Architecture

Brisbane City Council has finalized its design for the $67 million Breakfast Creek pedestrian and cycle bridge that will link Newstead to Albion in the city’s inner-east and connect to an extended Lores Bonney Riverwalk. Engineering firm SMEC is behind the 80-metre arch bridge design, now submitted for development approval. “The colouring has been chosen […] More

Artists and architects are putting the final touches on their designs for the 19th edition of the Swell Sculpture Festival, the annual exhibition that sees dozens of large-scale sculptures erected along Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast.
For the third year in a row, architect Hooman Jaffar and architecture graduate Taylah Jardine of Real Space Creative are presenting a sculpture at the festival, where most works are produced by artists, both local and international.
Their sculpture this year, titled #Lifetime and produced with carpenter Owen Thompson, is an exploration of time featuring a series of timber beams buried in the sand and rising up in a circle formation.

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A concept image of #Lifetime by architect Hooman Jaffar, architecture graduate Taylah Jardine and carpenter Owen Thompson.

“You’ll going to feel like you’re in a forest,” said Hooman. “The most joy is watching children interact with the pieces – whether they’ll run through it or use it as a playground.”
Their sculpture will be one of around 70 Australian and international sculptural artworks created by more than 145 artists at this year’s festival, which is running from 10 to 19 September.
The main exhibition along Currumbin Beach will be accompanied by Swell Kids Elements, an interactive sculpture park for families to enjoy, where there will be performance art, outdoor cinema, sculpture workshops and masterclasses, outdoor kids’ library, guided sculpture walks and artists talks and panels.
Swell Sculpture Festival co-founder and artistic director Natasha Edwards said the festival was a unique opportunity to present temporary artwork. “While its presence is short lived it leaves a lasting impression through the reverberations of the artist’s voices and the echoes of memories and shared conversations,” she said.
“Each sculpture tells its story, and collectively these stories emanate the essence of Swell.” More

Sydney practice Chrofi is spearheading a grassroots movement to see the heritage-listed Manly Town Hall adapted into a performing arts venue.
The town hall will soon be vacant following the amalgamation of Manly council with neighbouing Pittwater and Wahringah councils to form the Northern Beaches Council in 2016.
Chrofi was approached by local resident and renowned glass artist Warren Langley to explore ideas for the adaptive re-use of the building in late 2019. The practice’s office overlooks the Town Hall on the opposite side of the street.
“The site is very well serviced by public transport and has convenient parking nearby,” Chrofi architect Joshua Zoeller said. “It is therefore important that when council vacates this site, the building is re-used for a civic or public function; anything else will be a loss.”
The architects developed a proposal for a performing arts venue using scale comparisons with existing performing arts venues across Sydney and around the world, such as parts of the Sydney Opera House, the Eternity Playhouse, Carriageworks, Belvoir Theatre, the Old Vic in Bristol and St Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn.

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Manly Town Hall Image:

Courtesy Chrofi

“The building design lends itself to re-interpretation as a facility for performance. Its footprint is large enough to comfortably accommodate a number of facilities and functions,” Zoeller said. These include a 350-seat major theatre, a minor theatre, theatrette or cinema, an intimate music venue, a restaurant, bar and café, and community rooms.
“[The building] naturally accommodates a large, flexible performance space at its core bookended by the two storey front of house foyers and back of house facilities,” Zoeller said. “At the centre of the building is a double height space of no heritage significance and it could be redesigned to facilitate a new use.
“A civic forecourt at the front and a laneway at the rear provide opportunities for the building program to engage with the public domain.”
The group presented the idea to the Northern Beaches Council in August 2020, and in a subsequent council meeting, councillors resolved to begin community consultation on the future use of the Manly Town Hall, which took place in January 2021. A performing arts venue was a popular response from the 272 contributions from the public.
The idea has the backing of members of the local music industry, with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and Australian Chamber Orchestra artistic director Richard Tognetti each penning letters of support, along with the local state MP James Griffin and federal MP Zali Steggall.
It caught broader public attention when deputy mayor Candy Bingham named it as a primary policy platform for her re-election campaign.
If the idea was to be realized, it would be “a game changer for the culture of the arts in the community,” Zoeller said.
“For too long, the Northern Beaches has suffered from a dearth of venues and opportunities for the community to experience the best of music, theatre, dance and cinema,” Richard Tognetti wrote in his letter of support.
“Manly Town Hall could be the jewel in the crown as a cultural gateway for the peninsula with the potential to draw audiences from far and wide.” More

The Alastair Swayn Foundation has opened round two of its grants program for 2021, which supports research projects in the field of architecture and design. Two levels of grants are on offer. There’s the $2,000 Alastair Swayn Research Grants, open to any research proposal in the disciplines of architecture; landscape architecture; industrial design; heritage preservation/ […] More

A 42-metre-high viewing platform being constructed over the roof of Perth’s Optus Stadium will create a new way to experience the playing field below. Nicknamed the “ring pull” for its resemblance to the mechanism at the top of aluminium cans, the platform is designed by Hassell, who also designed the stadium in collaboration with Cox […] More

A new reptile and amphibian conservation centre will be built at Taronga Zoo in Sydney to replace the existing Reptile World exhibit. Designed by DWP (Design Worldwide Partnership) with landscape architecture by Context Landscape Architecture, the new project will deliver a “world-class” reptile and amphibian exhibition and animal care facility. Taronga Zoo says it will […] More

An apartment tower proposed for Brisbane has been designed to reference surrounding Queenslanders that appear to be perched on top of each other in hilly Toowong. Designed by DKO, the 14-storey apartment block at 24-28 Lissner Avenue captures views of the city and river to the north-east and towards Mount Coot-tha to the west. “The […] More

A proposed six-storey hotel overlooking the North Esk River in Launceston, Tasmania, will re-use bricks reclaimed from the 18th-century cottages that previously occupied the site. The City of Launceston has granted planning permission to the hotel on Boland Street, designed by Melbourne architect Telha Clarke, despite the misgivings of some councillors about its height. Telha […] More