Architecture

The best of Australia’s early career designers have been recognized at the presentation of the Vivid Design Awards on 26 November.
The awards program is Australia’s longest running competition for emerging designers, and has unearthed talents such as Adam Markowitz and Lab De Stu.
“2021 set a higher standard than ever before, and many of the finalists and winners are already on the path to long and successful careers,” said Vivid curator Daniel Dalla Riva of Latitude Group.
The Judge’s Dhoice Award went to Dean Norton for a range of entries, including the Float coffee tables. Made entirely from glass, the tables explore transparency, texture and light.

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Float Collection by Dean Norton.

“I loved how well resolved Dean’s work was, and how it had a consistent language across all the pieces,” said Cassie Hansen, Vivid judge and editor of Artichoke magazine. “I can see a bright future for this designer and can’t wait to feature him in the pages of Artichoke soon.”
Winners were also named across categories of furniture, light, object and concepts, as well as for the Colour Award, and Authentic Design Alliance Award of Merit.
Joining Hansen on the jury were: Anne-Maree Sergeant (Authentic Design Alliance), Dalila Yorke (Showroom by Bowens), Rachel Oakley (Laminex), Andrea Lucena-Orr (Dulux), Bernadette Wilson (Design Institute of Australia), Edward Linacre (Copper Design), Georgia Danos (James Richardson Furniture), Adam Markowitz (Markowitz Design) and Filip Bjazevic (Latitude Group).
The winners are:
2021 Vivid Judges Choice Award
Dean Norton
Furniture Design Award
Arc Bench – Samuel Burns
Object Design Award and Colour Award
Optic Candelabra – Isaac Pelchen
Concept Design Award
Poly Chair – Julia Quirk
Light Design Award
Onu Floor Light – Samuel Burns
2021 Authentic Design Alliance (ADA) Award of Merit
Arc Bench – Samuel BurnsOn Hold Wall Hook – Zachary Hanna
The 2021 Vivid Design Awards were presented at Showroom by Bowens, and is supported by Artichoke magazine, Dulux, Design Institute of Australia (DIA), Authentic Design Alliance (ADA) and Houzz, as well as principal partner Laminex.
Winners’ and finalists’ designs are on display until 6 December. More

Australian projects are among the category winners of the 2021 Inside World Festival of Interiors Awards. Smart Design Studio’s own office in Sydney’s Alexandria was named winner of the Workplace (small) category while in the Workplace (large) catetory, CBA Axle South Eveleigh by Woods Bagot was highly commended. Bates Smart’s Gandel Wing at Melbourne’s Cabrini […] More

The central building in the Waterloo Metro Quarter development has been approved, despite objections that the developer has watered down its commitment to providing affordable housing. Designed by Hassell and Aileen Sage Architects, with Aspect Studios as landscape architect, the 23-storey Central Precinct tower is one of four major buildings proposed as part of the […] More

Local Adelaide practices Thomson Rossi and Brown Falconer have designed a new $84.4 million high school for the city’s north-east. Morialta Secondary College will be built on the site of the soon-to-be vacated Norwood Morialta High School Middle Campus, whose aging buildings will be demolished. It will be ready for a year 7 intake in […] More

Australian firm I2C Architects and UK firm Ryder Architecture have designed a build-to-rent apartment complex for Oakleigh South in south-east Melbourne that will also include a dedicated coworking space for residents working from home. Known as Fieldworks House, the eight-storey building will be the area’s first build-to-rent development. It will feature an 1,800-sqaure-metre podium with […] More

The ACT minister for the environment and sustainable building and construction Rebecca Vassarotti has announced the winners of the Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge.
Organized by a group of architects, the competition aimed to showcase exemplary homes that demonstrate significant reductions in their carbon footprint, while also drawing attention to the carbon intensity of the housing boom. Each new home built in Canberra contributes around 500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
“For every house built, we would need to plant around 3,000 trees to offset these emissions, or we can design our houses in a way that reduces carbon and provides climate positive outcomes,” said architect Melinda Dodson, who initiated the competition. “Examples are reduced house size, use of low carbon or recycled materials, solar passive design, efficient heating and cooling, and renewables such as rooftop solar.
“We’ve made great progress with energy efficient homes, but what’s missing is the broader assessment of the total carbon footprint – the carbon impacts of manufacturing and transporting materials, and the energy expended in constructing a house are an important part of the equation.”

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First prize for an alts and adds house:
Pettit and Sevitt Net-zero Makeover by Light House Architecture and Science. Image:

Courtesy Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge

The competition was open to registered architects in the ACT who submitted their designs to be carbon modelled using a a proprietary Rapid LCA software by E-Tool.
Dodson and students from the University of Canberra then worked with lifecycle assessors from E-Tool to analyze the modelling results for each house.
The jury of architects assessed the projects for “compelling and diverse architectural solutions to the crucial issue of lowering carbon [as well as] design clarity, value for money and innovative sustainable solutions.”
The competition included low- and medium-density housing as well as affordable housing. More than half of the entries were net-zero carbon.
“This is an impressive achievement on its own merits, but all the more important when you consider that Canberra could save over 18 million tonnes of GHG emissions if around half of its low and medium density new houses, expected to be built over the next two decades, were also net-zero,” Dodson said. “This would translate to more than 40,000 new net-zero houses and offers a real opportunity to help in the fight for our planet’s climate.”
The winners are:
New house category
First prize for a net-zero new house
Narrabundahaus – Michael Tolhurst Architects
Second prize for a low carbon house
Blackwood House – Mather Architecture
Commendations for net-zero new house
White House – Light House Architecture and ScienceCollector House – Open Principle Architecture
Commendations for low-carbon new house
Ironbark House – Allan Spira ArchitectsCanberra ‘Beach’ House – Light House Architecture and Science
Alts and adds (existing house renovations and extensions) category
First prize for an alts and adds house
Pettit and Sevitt Net-zero Makeover – Light House Architecture and Science
Second prize for a low carbon house
Little Loft House – Light House Architecture and Science
Multi-gen (medium density townhouses, duplexes, granny flats) category
Second prize for a low carbon house
Whitlam ‘Multi-gen’ Townhouses – Heyward Lance Architecture More

The South Australian government has unveiled new designs by Cox Architecture for the 16-storey Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre at Lot Fourteen, an area of urban revewal at the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.
Cox Architecture’s design builds on the concept design prepared by Baukultur, delivering a “series of twisting and interconnected floorplates, a faceted facade, public atrium and landscaped roof terrace.”
In a statement, the government said Cox Architecture’s design had been granted planning approval. The Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre is intended to be a lynchpin for Lot Fourteen, “fostering idea exchange, accelerating commercialisation and business growth, while catalysing joint research between business, universities and the public sector.”
The government has previously said that interested tenants include the federal government, universities and global defence and technology companies.

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The Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre by Cox Architecture.

The ground and first floors will be occupied by an Innovation Hub, with the ground floor to be an open area for events and collaboration, accessible to the public.
The federal government has committed up to $20 million in capital towards the establishment of the Innovation Hub through the Adelaide City Deal.
South Australian premier Steven Marshall said his government would be seeking expressions of interest in 2022 year for a suitably qualified organisation focused on business acceleration and commercialisation to operate and manage the Innovation Hub.
“Our vision is to create a curated ecosystem of entrepreneurs, researchers and global companies to help build the future of innovation and a pipeline of jobs for South Australia,” he said.
The wider Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre will be developed, owned and managed by property management firm Quintessential Equity. The company has also signed a 10-year lease on the Innovation Hub.

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The Entrepreneur and Innovation Centre by Cox Architecture.

“We’re incredibly excited to be developing the Innovation Hub, which will be the centrepiece of the EIC and a gateway to attracting and retaining world-leading talent to Adelaide,” said executive chairman Shane Quinn.
“Embodying the office and workplace of the future, the EIC will be a powerful generator of jobs of the future – and this dedicated Hub will be a place where ideas, research and entrepreneurship can thrive.
“The revised design is more functional and accessible as we focus on collaboration and the provision of a healthy and engaging work environment.”
Construction is scheduled to start in mid 2022 and tenants are expected to move in from 2024. More

A trimmed version of Koichi Takada Architects’ South Brisbane “urban forest” tower has been approved, after the original 30-storey proposal was deemed too tall. In its original form, the 88 Merivale Street tower was to be home to 1,003 trees. The approved design is for a 20-storey tower supporting around 400 trees along with a […] More