Architecture

The NSW government is preparing to commence construction on its first 3D-printed social housing property. The housing project is a part of a pilot program aimed at addressing the housing shortage and homelessness across the state.
The project involves the introduction of two new 3D-printed duplexes on a vacant block in Dubbo. The aim of the trial is to reduce building cost and construction time by 50 percent, providing housing availability and affordability.

The project construction is anticipated to be finished within a span of 16 weeks, a significant difference compared to the approximately 40 weeks needed for traditional construction methods.

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson said the social housing project is the “first of its kind in the country.” She added that the outcome of this first project will play a crucial role in determining whether the construction method will be adopted for more social and affordable housing projects.
“Utilising modern methods of construction like this 3D printing technology is critically important to delivering social and affordable homes sooner, especially in regional and remote areas.”
In a statement issued by the NSW government, it emphasised a key advantage of using 3D printing in construction is that it produces significantly less waste. “The concrete mix uses eco-friendly, high-recycled materials to produce robust and energy-efficient homes with substantially reduced life cycle maintenance costs,” the statement reads.
“This revolutionary technology […] could form part of the solution to provide homes sooner for people who need them most.”
The homes will provide Aboriginal Housing Office tenants with a home. The project is an initiative of the NSW government, who is working in collaboration with Contour3D and Aboriginal Sustainable Homes.
Construction of the first 3D printed social housing project in New South Wales is expected to commence in late September 2024. More

The City of Hobart has unveiled its draft North Hobart Neighbourhood Plan, inviting public feedback on the twenty-year strategy for the future design and planning of North Hobart.
The draft neighbourhood plan extends on the North Hobart Place Vision Project (2019–2021), which engaged the community in identifying crucial areas requiring development. It proposes the activation of the High Street precinct; increased supply of diverse housing options, including social, affordable and medium-density housing; the introduction of a network of open spaces that connect people to Country; and improved public safety through more bus shelters, public transport options and cycling routes.
Additionally, the draft plan recommends that a North Hobart Oval Sports and Community Precinct Masterplan should be undertaken to investigate the future role of the North Hobart Oval and discern whether there are opportunities to create public open spaces on the site.
The draft plan emphasises that any new buildings should be well-designed and complementary to the existing character and heritage of North Hobart. It also highlights the need to prioritise sustainable design, along with the adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the plan is a critical step in ensuring North Hobart develops in a way that meets the needs of the community for generations to come.
“We are committed to creating a vibrant, inclusive, and well-designed urban area that offers affordable housing and enhanced public spaces,” Reynolds said.
“We value the input of our residents and businesses. Their feedback will help us refine the plan to better serve the community’s needs and aspirations.”
Feedback can be provided via the online portal until 31 August 2024. More

The Australia Pavilion exhibition for the Venice Architecture Biennale of 2023 Unsettling Queenstown makes its way to home soil for its first Australian appearance since the biennale.
The exhibition will be presented at Design Tasmania between 3 August and 8 September 2024.
Curated and developed by the Ali Gumillya Baker, Anthony Coupe, Emily Paech, Sarah Rhodes and Julian Worrall, the installation responded to the overall biennale theme “Laboratory of the Future,” set by curator Lesley Lokko. The exhibition explored concepts of decolonisation and regeneration, focusing on the “unsettling” of two Australian Queenstowns – one in Tasmania and the other in South Australia.
The creative directors explained the exhibition prompts viewers to cast their mind beyond the borders of Australia. “A place both specific and typical, there are Queenstowns all over the world, reflecting the global reach of British colonialism and the impact of its pattern of relations to land, nature and people.”
The display features a large suspended copper structure, two-dimensional paper elements and a multimedia (video and sound) component. The suspended structure dubbed “Belvedere Ghost” is a replica of the arched belvedere of the Empire Hotel, which was built in the year of Australia’s Federation in the copper-mining town of Queenstown, Tasmania. Two video works are also presented as part of the display, each created to convey a personal sense of place.
In his critique of Unsettling Queenstown, Donald Bates said of the multimedia aspect, “I hear a deeper, more connective narrative emerging, as personal stories and reminiscences give anecdotal flesh to the histories of our Queenstowns, laying bare the political, social and racial complexities of the past, present and future Queenstowns,” he said. More

An Aboriginal art fair, a public lecture on climatic architecture, and an exhibition displaying shortlisted designs from an Australian awards program are among the cultural events set to captivate this month.

Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair
The Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair returns to Larrakia Country to celebrate traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, craft and culture. The four-day fair will present the works of more than 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Centres and 1500 Indigenous Australian artists and designers. It will provide an opportunity for individuals to admire and/or ethically acquire authentic First Nations artworks. Paintings, woven works, sculptures, ceramics, photography, lino prints, boab nut carvings, jewellery, and other crafted objects will be on display during the event. The fair will be held between 8 August and 11 August 2024.

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This Geelong-based exhibition presents the works of finalists from the inaugural 2023 Make Award, a biennial prize initiated by the Australian Design Centre that rewards innovation in contemporary Australian craft and design. The creations of thirty shortlisted makers and creators will be on display, their works vast and varied, with objects including ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, jewellery and textiles. The Make Award exhibition will run until 27 October 2024.

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Fold Fetish
Artist Anya Pesce continues her exploration of the acrylic material, polymethyl methacrylate, in a new exhibition featuring pieces that assume a draping form – much like suspended fabrics. Pesce produces her pieces in a factory setting. The flat acrylic sheets are heated to 170 degrees celsius and manipulated into works of art. The folded works both reveal and conceal, and while the often highly reflective surfaces are visually striking, it is the less obvious, shadowed under folds that invite a more intimate inspection. Works in this Sydney exhibition are positioned on walls and the floor. Fold Fetish will be presented until 17 August 2024.

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Climatic Architecture
On 27 August 2024, visiting Treseder Fellow and acclaimed Swiss architect Philippe Rahm will deliver a public lecture at the Melbourne School of Design on the future of designing with the elements to combat climate change. In the face of climate change, Rahm proposes resetting the discipline of architecture to focus on its intrinsic elements: air, light, heat, and humidity. Together, these elements can become design tools for shaping our built environment.

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A new boutique hotel with an industrial-inspired exterior wrapped in weathered steel has opened in Fitzroy, Melbourne.
The sturdy, stacked structure – designed by architecture firm Woods Bagot in collaboration with Hecker Guthrie for interiors – houses the StandardX, an international hotel chain.
The eight-storey building accommodates 125 suites, a rooftop restaurant and bar for hotel guests, a second restaurant, a lobby, an elevated loft with a fireplace, a retail outlet, several common areas, and a bodega.
Its robust exterior of Corten steel was intended to pay homage to Fitzroy’s industrial history as Melbourne’s oldest suburb. Rather than adopting a sleek and polished facade, the building references the gritty, unrefined character and urban texture of its location.

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Woods Bagot’s principal, Peter Miglis, and project leader, Robert Rosamilia, said the building reads like it belongs.
“The building rapidly assumes a distinctly local patina that speaks to Fitzroy’s convergence of industrial heritage and contemporary artistic sensibility,” said Rosamilia. “It’s a building that’s entirely of its place,” he added.
Miglis reiterated those sentiments, mentioning that the hotel was created to cater to the experiential traveller who desires to “immerse themselves in the rhythm and pulse of place.”

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Hecker Guthrie applied a similar approach the interior design, drawing inspiration from Fitzroy’s heritage as a working-class suburb full of cultural vibrancy. The studio characterised the interiors as a blend of “grittiness” and “modern comforts.”
Standout interior features include a bold revolving door, a ground floor that opens to an elevated loft with a fireplace, custom furniture and antique pieces, and internal columns wrapped in macrame by local artist Sarah Smalltown. Local artists’ works are displayed throughout the interiors, again emphasising the connection to place.
The StandardX opened on 8 August 2024. Construction began on the building in March 2022.
The project is shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards in the Completed Buildings: Hotel and Leisure category. More

The Sydney Design Week 2024 program has been revealed, featuring a lineup of visionary designers, architects and artists who are pioneering new possibilities for the future through design practice.

Titled “In Between Worlds,” Sydney Design Week 2024 invites presenters and attendees to consider how cities can enhance inclusivity and how design can innovate to support sustainable models for living, connection and culture. Throughout the week-long event, festivalgoers will encounter compelling conversations, research, narratives and bodies of work, all reflecting this year’s central theme.
Sydney Design Week creative director Keinton Butler said as humans confront a future marked by growing division, creativity and imagination have emerged as critical tools in reshaping our perspectives on how we live. “This year’s design week program highlights leading designers and architects who are challenging the status quo, to reimagine more resilient, sustainable and inclusive cities.”

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Key highlights of the festival include a keynote discussion by Sumayya Vally, architect and artistic director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale, who will speak on designing for belonging. Additionally, architect David Gianotten, the managing partner of the international architecture practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), will share insights into the evolving role of architecture.
Moroccan-British artist Hassan Hajjaj will share his approach to image-making while international space architect Melodie Yashar will discuss the ethics of space settlement. Architecture professor and co-founder of the Barcelona-based MAIO Architects Anna Puigjaner will explore the reimagination of domestic spaces and the role of design in social transformation.
Sydney Design Week 2024 will be held at various locations across Sydney from 13–19 September. For the full program, visit the Sydney Design Week website. More

A new primary school precinct designed to reflect the school’s teaching philosophy and the site’s pineapple-farm past has opened on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
The finished primary school precinct at Suncoast Christian College, designed by M3 Architecture, features a new three-storey wing with open-plan teaching environments and connections to the outdoors. The building is wrapped in steel mesh, maximising ventilation and light penetration through to the verandahs while simultaneously keeping students safe.
M3 Architecture director Ben Vielle said they placed great importance on understanding the college’s co-teaching model.
“Suncoast Christian College has a co-teaching pedagogy whereby two year levels of three streams are taught together as a stage. We devised a model for each stage where 150 students could cohabitate the space across two to three floors in various teaching modes. At various times of the day, they reconfigure to suit how they want to learn. Within those environments there are specialist spaces as well. Each of the three stages has a makerspace, a kitchen, and lounge areas. A lot of children refer to it as like their home,” Vielle said.

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The new wing accommodates 450 students between grades one and six. Spaces for each of the three stages – years one and two, three and four, and five and six –have been seasonally colour-coordinated to create a sense of belonging, as well as reference the site’s history as farm land. Spaces for the grade one and two stage feature an autumnal colour palette, with rooms named after autumnal fruits to help students recognise seasonal produce patterns. Winter and spring themes have been selected for the other two stages.
In shared areas, there is a deliberate gradation of colour from the highly saturated entry to the more neutral, large teaching settings.

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The project involved a highly collaborative process between the architect and the client, with the college providing consultation throughout the design process.
Suncoast Christian College principal Greg Mattiske said the building embodies the culture of the school. “All the things that we said were important to us and we wanted the building to do, have been expressed in the architecture,” Mattiske said. “The light, space, colour, connection with the rural site and its history is so good for student and teacher wellbeing, it’s palpable.”
The concept designs for the precinct were unveiled in November 2021. More

Elizabeth Carpenter has been elected as the Australian Institute of Architects New South Wales chapter president, in replacement of Adam Haddow, who stepped down following his appointment as national president elect.
Carpenter is a practising architect with over 30 years of experience. She is a managing principal and company secretary at FJC Studio and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). She has served on the NSW Australian Institute of Architects Chapter Council, among other design and advocacy committees.
Carpenter said she is honoured to represent the NSW chapter.
“I am committed to advocating for a sustainable future. This is not just a desire but a necessity and should be our primary focus. Sustainability should permeate every aspect of our work—it starts from the beginning and is a state of mind rather than an add-on. Recognising and promoting sustainable work practices is as important as the projects we produce,” she said.
“My approach is collaborative, welcoming participation and engagement. I aim to draw upon the combined expertise of the many active members of the Institute’s community and expand this community further.
“We all know the critical issues facing our profession and our interaction with the built environment. However, I want to take the time to personally ask what we can do better to improve our impact and how we can work together as a connected community of professionals.”
Carpenter will serve as chapter president until the end of 2024. Her three areas of focus as chapter president will be housing, supporting graduate and emerging architects, and maintaining and communicating the value of the craft of architecture. More