Architecture

Cox Architecture has amended its proposal for its $1.3 billion residential and commercial development at Rouse Hill, 19 kilometres north-west of Parramatta.
The Northern Precinct will feature integrated residential, commercial, retail and community spaces within 600 metres of the new Sydney Metro Rouse Hill Station.
Cox has prepared a new masterplan for the precinct with Civitas and landscape architect Oculus for developer GPT Group, after an earlier application was refused.
Part of the wider Rouse Hill Town Centre, built by the same developer, the 9.1-hectare Northern Precinct is bound by Rouse Hill Drive, Windsor Road and Commercial roads and Caddies Boulevard.
The proposed scheme envisions eight “super lots,” with 2,100 residential dwellings spread across them, making a density of 230 dwellings per hectare. At the heart of the precinct would be a new civic place dubbed Town Park, providing high-quality public space.

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Northern Precinct at Rouse Hill by Cox Architecture.

Around this, three distinct neighbourhoods would offer variation in character and block configuration. The Community Hub neighbourhood along the southern edge of the precinct would feature predominantly retail, commercial and community spaces in the podiums, with residential buildings above.
Along the western edge, close to the metro station, the Urban Village neighbourhood would be designed to be compact and walkable, with a combination of commercial and residential ground-floor activation. The Garden Mews neighbourhood, along the northern edge of the precinct, would be entirely residential. Tiered building heights would show off rooftop gardens and planting, while also maximizing views to the landscaped areas.
“The Northern Precinct of Rouse Hill will be a highly accessible place, focusing on good access to and from the Rouse Hill Town Centre, Sydney Metro station, the T-Way bus interchange, surrounding parklands and future hospital site, through legible walking, cycling and public transport networks,” reads the masterplan.
Building heights would range from two to 25 storeys, with the siting and height of each building form designed to ensure good access to sunlight, views and open space.
The planning proposal was lodged with the Hills Shire Council on 4 May and public submissions are now open. More

Running from 24 to 30 May, the inaugural Australian Made Week celebrates local makers and designers and encourages consumers to buy local. Australian manufacturer Quatro Design, which produces concrete planter boxes, pots and street furniture for the architecture and landscape industry, welcomed the campaign, noting that it is a “licensed and proud” Australian Made company. […] More

Stephanie McGann: Could you tell me a little about yourselves and what you wanted in your new home?
Adam Mason: Kerry and I have been renovating houses together since the late 1980s and we’ve gained a great deal of experience in energy-efficient and passive solar design. I’m technically orientated and Kerry did studies in the 1990s, through which we came across the ideas behind passive solar design. It made a lot of sense to us. We’re downsizing with this house and we wanted a very energy-efficient home that we can age in, which gives us all the spaces we need now and are likely to need in the future. We wanted a home that was built to engage and work with the sun, rather than oppose it. Where we’re at now is the culmination of 30 years of hard work and we’re ecstatic about it.
Kerry Mason: I like to live simply – I don’t need an enormous kitchen or a huge walk-in wardrobe. I wanted a minimal home that was beautiful and timeless and would remain attractive over a long period of time.

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The energy-efficient home’s northern face forms an engaging silhouette.

SM: That sentiment certainly comes through in spades in this house.
AM: We’ve watched the house grow and we’re here every day. I would love to have experienced walking in here for the first time, having never seen it before.
SM: Given your extensive renovation experience, what led you to engage an architect on this project and what attracted you to Philip Stejskal Architecture in particular?
AM: It was the desire to build something different, something timeless.
KM: We like things that are well designed. We found Philip online and his reviews said that he’s a very good communicator, which is important to us. And it was so collaborative. Philip was open to our ideas and willing to listen to us.
SM: What was it about your first meeting with Philip that reassured you that you would work well together?
AM: Just a connection. You know when things are right, don’t you? Intuition, I suppose. In my research, I’d come across people who were advertising the fact that they were specialists in passive solar design, but I looked at their designs and they didn’t appeal to me. I thought, “I need to find someone who can give me the design I want while embedding the foundations of passive solar design.” I loved Phil’s work and I felt that we connected early on.

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Both Kerry and Adam enjoy their home’s natural light.

SM: What are you most proud of in this project?
AM: I’m proud to live in an architect-designed home that everybody seems to love. It’s an achievement for us both and a testament to our hard work – we’ve spent most of our weekends for the past 30 years working on our homes, researching, reading and learning.
KM: It’s just a beautiful house to come home to.
AM: It really has surpassed our expectations.
SM: As you go about living in this house, what elements bring you the most delight?
KM: The light. It’s a small home, yet it feels open and connected to the garden.
AM: The light we get through the house in winter is extraordinary. I love the connection to Applecross Retirement Village over the road as well. You can hear people chattering and laughing in the background – everyone’s always in a good mood over there.

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The owners wanted a minimal home was beautiful and timeless. Image:

Bo Wong

SM: Are there aspects of the design that you might not have imagined had you not worked with Phil and the team?
KM: The shape of the house, definitely. We were puzzling for a long time about how we were going to get the house to face north on this site. Phil came up with the floor plan and when he presented it to us, I was thinking, “Are we brave enough?” because it was so different.
SM: What advice would you give someone who is thinking about engaging an architect?
AM: I think it’s important to be well informed and to make it clear to the architect what you’re trying to achieve. We had no idea what our house was going to look like but we had some solid ideas about things we wanted incorporated into the design and we were able to confidently leave the rest to Phil and his team. It was a collaborative project and if we didn’t like something, we felt we could say so.
SM: Would you use an architect again?
KM: Definitely. An architect brings incredible value. You wouldn’t achieve the same level of building and detail without one.
AM: If you want something different, then very much so.

Read more about Macdonald Road House here. More

Australian acoustic specialist CSR Martini has launched its new dECO high performance decorative acoustic range offering innovative and sustainable solutions for noise control. These acoustic solutions allow architects and designers to create interior spaces where freedom of design and performance integrate to achieve superior levels of auditory enjoyment and style. Studies show that poor acoustics […] More

The 2021 federal budget missed an opportunity for large-scale reform, said the Australian Institute of Architects, with housing measures set to “benefit the few, not the many” and spending on the environment and the climate crisis “patently inadequate.”
In a largely critical statement, the Institute noted that while the budget was big on spending in a number of areas, it failed to adequately address key issues relating to the built environment.
“This global pandemic cast the strengths and weaknesses of our economic and social systems into stark relief, demanding a wholescale rethink of the structures we need to ensure a healthy future,” said CEO Julia Cambage.
“Against the backdrop of the global climate crisis, reforms that create a more sustainable, liveable built environment – in everything from our health facilities to how our schools and homes are designed and constructed – are urgently required.”
The Institute slammed the “relatively minor” new investment of $124.7m in boosting social and affordable supply and also criticized the new Family Home Guarantee policy, designed to allow single parents with dependent children to purchase a property with a deposit of just two percent.
“New measures such as the Family Guarantee and extension of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme will benefit the few, not the many and fail to address need across the full continuum of the housing spectrum.”
In terms of the climate crisis, the government’s own assessment is that only 0.3 percent of spending is going towards addressing climate change and, the Institute notes, less than one percent is being spent on the environment more broadly.
“This is patently inadequate by any standard given the scale of the looming disaster, the early signs of which were so apparent in the Black Summer bushfires and more recent floods,” said Cambage.
“While we welcome the new National Disaster Recovery Agency as something we called for in line with many other important recommendations from the Bushfire Royal Commission’s final report, it is abundantly clear that industry will need to continue to do the heavy lifting in moving towards carbon neutrality.
“The budget focus on improving disaster resilience has little to excite or surprise. Full of re-announcements and missing vision, the Institute is at a loss to see how these initiatives, individually or combined, will prepare Australia to respond to the challenges of natural disasters and climate change and to deliver a carbon neutral future.”
The Institute welcomed the $1.7bn investment in childcare, compulsory super for casual workers, as well as funding for family and domestic violence prevention and support.
But said these efforts “did not deliver a structural shift towards treating these matters as essential services and drivers of productivity rather than some form of ‘social welfare’.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will deliver the budget reply speech on 13 May, which is expected to focus on entrepreneurship and the “Start Up Year” program, renewable energy and childcare. More

The NSW government has revealed the location for two new metro stations for the Sydney Metro West line in the city centre and at Pyrmont. Requiring the compulsory acquisition of 11 commercial buildings in the CBD and two in Pyrmont, the stations will be positioned to cut travel times and offer greater choice of transport […] More

A new headquarters for Australia’s largest private centre for the vision- and hearing-impaired has been approved by the NSW government and will be built at Macquarie University. Designed by WMK Architecture with Oculus as landscape architect, the centre will offer diagnostics, therapy and rehabilitation, and will include research and education – including a preschool for […] More

Construction-ready detailed designs for the redevelopment of Melbourne’s iconic St Kilda Pier have been released, following further refinement on schematic designs from 2020. Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, working with Site Office Landscape Architects and specialist port and coastal engineers AW Maritime, have produced a design that aims to respectfully considers the heritage aspects of the […] More