Architecture

TAFE NSW has announced a new First Nations Interior Design Scholarship, which will support Indigenous students in the Bachelor of Interior Design at TAFE NSW Design Centre Enmore.
The scholarship will be open to one student each year, starting from 2022 through to 2024, and will cover the full fees for the degree as well as educational support throughout each successful applicant’s studies.
Richard Cass, head of Creative and Design Ideation at TAFE NSW, said the scholarships would be awarded on the basis of study and career potential – including career goals, motivation and creative portfolio.
“The Bachelor of Interior Design allows students to develop practical design skills and learn the theory needed to equip them with a sound understanding of design best practice, both in Australia and internationally,” he said.
“TAFE NSW will ensure that scholarship recipients receive academic support through progressive review and solutions with head teachers, teachers and the Aboriginal Education and Engagement Team.
“TAFE NSW Design Centre Enmore is a purpose-built design studio where students are able to immerse themselves in design. It’s the perfect place to build design skills and get a head start in the booming interior design industry.”
The scholarship is supported by furniture company Stylecraft. Anthony Collins, Stylecraft’s managing director, said the scholarship presented an exciting opportunity for aspiring Indigenous designers.
“Stylecraft has committed to the scholarship program for three years,” he said. “By 2024, three students will be in the Interior Design stream completing the scholarship program. We will also work with TAFE NSW to identify any internship or mentoring opportunities for scholarship recipients within Stylecraft or industry partners and clients.”
“The ultimate aim of the program is to encourage participation by Indigenous Australians in the Interior Design profession, and we look forward to contributing to the students’ design journey,” he said. More

Fender Katsalidis has designed six apartment buildings of between seven and eleven storeys for Pennant Hills Road in Carlingford, north east of Parramatta. Lined up along a steep incline, the buildings will be arranged around a central village forecourt, with public pedestrian paths running between buildings and leading to a future light rail connection. The […] More

Two complementary apartment towers designed by Rothelowman will be built in Brisbane’s West End, under a planning proposal submitted to council. Known as Tower 4 and Tower 5a, the towers will both reach to 20-storeys. Tower 5a, which will be built first, will have 95 apartments while its twin will have 110. According to Rothelowman’s […] More

Hassell and SO-IL’s masterplan for phase one of the Melbourne Arts Precinct transformation (MAPT) is going before council on 1 February, as Development Victoria seeks approval for a planning amendment to pave the way for the development.
Phase one of the “once-in-a-generation” project will see the construction of the NGV Contemporary gallery as well as an elevated deck above Sturt Street supporting a new 18,000-sqaure-metre public realm and upgrades to the Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building, mostly back-of-house.
The masterplan outlines the preferred building envelope for the NGV Contemporary – the design team of which is to be announced in early 2022 – and describes the proposed design for the public realm and elevated deck.
NGV Contemporary will be built in place of the existing building at 77 Southbank Boulevard, and the masterplan proposes a built form with a height of 60 metres, cantilevering over Sturt Street reserve, Kavanagh Street and Southbank Boulevard.

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Melbourne Arts Precinct transformation phase 1 masterplan by Hassell and SO-IL.

The elevated deck would span the full width of the Sturt Street Road reserve, from City Road through to Kavanagh Street, interfacing with the Australian Ballet Centre along its western edge and connecting with the future NGV Contemporary building to the south.
The 18,000-squaremetre activated public realm, incorporating space for outdoor dining, art and performances, would be predominantly located above existing built form (The Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building and car park) and the new elevated deck structure.
“MAPT will enable visitors to move seamlessly from Southbank, the Birrarung and the city through the Melbourne Arts Precinct extending from Federation Square in the north and the length of Sturt Street in the south,” the masterplan reads.
“Featuring creative installations, activations, and performances in the public space, the MAPT will bring the excitement, colour, and inspiration that we find inside Melbourne’s theatres and galleries into the outdoors.”
Victoria’s planning minister is the authority tasked with approving the requested amendment, but it has been referred to the City of Melbourne for comment.
The council’s in-house urban design and landscape architecture team offered in principle support to the vision, noting that the raised public realm had the potential to unify the precinct, which has been historically fractured by geographic barriers.
However, the City Design team also recommended that “more robust contextual analysis, principles, strategies, staging plans and massing envelopes are established.”
In particular, the City Design team said built form encroachment over Kavanagh Street and Southbank Boulevard should be removed to maintain appropriate pedestrian network conditions and that “further rationalization and detail” is required to proposed gateways and connections between the Melbourne Arts Precinct and surrounding context.
Council management are recommending that the Future Melbourne committee advises the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning that further detail is required to be provided in the masterplan before council can support the proposed amendment. More

The Heritage Council of Victoria has resolved to include a Maggie Edmond designed amphitheatre and Paul Couch designed pavilion in the Victorian Heritage Register, contravening a recommendation from the executive director of Heritage Victoria. The amphitheatre and pavilion are part of the Fairfield Park Amphitheatre Complex in north-east Melbourne, which also includes a small kiosk […] More

Three purpose-built quarantine centres in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth have been designed by Billard Leece Partnership together with Aecom, the design team of the existing Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.
Known as the Centres for National Resilience, the facilities are being delivered by the federal government in partnership with the respective state governments, with the federal government funding construction and the state governments responsible for operation and maintenance.
The facilities will initially open with between 250 and 500 beds and there is scope to expand capacity to meet future demand.
BLP principal and project director Emily Gilfillan said the project had redefined the speed at which the buildings are delivered.
“This is a once in a lifetime type of project,” she said. “We have designed, documented, and delivered while concurrently undertaking briefings. With many stakeholders to consider, there are many moving parts. We have brought them all together, distilling everything into a workable understanding of what is needed.
“Through planning, design, and process, the outcome for the Centres for National Resilience will be a human-centric experience that promotes health and wellbeing and provides safety for the community through great design.”

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Melbourne Centre for National Resilience by Billard Leece Partnership with AECOM.

The Melbourne facility is being built on the southern side of the existing Post Entry Quarantine Facility at Mickleham, the Perth facility will be located on Defence-owned land at Bullsbrook and the Brisbane centre will be located at the Damascus Barracks in Pinkenba.
The Mickleham site is similar to the size of Melbourne’s CBD. BLP noted that the design incorporated modular and prefabricated components to expedite the speed of delivery.
“This project utilizes our experience in health, seniors living and communities, science and technology, and workplace design, to ensure that we create a project from best practice,” said managing director Tara Veldman.
The design also prioritizes sustainability, with high-efficiency fittings and fixtures, native landscaping, use of water-sensitive urban design principles, and carefully considered material choices with good life cycles.
“With such a large project, a comprehensive approach was required to design an integrated and interconnected facility,” said BLP design lead Ivan Turcinov. “Essentially, the design is focused on providing a positive experience for the residents who will come through this facility as well as staff and visitors. The design makes the resident’s journey as seamless as possible.”
The centres were scheduled to be complete in early 2022, however, according to tender documents from the WA government the Perth facility may not be ready to open until July 2022, the ABC reports. More

The NSW Land and Environment Court has approved a proposal for a five-storey apartment building designed by Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects after a dispute over its bulk and scale.
To be built at 351– 53 New South Head Road in Double Bay, Sydney, the building will replace two large detached houses and deliver 15 apartments, including 20 percent affordable apartments.
Hill Thalis notes in planning documents that the building will join a “heterogeneous mix” of buildings in the area, including a number of taller buildings nearby, and that the design represents an appropriate transition between the commercial area immediately to the east and the less built-up residential area to the west.
“The architectural expression is united by a palette of materials and balanced asymmetrical forms that should make it an exemplar of such an apartment building type,” the firm notes. “Well-scaled concrete blade walls set the outboard corners, framing projecting concrete slabs. The body of the building is a white face brick, with lightweight cladding on the angled projecting bays which provide modelling and well-proportioned articulation to the side elevations.”

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351– 53 New South Head Road, Double Bay by Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects.

However, since the proposal was first revealed in mid-2019 it has attracted criticism from residents concerned about its size and potential impact on views, overshadowing and vegetation, with some 57 submissions made over a number of notification periods.
Woollahra Municipal Council approved the development application in December 2020, subject to a number of conditions, including that “apartment 17” and the easternroof terrace on the top storey be deleted “in order to reduce the height, bulk and scale of the proposed development and to achieve the desired future character of the Wallaroy Precinct.”
The project’s developer Kingsford Property Developments appealed to the Land and Environment Court to strike out this condition, along with conditions related to construction hours. Hill Thalis amended the plans as part of the appeal, maintaining the fifth-storey apartment, but reducing the scale of that level and the building as a whole.
During the court’s hearing, Woollahra Council said it no longer opposed the fifth-storey apartment, but proposed some further amendments to improve the compatibility of the development with the character of the local area.
However, presiding commissioner Michael Chilcott found that the council’s proposed amendments would “provide only modest improvements to the view” and that the resultant reduction in available floor space for affordable housing would not serve the public interest.
The court upheld the developer’s appeal and approved the development application. More