Architecture

Among the 200 shortlisted entries in the 2020/21 World Architecture Festival Awards, there is again a strong contingent of projects from Australia and by Australian architects.
“We are delighted with both the quantity and quality of this year’s entries,” said festival director Paul Finch. “This promises to be the most competitive awards program we have ever run, and we look forward to meeting the shortlisted architects in Lisbon.”
The festival was postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic, and will now be held from 1 to 3 December with the theme “Resetting the City: Greening, Health and Urbanism.”
Across the three days of the festival, architects will present their shortlisted projects to more than 100 international jurors.
Category winners will then compete with each other for the titles of World Building of the Year, Future Project of the Year, Interior of the Year and Landscape of the Year.
The Australian shortlisted projects are:
Completed Buildings
Culture
Chau Chak Wing Museum – JPW
Phoenix Central Park – Durback Block Jaggers and John Wardle Architects
Display
Mon Repos Turtle Centre – Kirk
Penguin Parade Visitor Centre – Terroir
Health
Puntukurnu AMS Healthcare Hub Newman – Kaunitz Yeung Architecture
Higher Education and Research
Monash Woodside Building for Technology and Design – Grimshaw
UTS Central – FJMT
House and Villa (Rural and Nature)
Coopworth – FMD Architects
House and Villa (Urban/Suburban)
House Taurus – Durbach Block Jaggers
JARtB House – Kavellaris Urban Design
Kew Residence – John Wardle Architects
Nissim House – Studio Milou
North Perth House – Nic Brunsdon
Housing
Collins House – Bates Smart
Holme Apartments – John Wardle Architects
Mixed Use
Collins Arch – Woods Bagot and Shop Architects
Sky Green – Woha Architects
New and Old
2 Ridge Street – Tzannes
Office
9 Cremorne Street – Fieldwork
Daramu House – Tzannes
Olderfleet – Grimshaw
Religion
Punchbowl Mosque – Angelo Candalepas and Associates
School
Fortitude Valley Secondary College – Cox Architecture and Thomson Adsett
Ravenswood Senior Learning Centre – BVN
Sport
Ken Rosewall Arena Redevelopment – Cox Architecture
Rod Laver Arena – Cox Architecture
Transport
Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail – Grimshaw and Aspect Studios in collaboration with the City of Sydney on behalf of Transport for NSW supported by Randwick Council
Landscape (Urban Context)
Prahran Square – Lyons with Aspect Studios
Sydney Park Water Re-use – Turf Design Studio
Future Project
Civic
Rethinking Melbourne’s Carparks – Bates Smart
Culture
Yalingbila Bibula – Cox Architecture
Education
The Kambala Sport, Wellbeing + Senior Learning Precinct – Allen Jack and Cottier
Infrastructure
Sydney Metro – Woods Bagot and John McAslan and Partners
Leisure-led development
Tawarri Hot Springs – Nic Brunsdon
Office
Atlassian Headquarters – Shop Architects and BVN
Residential
Sirius Redevelopment – BVN More

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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

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