Architecture

SJB and Arcadia have prepared plans for a village-like residential estate on a former industrial site in Ashbury, in Sydney’s inner west. The development at 165-171 Milton Street would comprise five buildings ranging from three to six storeys containing 76 units and 62 terrace houses. It will also include a communal open space at the […] More

The Danish capital Copenhagen will be the next World Capital of Architecture in 2023. The World Capital of Architecture is designated triennially by UNESCO on the recommendation of the Internatioanl Union of Architects (UIA) and is the host city of the UIA’s world congress. “We are very happy to see the torch of the World […] More

Construction has begun on a seven-storey commercial building that will be home to Australia’s first combined children’s health and education centre.
The building, dubbed Proxima, is designed by PDT Architects and will be located within the Queensland government’s 9.5-hectare Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct, a development area dedicated to life sciences, health and technology-related businesses.
The building will house five storeys of lettable office space as well as a childcare centre for up to 400 children, to be operated by Sanctuary Early Learning Adventure, which will also create a unique environment to support children with special needs.
Griffith University will also establish a centre for excellence in Inclusive Early Childhood Education in the building. “The centre brings together interdisciplinary teams across Griffith’s Allied Health disciplines and Early Childhood Education to embed a model of research-integrated inclusive childcare education,” said Griffith University Vice Chancellor Carolyn Evans.

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Proxima, the first private development within the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct’s commercial cluster.

Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles said, “This is an Australian-first, an early learning centre with in-house access to allied paediatric health and research professionals, that will be within Lumina at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct.”
Meaghan Scanlon, minister for science and youth affairs, added, “Innovation within the health and knowledge sectors is exactly why this precinct was established, and it’s great to see it coming to fruition.
“Children will have access to the expert care that they need within a familiar, fun and caring environment at their early learning centre.”
The $80 million centre is the first private development within the commercial cluster and is a project of Evans Long. More

BVN has won a design excellence competition for the design of a “revolutionary” new primary school and multipurpose community space in Sydney’s Green Square.
The school and integrated community spaces, which can be occupied both day and night, will be built on the site of the former South Sydney Hospital site on Joynton Avenue.
The site is also home to a number of urban renewal projects, including the Joynton Avenue Creative Precinct by Peter Stutchbury Architecture and the Waranara Early Learning Centre by Fox Johnston.
“Green Square’s landmark heritage brick buildings have already been thoughtfully reimagined through adaptive reuse. As the final element to be delivered within the precinct, we felt that it was significant that the new school clearly be a part of the area,” said Ali Bounds, principal at BVN.
The layout of the design fosters connection with the broader community, surrounding parks and community facilities, including the Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre across the road by Andrew Burges Architects, Grimshaw and TCL as well as the nearby Green Square Library and Plaza by Studio Hollenstein in association with Stewart Architecture.

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The proposed Green Square Primary School and integrated community space by BVN. Image:

Courtesy City of Sydney

A new educational model also sets a framework for flexible learning spaces based around community hubs.
“The model encourages student and teacher interaction and provides well-connected teaching and learning spaces,” Bounds said.
Fellow BVN principal Matthew Blair added, “This project provides a rare opportunity to create a modern, neighbourhood-scaled school that contributes to a shared public domain.
“We believe buildings that are participative, that involve an engagement with users and that can be reactive to varying conditions will bring educational benefits.
The design excellence competition was judged by a panel of experts drawn from education, architecture and urban design fields.
“This revolutionary school design will provide much-needed community facilities that will be activated day and night for the whole community to use. It is an important addition to the area’s educational, social and cultural life,” said Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore.
“By 2030, over 60,000 people will call Green Square home. The school will serve as a lynchpin that connects our award-winning library and civic plaza, 40 new parks and the Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre, which opened earlier this year.”
The integrated school and community space will be jointly funded by the City of Sydney and the NSW Department of Education.
“Schools are the hearts of our communities and the winning design from BVN captured this and created a fantastic place for children to learn,” said minister for education Sarah Mitchell. More

Researchers are inviting people working in the architecture industry to participate in a survey about the impact of work cultures on their wellbeing.
The survey is part of a longitudinal study undertaken by Monash University academics Naomi Stead, Julie Wolfram Cox, Maryam Gusheh and Brian Cooper, and Kirsten Orr, Registrar of the NSW Architects Registration Board.
The group received funding from the Australian Research Council in May 2020 to investigate the work-related wellbeing of architects and architecture students.
It is the first major study to use interdisciplinary, qualitative and quantitative methods to address the question of how workplace cultures and professional identity affect subjective wellbeing in architecture.
“For some years, there has been a strong shared perception, and growing anecdotal evidence, of a challenging work environment and high levels of stress and anxiety among architectural practitioners and students alike,” wrote Naomi Stead and Maryam Gusheh in an essay published in Architecture Australia.
“Individuals at every level of the profession, from recent graduates to senior leaders and academics, have their own stories to tell: of practitioners and students pushed to the brink, with mental health challenges becoming more common, more complex and more serious, far exceeding ‘normal’ (even beneficial) levels of everyday stress.
“Many believe that the mental health challenges we face originate from within architectural culture – the workplace practices, norms and attitudes that prevail within the profession and its education.”
The survey seeks to generate a detailed understanding of work-related wellbeing among the architecture profession. It is open to anyone working in the Australian architecture industry. A separate survey of architecture students will be conducted in the future.
Participants will be asked about their social, physical and emotional wellbeing in relation to their work, their professional identity, and their perceptions of support and the impact of workplace culture and practices on their wellbeing. Responses will be anonymous and confidential.
Researchers hope to generate 1,000 responses to the survey, which will be used to create tailored resources to support workplaces, and professional and educational organizations in architecture.
To participate in the survey, click here. More

The jury for the 2021 Eat Drink Design Awards has been announced. The Eat Drink Design Awards recognize excellence and innovation in the design of food and beverage venues across Australia and New Zealand, from high-end restaurants to hole-in-the-wall cafes and pop ups. The 2021 jury comprising venerable industry leaders from hospitality and design sectors: […] More

The brutalist former children’s court building in Sydney’s Glebe will be replaced with a housing development designed by DKO, Archer Office and Oculus after a development application for the site was submitted to the City of Sydney for assessment.
The council had fought for years to save the Bidura Metropolitan Remand Centre, designed by the office of the NSW Government Architect, from demolition, but lost the battle in May 2019.
Developer Vision Land held a design excellence competition for the project in September 2019. The scheme by DKO, Archer Office and Oculus was unanimously chosen by a selection panel over rival schemes by Group GSA and MHNDU.
The winning scheme comprises 61 apartments and seven terrace houses, a music room on the lower ground level and a communal green space.
“A distinctive feature of this scheme is the creation of a lofty, six-metre wide vertical aperture through the built form to create a vista through to the gardens in the adjacent development to the north,” states a competitive design alternatives report submitted to council. “This created opportunity for sunlight and ventilation to the central courtyard.

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The original competition-winning scheme for 357 Glebe Point Road by DKO, Archer Office and Oculus.

“The scheme proposed a range of sustainability initiatives to meet the required ESD targets, including the re-use of materials from the existing building and a fossil fuel free approach incorporating a ground-sourced thermal heat pump.”
In 2019, DKO founding partner and principal Koos de Keijzer told Australian Financial Review, “It was a very political site because it’s the old Metropolitan Remand Centre, which is a building with a number of fine brutalist features in it.
“Some people love brutalism, others hate it. I think it’s very much an architectural authenticity and so our approach was to reuse as much of the existing remand centre as we could so there’s a lot of fine timber in it, a lot of fine stonework and bush-hammered concrete.”
The selection panel said, “The scheme has strong architectural merit and presents well to the street frontages, providing good activation and a welcoming presentation to the public domain.
“There was a risk of the large envelope being monolithic and out of scale with the fine grained setting, however the arrhythmic articulation of the projecting horizontal spandrels and interplay with balcony soffits is particularly successful in mitigating this concern, at the same time providing opportunity for integrated planting to terrace edges and shading of facades. The compositional interplay between these elements and the simple vertical green climbing frames delivers potential for a robust and enduring architectural quality within a cost-effective framework.”
A state heritage-listed Victorian Regency building on the site, Bidura House, will be returned to residential use after years of operating as a commercial building. A heritage impact statement in the development application notes, ” It is anticipated that when a new owner for the house is found that they may submit a DA for works to the house.” More

A group of architects in Canberra have created a competition to showcase exemplary homes that demonstrate significant reductions in their carbon footprints.
The ACT is projected to build around 100,000 new homes in the next 25 years, and combined with the territory’s interim C02 emissions targets, it presents an opportunity to lower the emissions of each new house constructed.
Architect and former ACT and national president of the Australian Institute of Architects Melinda Dodson initiated the Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge “to showcase the many exemplars already happening in the ACT and surrounding region and affirm the liveability and attainability of low carbon homes.”
“Housing currently remains on a trajectory well outside of our committed decarbonization targets and reducing our housing carbon footprint is a key element of our overall low carbon transformation.”
The competition is open to registered Canberra architects undertaking low- to medium-density housing of up to three storeys.

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Little Loft House by Light House Architecture and Science has energy savings of up to 80% of that of the typical Canberra home. Image:

Ben Wrigley

Architects can enter as many projects as they wish – either in progress or constructed. The projects will be assessed using the RapidLCA tool against the standard Canberra base case house.
The categories will be divided into detached or new house, alterations and additions and attached multi-unit houses, with 33 percent improvement on the Canberra base case house being “good”, 50 percent improvement “excellent” and 100 percent improvement or net-zero carbon “outstanding.”
Competition registrar David Clarke said, “By exploring C02 emissions reductions by housing architects, through the competition we anticipate a diversity of approaches, such as solar passive and energy-efficient design, use of recycled materials and renewables, and compact space use.”

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Little Loft House by Light House Architecture and Science has a modest addition of a lofted multi-purpose room.

The aim of the competition is to generate public interest in low-carbon housing. An exhibition of the winners and qualifying entries will be a part of the next Design Canberra Festival, which attracts 80,000 visitors annually.
“This year’s Design Canberra theme is ‘transformation’ and is an apt description for the benefits derived from low-carbon housing,” said the competition’s curatorial advisor Rob Henry. “Beyond the public exhibition, we are planning ‘after work’ low-carbon house tours so that people can experience the houses for themselves.”
The competition will be launched by the Institute’s national president, Tony Giannone, on 27 July and entries will open on 28 July. It will be judged by an expert jury as well as the public through a People’s Choice vote.
Entries is free; however, a $60 fee applies for each entry for the RapidLCA app.
For more information head to the competition website. More