Architecture

Kerstin Thompson Architects‘ long-awaited “art bridge” for the Bundanon Trust in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales will open on 29 January.
The project, designed in collaboration with Wraight and Associates, Craig Burton and Atelier 10, adds a creative learning centre and accommodation for 64 guests as well as café and dining facilities to a 1,100-hectare property established by the late artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd in 1993. The landscape of the property heavily influenced the paintings of Arthur Boyd.
Kerstin Thompson Architects’ design consists of two parts: a 160-metre-long, 9-metre-wide bridge-like structure, and a subterranean art museum and collections store.
“The design is driven by Bundanon’s main imperative, as established by the Boyd family, to foster an appreciation for and understanding of landscape and art,” said Kerstin Thompson. “We have placed the site’s ecology at the centre of the design with the new suite of buildings and landscapes responding to Bundanon as both subject and site of Arthur Boyd’s work, seeking to heighten the visitor’s appreciation for the sights, sounds, textures, and ecological workings of the landscape. Both the Art Museum and Bridge respond to current and future climatic conditions, with inspiration drawn from rural Australia’s trestle flood bridges.”

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Bundanon Art Museum and Bridge by Kerstin Thompson Architects in collaboration with Wraight Associates, Craig Burton and Atelier 10. Image:

Zan Wimberley

The bridge spans an existing gully and allows flood waters to naturally flow across the site. The project is also designed to be defensive against bushfires.
Solar power, passive temperature control, rain water harvesting, black water treatment, as well as the use of local materials all contribute towards the Bundanon Trust’s net-zero ambition for the project.
The Bundanon collection holds 1,448 works by Arthur Boyd as well Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, Joy Hester and Charles Blackman. The Riversdale property includes a historic homestead complex as well as the Boyd Education Centre, designed by Glenn Murcutt, Wendy Lewin and Reg Lark in 1999. The new additions share an expansive public plaza, which is located near the existing nineteenth century buildings.
The $34 million project was supported by the federal ($22.5 million) and state ($10.3 million) governments. The federal government also announced in the 2020 budget a further $6 million over two years for Bundanon’s operations.
The inaugural exhibition, From impulse to action, will feature works of Boyd’s as well as contemporary artists working in choreography and film, photography and performance, weaving and sound. Some of the artworks incorporate clay from the Bundanon site. More

A hotel and apartment tower proposed for 372 Pitt Street in Sydney, midway between Town Hall and Central, would cater to the city’s burgeoning tech industry, according to a development application. Woods Bagot has prepared concept designs for the proposed tower, which would be up to 57 storeys, the bulk of them dedicated to hotel […] More

The South Australian government has released vision for the planned regeneration of the final stretch of Breakout Creek in Adelaide, where the Karrawirra Parri (River Torrens) meets the sea.
Stage 3 of the Breakout Creek redevelopment is designed by TCL, the firm which kicked off the project to reinstate the riverine wetlands in 1998. It will transform what is now an artificial channel stretching from Tapleys Hill Road to the Torrens Outlet at West Beach into a healthier creek system, which will be opened up for community access.
“The Breakout Creek redevelopment has been a 30-year environmental project, transforming a total of 2.7 kilometres of river stretching from upstream of Henley Beach Road to the Torrens Outlet on the coast,” said SA minister for environment and water David Speirs.
“The project will see 15 hectares of public land unlocked for community use, while delivering significant environmental benefits including improved water quality and wildlife habitat.”
“Not only will the works create a healthier river and habitat for threatened fish and birds, it will also create an improved place to visit, with new paths and river crossings, picnic areas, as well as viewing decks and places for learning about biodiversity and the local environment.”

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Breakout Creek Stage 3 redevelopment by TCL.

The $12 million-dollar project is being delivered by the state government office Green Adelaide, together with the City of Charles Sturt, the City of West Torrens, the South Australian Attorney-General’s Department through the Planning and Development Fund, the federal government (which is contributing $2 million from the Environment Restoration Fund) and SA Water. The government said it was committed to working with the Taditional Owners, the Kaurna people.
Green Adelaide board presiding member Chris Daniels said that the final stage would continue the good work started in the 1990s and early 2000s, and would potentially make the creek habitable by platypuses.
“Since those sections have been improved, we’ve seen more native fish, more native birds and better water quality across the River Torrens system,” he said.
“The completion of the Breakout Creek redevelopment is a big rewilding milestone for Adelaide’s much-loved river.
“We know that the Torrens is and always will be brownish, like most of Australia’s rivers, because of the tannins in our vegetation and soil.
“We also know that there is a strong population of native water rats, or rakali, along the Torrens today, particularly at the revamped sections of Breakout Creek which demonstrates the healthier river environment.
“So, we are now thinking that if the River Torrens ecosystem is supporting these mammals already, platypuses may have a good life in the river too.
“That’s why Green Adelaide is now leading the development of a scoping study to better understand the possibility of bringing platypus back to the River Torrens / Karrawirra Parri.
“This potential reintroduction is an exciting next step in continuing the improvement of the Torrens we all love so much.” More

A small waste-to-energy pavilion idea and an urban proposal to establish an uninterrupted network of green spaces across Sydney have jointly won the 2022 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work.
The AA Prize for Unbuilt Work aims to promote discussion and debate about contemporary design ideas.
“This year’s jury were impressed by the range of proposals that sought to confront our environmental challenges in creative and compelling ways,” said jury chair Katelin Butler.
“The joint winners – Native Networks by Layla Stanley and Gas Stack by Simulaa with Finding Infinity – both present as provocations that promote urban transformations. Native Networks is at the big-picture, strategic end of the spectrum while Gas Stack slots into the macro plan as a smaller-scale experiment that suggests incremental change.”
The jury also awarded one honourable mention and four special mentions.
On the jury were: Julian Anderson, director at Bates Smart (the 2021 prize winner); Justin Hill, director, Kerry Hill Architects; Lee Hillam, co-director, Dunn and Hillam Architects; Mel Dodd, head of the department of architecture, MADA, Monash University; and Katelin Butler, editorial director of Architecture Media.
The winners and mentions are:
Joint winners
Gas Stack – Simulaa with Finding Infinity
Native Networks – Layla Stanley
Honourable mention
A Rare Relation – between Tasmania and Antarctica – Kathrine Vand (personal project), Core Collective Architects
Special mentions
Crying Room – Michael Chapman
House 186.3 – Curious Practice
Puzzling Evidence – Liam Oxlade
Sand Castles – Calum York and William McRoberts
For more coverage, see the January/February 2022 issue of Architecture Australia, on sale 21 January. More

It will soon be easier for Australian architects to work in the UK, with negotiations on a Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) in their final stages. The Architects Accreditation Council of Australia, welcoming the signing of the free trade agreement between Australia and the United Kingdom on December 17, said the MRA was due to be […] More

WA’s first children’s hospice, envisioned as an intimate facility surrounded by nature and close to the ocean, is closer to fruition, with plans lodged with the State Development Assessment Unit. Designed by Hassell, the $25.5 million facility will accommodate seven beds, three family suites as well as shared family and play rooms, a hydrotherapy pool, […] More

Nino Sydney, the man behind the famous Beachcomber house and long-time chief architect of Lend Lease Homes, has died at the age of 89.
Born in Croatia, Sydney arrived in Australia – to the city whose name he shared – in 1955, completing his study of architecture at the University of Sydney from 1956 to 1958.
After working in architecture practice in Germany and Luxemburg, he was appointed chief architect of Lend Lease Homes (Lend Lease’s project homes division) in 1961, a position he would hold until 1973.
His very first design for the firm was the iconic Beachcomber, an elevated, Le Corbusier-inspired house that has become synonymous with an affordable, laidback Australian modernism. Around 200 Beachcombers were built during the 1960s, and a website dedicated to the house design has identified around 40 still standing, along with another hundred copycats.
A biography of Sydney by Davina Jackson relates that he designed more than 50 house styles for Lend Lease, along with a house in Tahiti for Lend Lease founder Dick Dusseldorp. In 1967, he won the NSW RAIA Project House design award for his Casa Blanca model.

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1962 magazine clipping about the radical new Beachcomber house.

Sydney’s Beachcomber and Pan-Pacific designs were first built on a property at Carlingford, and promoted as part of the historic 1962 Carlingford Homes Fair, which included 19 project homes designed by leading architects such as Ken Woolley, Harry Seidler, Clark Gazzard, John Ley, Towell Rippon and Michael Dysart.
Sydney’s son, Mark Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his dad was passionate about “making good things.”
“If you asked him for his proudest achievement, it was that he could develop modern architecture for Australians and still keep it affordable,” he told the paper. “He loved the work of Harry Seidler among others, but felt their homes were often within the remit of very wealthy people who had the money to pay for them.”
From 1973 to 1997, Sydney directed his own practice delivering custom-designed houses – many of them elevated like the Beachcomber. His biography notes that he was also a keen sportsman, competing in squash and water polo at a high level.
Sydney is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Vera, and their children Mark, Maya and Danny. More

A Richards and Spence-designed apartment building proposed for 31 Doggett Street, Tenerife would embrace the design ethos of the nearby James Street Precinct, where the firm has designed a collection of buildings including The Calile Hotel. The six-storey tower would house 22 “boutique” apartments, including four three-bedroom apartments, a rooftop recreation space and retail and […] More