Architecture

Architecture academic Richard Blythe has been appointed pro vice-chancellor of Curtin University’s faculty of humanities after a global search for a candidate. Blythe is currently dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech in the United States, previously dean of the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University in Melbourne. […] More

A survey conducted by recruitment firm Hays has found that more than half of architecture employers intend to award pay rises to their employees.
The organization surveyed almost 3,500 organizations and 3,800 skilled professionals across 28 specialist areas, of which 142 were architecture practices.
The survey found that 53 percent of architecture employers will increase salaries in their next review, which is 11 percent more than the previous year. 20 percent will increase salaries by more than 3 percent, while the remaining 33 percent will increase salaries by less than 3 percent.
This is compared with 67 percent of employers, across the various sectors, who will increase salaries in their next review.
Among the employees surveyed, 72 percent of the architecture professionals said a pay rise of 3 percent or more would better reflect their performance and 73 percent of surveyed individuals were either looking for, plan to look for, or are open to new employment opportunities in the next year, due to a lack of promotional opportunities, uncompetitive salaries and a lack of new challenges.
Hays Architecture senior regional director Simon Bristow said, “On the one hand, we have over half of architecture employers intending to increase salaries in the year ahead, which is a remarkable sign of the confidence employers exhibit today. On the other, professionalssay the value of these increases is far less than they deserve. This is creating a gap between what employers will offer and employees say they are worth.
“As our data shows, learning and developing new skills is now more important than a pay rise,” Bristow continued. The survey found that 65 percent of skilled professionals ranked learning and developing new skills as the most important priority, while a pay rise was most important for 58 percent of those surveyed.
“A lack of promotional opportunities is also the primary factor driving professionals into the jobs market today. This makes re-investing in career progression pathways and staff development a sensible strategy for the year ahead,” Bristow said.
“After a year in which many skilled professionals put career plans on hold, they are focusing once more on their long-term goals.”
The survey also found the pandemic has dramatically changed expectations of workplace arrangements with only 7 percent of skilled professionals expression a preference to return to the workplace full time. More

The South Australian government has committed $4 million for a 40-unit housing development in the southern Adelaide suburb of Bedford Park to accommodate Aboriginal Elders as part of a new ten-year strategy aimed at “hitting the reset button” on the state’s provision of Aboriginal housing.
The Elders Village, to be built close to the culturally significant site of Warriparinga near the Sturt River in Bedford Park, will be delivered by the state government in partnership with national not-for-profit housing provider Aboriginal Community Housing Limited, the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation.
Adelaide firm C4 Architects is designing the village, which will include an outdoor fire pit and disability-friendly units with kitchen, dining, living, separate bedroom and bathroom to promote independent living.
The land, currently owned by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, is being granted to the Kaurna Pangkarra Property Trust, a subsidiary of native title holders Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation.
Kaurna Nation Pangkarra Property Trust chair Garth Agius welcomed the initiative. “Adelaide has been our home for thousands of years,” he said. “This is still our traditional lands, our Yarta, our country Pangkarra, but as the traditional owners we still do not own our own homes.”
Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation CEO Joe Morrison said the project was about providing a culturally appropriate independent living solution for Aboriginal people in South Australia. “The ILSC believes the joint approach between native title holders, the State Government, community organizations and a federal government entity is the key to successfully delivering a project which will provide long term social and cultural benefits for Aboriginal elders on Kaurna country,” he said.
Construction on the village is expected to begin in early 2022.
The South Australian Aboriginal Housing Strategy 2021-31 also allocates $28.4 million for a remote housing replacement program over six years, $34 million for remote housing maintenance over five years and $17 million new social and affordable housing over six years.
Housing solutions will be co-designed by communities “to increase the cultural awareness capacity of the housing sector.”
The development of the strategy has been spearheaded by the SA Housing Authority’s head of Aboriginal housing Erin Woolford, a Kuyani-Arrernte woman.
SA’s minister for human services Michelle Lensink said the strategy would continue to be shaped by Aboriginal people.
“We’re really excited to launch our new Aboriginal housing strategy – the state’s first stand-alone housing strategy which addresses the specific housing needs of Aboriginal South Australians,” she said.
“We know that better housing is a key factor in closing the health and life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples.
“Housing provides a stable place from which to access health services, access and maintain employment, attend school and generally increase social inclusion.” More

A 33-storey office tower designed by Cox Architecture will likely be built at 383 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, with council officers recommending its approval. The site of the proposed tower is on the south side of La Trobe Street, with Queen Street to the east and William Street to the west. A 70-storey hotel and […] More

Johnson Pilton Walker’s scheme for a vibrant social housing neighbourhood organized around fine-grained laneways in Glebe is closer to fruition, with a development application submitted to council.
First unveiled in 2020 by the NSW Land and Housing Corporation, the design responds to the historic brick woolstore buildings and rendered terrace houses of Glebe.
The development straddles two sites owned by the state housing agency, 17-31 Cowper Street and 2A-2D Wentworth Park Road, where there are currently 19 social housing residencies. While the original plan was to add 35 new social housing dwellings along with 39 private dwellings, in February the Land and Housing Corporation changed its brief to provide 100 percent social housing on both sites. There will now be 75 dwellings built across the two sites.
Johnson Pilton Walker has made a number of design changes in response, including the removal of the proposed basement carpark and the creation of a new public gathering space on Wentworth Park Road under the existing plane tree.

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Glebe Mid-Rise Project by Johnson Pilton Walker.

The architects describe the development, known as the Glebe Mid-Rise Project, as an example of “density done well.”
“Using the precedents of Glebe woolstores and the Sydney terraces, we found an urban composition that fits comfortably with the surroundings, without compromising the amenity or liveability for residents and neighbours,” the design statement reads. “The building form offers an understanding of the timeless – of tried and tested typologies like the terraces and appreciation for a material craft like the established neighbourhood’s predominant brickwork.”
The principal entries for the woolstore houses will be off Cowper Street, and will be clearly articulated through “slots” in the facade and awnings. Commercial tenancies will be located at key site corners, creating their own clear street presence and address.
The terraces, meanwhile, will have a clear presence and outlook on Doherty Reserve, with direct access from Mitchell Lane East, creating a coherent streetscape and address to the park.
“Simple site planning creates legible addresses for the residential components, and a diverse range of complementary retail, community and shared spaces at ground level interlock both sites into the neighbourhood,” write the architects. More

The Western Australian government has selected a consortium that includes Spaceagency Architects to redevelop the Rottnest Island Lodge at the popular tourism destination. The $40 million project will include 94 rooms, a day spa, restaurant, kiosk, beach lounge, coffee shop, bar, a new pool and onsite staff accommodation. Spaceagency Architects’ design will combine new buildings […] More

The City of Gold Coast has approved a development proposal for a 14-storey apartment building behind the existing façade of the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade on the Gold Coast. Designed by Conrad Gargett, the tower will include interpretive displays conveying the history of the site, and will seek to find a balance between “the conservation […] More

The 2021 Health Care Health Design forum comes as the world grapples with the most far-reaching health crisis in more than 100 years, as well as an ageing population and persistent health disparities.
The forum will explore the role of architects in responding to these pressing concerns and improving health care, in Australia and around the world.
Across four sessions, held live via Design Speaks’ virtual portal this June, leading architects, researchers and healthcare providers will seek to answer this fundamental question while presenting exemplar healthcare projects, from hospitals to community aged care facilities.
The first session, Access All Areas: Designing for Ageing, will focus on work and research that is addressing the needs of an ageing population. In light of the troubling findings of the Royal Commission into aged care and the systemic weaknesses in the sector exposed by COVID-19, “there’s never been more urgency to improve the living standards for the final chapters of life,” the organizers note.

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The Hogeweyk village in the Netherlands. Image:

Paul Tolenaar.2

Speakers for this session include Yim Eng Ng from Conrad Gargett in Brisbane, who is conducting research into the design of residential aged care facilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people while designing cross-cultural projects such as the Nareeba Moopi Moopi Pa aged care facility on North Stradbroke Island; Joshua Wheeler, director of MGS Architects, who will discuss his firm’s approach to designing site-responsive, socially informed aged care facilities; and Eloy van Hal of the Amsterdam-based company Be Advice, one of the founders of De Hogeweyk, the world’s first village designed specifically for people living with dementia.
Session two will be all about designing for community, with speakers delving into “the importance of design, consultation and collaboration for creating fit-for-purpose, community-centric healthcare facilities.”
From London, Maggie’s Centres head of property Siobhan Wyatt will discuss the charity’s pioneering cancer drop-in centres, designed by the likes of Norman Foster, Daniel Libeskind, Amanda Levete and Alison Brooks. Closer to home, David Kaunitz of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture will present his firm’s award-winning Indigenous community healthcare facilities in remote Pilbara and Debbie Lynn Ryan of McBride Charles Ryan will present community-focused projects including a new integrated healthcare centre in Yarram, in regional Victoria, that “stitches together” local hospital, aged care and allied health services.

The third session will look at the intersection of architecture and mental health, and ask “will the movement of a human-centred design approach re-shape what we currently understand to be healthcare design?”
Speakers include Peter Johnstone of Stockholm’s White Arkitekter, the biggest architecture firm in Scandinavia and a world leader in health care design; Rebecca McLaughlan, a researcher at the University of Newcastle who has for more than a decade investigated the capacity of architectural design to support wellbeing within healthcare environments; and Jan Golembiewski, an architect and researcher whose work is driving innovation and research around behavioural, affective and psychological reactions to the physical environment.
The final session will tackle the timely topic of designing for crisis. One of two international speakers in this session, Mass Design Group principal Amie Shao, is based in Kigali, Rwanda, where she oversees research focusing on health infrastructure planning, design, and evaluation. She will present on the ways Mass is leveraging its global infection control and research experience to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the developing world. The other international speaker, Scott Davidson, principal of health at US firm Perkins and Will, has also been investigating the impacts of COVID on health care design, and will present on healthcare design “in a post-COVID world.”
From Australia, Hassell’s Michaela Sheahan will discuss the importance of good design in emergency situations.
The four sessions of Health Care Health Design will be viewable live in June, and also available to watch on demand in the following months. To purchase tickets, click here.
Health Care Health Design is a Design Speaks event, organized by Architecture Media (publisher of ArchitectureAU.com) and supported by principal partner Dulux. More