Architecture

The federal government has unveiled the chosen design for the National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, to be built in Canberra.
The winning proposal, “Transparency and Truth” by architects Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley, comprises a series of catenary arches made of glass blocks with a meandering path encircling a meadow of perennial grasses and wildflowers.
“The memorial design seeks to hold in balance an acknowledgement of strength and vitality on the one hand, and recognition of trauma and loss on the other,” said the architects. “The individual pieces of cast glass carry immense loads yet together create forms of exceptional grace and lightness, representing both fragility and great resilience.”
A national memorial for victims of child sexual abuse was one of the recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which handed down its final report in 2017.
The competition jury, chaired by the royal commission chairperson Peter McClellan, also included four representatives of victims and survivors, as well as five experts including architect Peter Tonkin and artist Yhonnie Scarce.
The jury unanimously agreed the proposal by Spresser and Besley was a “beautiful and sensitive response to the brief.”

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‘Transparency and Truth,’ the winning design for the National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse by Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley. Image:

Courtesy National Capital Authority

They especially lauded the design for its absence of hidden chamber, walls or dark corners. They found the glass catenary arches, signifying load and strength “resonated with the jury as a place of substance imbued with hope.” The garden of wildflowers and grasses had “significant potential for a child or children to be represented sympathetically with the entire work.”
The jury believe that the proposal “will make a significant contribution toward the healing for those who have suffered and provide a place that people would likely visit more than once, with each visit deepening their personal understanding.”
“The National Memorial will provide both a beautiful place for quiet reflection and an opportunity for deepening community understanding of the tragic consequences of abuse,” said Peter McClellan.
Minister for families and social services Anne Ruston added, “The National Memorial would stand as a place of truth and reflection for people with lived experience and their families and supporters, as well as an enduring reminder of the responsibility to create a safer world for our children.”
The jury also commended two other schemes: “Converging Voices” by Paul Saywer, Ben Juckes and Kieran Ward and “Remembrances, Reflection, Healing and Hope” by Morq.
The memorial will be built on Acton Peninsula overlooking Lake Burley Griffin. Construction is due to begin later in 2022. More

The Australian Institute of Architects has welcomed a Victorian government policy aimed at building women’s participation in the construction industry, and called on other states and territories to bring in similar plans. Victoria’s Building Equality Policy, launched at the beginning of 2022, implements onsite and apprentice-trainee quotas and requires suppliers to develop Gender Equality Action […] More

Bates Smart and Smart Design Studio have designed the first two towers for a nine-building residential centre planned near the new Norwest Metro Station in Sydney’s Hills Shire.
The masterplan for the development, known as Norwest Quarter, calls for “nine slender residential towers of varying heights and shapes, with large sep­aration distances between buildings and an expansive ground plane for landscaping and amenity.”
Stage 1 of the project will see the delivery of Building B, a 14-storey tower designed by Smart Design Studio containing 81 apartments, and Building C, a 24-storey building designed by Bates Smart with 115 apartments.
Each building will also include retail and hospitality tenancies at the ground level connecting to the public domain.
Aspect Studios is leading the landscape design, while Terroir and environmental sustainability firm Finding Infinity are also working on the project.
Building B by Smart Design Studio will be located on the western-most portion of the site and will act as the gateway building to the precinct. Its overall building mass will be split down the centre to create distinct slender parallel forms connected by a central corridor, providing natural light, views and ventilation.

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Building B by Smart Design Studio

“These parallel forms slide in opposite north-south directions, reducing the building mass, and bringing them into overall alignment with Spurway Drive to the north and Solent Circuit to the south,” the firm notes.
Perimeter balconies with solid horizontal balustrades will provide repetition and modula­tion along the building’s facades.
“Bold angled blades rise vertically up the tower form, articulating the façade whilst managing views, privacy and the sun,” Smart Design Studio notes. “At top, these blades terminate in a series of connected concave roof forms which reach up to the sky.”
Bates Smart’s design for Building C features an open expression of colonnades, expressed frames and external shading, which work to unite the residential tower and podium.
The firm explains that the facade design has been conceived as an abstraction of selected indigenous plant species endemic to the locality. “Subtle shades of green and grey have been selected in reference to the subtly varying colours in the leaves, bark and flowers of local tree species such as the Spotted Gum, Grey Box and Narrow-Leaved Ironbark. Each of these species signifies an adaptation to the climatic conditions of the site, which has also informed technical aspects of the facade design.”
The $1 billion development is intended to be carbon neutral. Developer Mulpha submitted a development application to Hills Shire Council in mid-2021, and updated plans were submitted in October. More

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