the surrounding region’s mineral geology, agricultural plains and riverbeds. The colours of the exterior are designed to reflect the ever-changing colours of the surrounding terrain and foliage. The campus also features artwork from Yorta Yorta artist Tom Day and Bangerang artist Rebecca Atkinson. More

The Australian government has launched the national competition to design a $316.5 million Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural precinct in Canberra.
The project, to be named “Ngurra,” will create a National Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Centre – a new home for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) – and National Resting Place to house and care for repatriated ancestral remains.
The word Ngurra is used in a number of Aboriginal languages to mean home, camp, a place of belonging and a place of inclusion.
The precinct will be located on the land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, inside the Parliamentary Triangle on one of the main axes of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin’s design for Canberra. It will also be co-located with the the Tent Embassy, National Library of Australia, Questacon, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, and the High Court of Australia.
“This competition will ensure Ngurra has an iconic design fitting for the location while encompassing the importance of the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to this nation,” said Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt.
“We also will be looking for the best design to complement existing national institutions in the Parliamentary Triangle.
“Consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will take place as the design of the precinct progresses to ensure it is fit for purpose and a welcome addition to our national landscape.”
AIATSIS Council Chairperson Jodie Sizer said the winning design “must suit its location, and reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ aspirations, achievements and deep connection to Country.”
AIATSIS has also outlined key themes for the design of the Ngurra Cultural Precinct:

Renew – Reflect deep and enduring respect for heritage and meaningful understanding to advance the cultural values of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Restore – World-leading example of climate-positive design, living place that gives back more to nature than it takes.
Replenish – Unlock meaningful economic opportunities and foster innovation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples nationwide.
Reflect – Welcome all Australians to learn, celebrate, and embrace our common future, and to move forward on a shared journey of global significance.

Stage one of the competition open to eligible Australian architectural, urban design and landscape design firms to submit expressions of interest.
Proponents of the competition strongly encourage the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as part of multidisciplinary teams, however, it is not a requirement.
The competition excludes architects not registered to practice in Australia and multidisciplinary teams located outside Australia.
Stage one submissions close on 1 April. The first stage of competition endorsed by Australian Institute of Architects.
Four participants/teams will be invited to participate in stage two competitive design process. Shortlisted teams will be paid an honorarium of $100,000 to participated in the second stage of the competition.
The jury comprises Indigenous architect Michael Mossman; architects Greg Burgess, Shaneen Fantin and Andrew Smith; as well as prominent Indigenous Australians: musician Clint Bracknell, journalist Stan Grant, academic Marcia Langton, filmmaker Rachel Perkins; and finally former politician Amanda Vanstone. More

A house designed for one of Australia’s most famous historians which itself became an important part of the history of modernist domestic architecture in this country can now be toured virtually.
The Robin Boyd Foundation has released a 3D tour of Manning Clark House, designed by Boyd and built in Forrest, Canberra for the late historian Manning Clark and his wife Dymphna in 1952.
Clark is best known for his six-volume A History of Australia, a controversial work published between 1962 and 1987, which painted Australian history as a tragedy, but which viewed Australians as “more than second-rate Europeans.”
Philip Goad, chair of architecture at the University of Melbourne, noted the similarities between Boyd and Clark, as two thinkers who tried to carve out a unique identity for Australia.
“The house represents in many respects the point in time at which Boyd was trying to map out an architectural identity for Australia – and was doing so at the same time that Clark was trying to map out an Australian historical identity for the nation,” he said.

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Sebastian Clark, son of Manning and Dymphna and president of the not-for-profit Manning Clark House Inc. Image:

Robin Boyd Foundation

The house was captured for the 3D tour in April 2021, when Robin Boyd Foundation volunteers Jonathan Russell and Tim Isaacson travelled to Canberra, immersing themselves in the Clark family home for a week.
Russell and Isaacson scanned the house with a specialized 3D space capture tool known as a Matterport, provided by engineering firm Arup. They also conducted more than 20 hours of video interviews with Clark family members, academics, historians, architecture and heritage experts, volunteers and visitors. Back in Melbourne, augmented reality specialist Phoria provided user interface support to bring the home to life.
Robin Boyd Foundation chair Tony Isaacson said the tour explores the design of the house and its contents, as well as the life of the family who lived there, telling an important story of Australia’s post-war social history and development. “As you navigate through the home, thirty interviews with family, friends, and commentators help you to enjoy and interpret it,” he said. “We love exploring how we can use contemporary technology to reach more people and the Alistair Swayn Foundation, our partners and volunteers have enabled us to go the extra mile, to Canberra, with our third digital tour.”
The tour follows digital explorations of Boyd House II/Walsh Street and the Greg Burgess Studio Archive.
Launched 3 March 2022, on what would have been Clark’s 107th birthday, the Manning Clark House 3D tour is available to view here. More

The Moreton Bay Regional Council has approved the expansion of the University of Sunshine Coast’s Moreton Bay campus with three proposed buildings designed by Kirk.
The buildings will accommodate teaching and research spaces, administrative offices, a car park and sports facilities.
In planning documents, the architect said the design is a continuation of the original masterplan for the campus produced by Hassell. The proposed buildings will also sit opposite the foundation building designed by Hassell, around a landscaped area to be dubbed “the knowledge spine.” Wild Studio is the landscape architect for the project.
Kirk’s indicative design for the masterplan imagines the campus as a series of courtyards with built form placed at the road interface to define an urban grid. The buildings will provide activating frontages to a “knowledge spine.”
“The proposed USC buildings provide engagement ‘hub’ facilities at the ground plane, connecting with the landscaped ‘knowledge spine’ to showcase USC’s growing and active campus,” the architect said. “These flexible facilities provide a plethora of potential uses and for private (internal) and public (external) interactions.”

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The University of Sunshine Coast’s stage two expansion designed by Kirk. Image:

Courtesy University of Sunshine Coast

Kirk director Richard Kirk said, “Most of the proposed building structure will be built from prefabricated engineered timber, providing a fast construction process and sustainable building solution.” The three buildings are expected to be complete in time for the first semester of 2023.
“Other environmental features will include areas of mixed-mode ventilation and high-performance facade designed with the aid of advanced digital tools,” Kirk said.
The University of Sunshine Coast revealed the design of the expansion in November 2021.
“The campus expansion is another step towards creating a thriving innovation ecosystem at The Mill at Moreton Bay in partnership with the Moreton Bay Regional Council and industry,” Helen Bartlett, vice-chancellor and president of USC said at the time.
“These buildings will significantly increase the space available for our teaching and research, as well as provide our students with sporting facilities and more areas for them to study, collaborate and socialize.
“The development will help accommodate the growing student population at USC Moreton Bay, which has exceeded expectations during the campus’s first two years. The strong demand for university education in the region is clearly evident.”
USC Moreton Bay campus is built on the site of a 10.5-hectare former paper mill at Petrie near the railway station. The campus’s first building, designed by Hassell, opened in March 2020, with more than 1,200 students enrolled across 50 undergraduate degrees. The campus is expected to accommodate a student population of 10,000 by 2030. More

The late Bulgarian-born architect Iwan Iwanoff is, according to architect and TV presenter Stuart Harrison, “to Perth what Gaudi is to Barcelona – a figure inseparable from the place [he] worked [in] and helped give identity to.”
An exhibition and book titled Catching Light by Jack Lovel is celebrating his work and seeking to solidify his place as a figure of national importance.
Architectural photographer Jack Lovel, has a long association with the architect’s work, having spent his formative years in a family home designed by Iwanoff, the Jordanoff House (1954) in Perth.

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Marsala House, or the “Dianella Disco House” (1976). Image:

Jack Lovel

Lovel said that the émigré architect’s “revolutionary work” had left an impression at a young age. Around two years ago he set out to capture the few remaining relics of the architect’s career, hoping to give Iwanoff national prominence.
The book captures more than 20 remaining works designed by Iwanoff between his arrival to Perth in 1950 and his death in 1986.
Having studied architecture in Europe, Iwanoff set up his practice, then called The Studio of Iwanoff, in 1963 and became known for its idiosyncratic use of concrete blocks in residential projects. While his work is sometimes referred to as brutalist, he did not subscribe to that school’s prioritizing of the structural and utilitarian over aesthetics.
Lovel’s photographs were previously exhibited in Perth in 2019 at This Is gallery. In a piece written for the 2019 exhibition, Stuart Harrison noted that Iwanoff understood the harsh sun and particular light of Perth.

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Architectural photographer Jack Lovel.

“His layering of concrete block screens in the later work is both artistic expression and also a way of dealing with the Perth summer sun – catching it on the outside and playing with it, shadows and reveals, giant fretwork made from simple cut concrete blocks,” he wrote.
Catching Light is on exhibition at Est Lighting until 31 March. The limited edition hard-cover book includes a foreword by Stuart Harrison and an introduction by Iwanoff’s son Nicolai. More

The Alastair Swayn Foundation has announced that the first round of its 2022 architecture and design grants program is now open for applications. The submission period will close on 11 April 2022. In an expanded program, individuals, groups and organizations may apply for the foundation’s grants, which are available in two categories: Design Strategy ($10,000) […] More