Architecture

Minimum accessibility standards for residential housing and apartments will be part of the National Construction Code from 2022, Australia’s buildings ministers decided at a national meeting on 30 April.
A majority of building ministers agreed to include the standards in the NCC at the annual National Building Ministers Meeting. The standards will be based on the Livable Housing Design Guidelines silver level.
These include a step-free path from the street to entrance, a step-free entrance, doors and corridors to facility unimpeded movement, a toilet on the entry level, a bathroom that contains a hobless shower recess, reinforced walls around the toilet, shower, and bath to support future installation of grab rails, and stairways designed to minimize injuries and enable future adaptation.
The ministers also agreed that the Australian Building Codes Board will publish voluntary gold technical standard for accessible housing.
Each state and territory government will be tasked with deciding how the new provisions will be applied.
Ahead of the Building Ministers’ Meeting, the Victorian government said it would seek a leading role in working with other states and territories to implement the standard.
Already, three million Australians are living with disabilities or with restricted mobility, and demand for accessible housing is expected to increase as the population ages.
The implementation of the accessible living standard would mean that by 2050, an anticipated 50 percent of the total housing stock will be accessible.
The Victorian government says it has lead the way on universal access, with 50 percent of new apartments required to include accessible standards under the Better Apartment Design Standards and all public housing units required to incorporate key elements of the LHDG silver level guidelines.
By comparison, the NSW Apartment Design Guide stipulates a benchmark of 20 percent of total apartments in a development to incorporate LHDG silver level guidelines. More

Two 20-storey towers inspired by Sydney’s cliff faces will rise above a retail building designed by SJB, should a development application before the City of Sydney be approved.
SJB won a competition to design the towers at 284 Wyndham Street, Alexandria, with the jury appreciating the consistency of architectural character and material between the towers and podium, which was approved in 2018 but has not yet been built.
The new application calls for a two-storey above-ground car park; a two-storey upper-level podium accommodating 4,656 square metres of office floor space; and the two towers, housing 258 build-to-rent apartments.
The tower design responds to the approved podium, “in particular the material and form of the playful parapet, which is reflected in the form of the towers as they in step in profile and plan to create forms that transition in height and scale down towards the north-east,” the competitive design report notes.

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284 Wyndham Street, Alexandria by SJB.

While the selection panel was impressed with the overall cohesiveness of the design, it did suggest variegating the expression of the facades through the introduction of vertical elements and strategic landscaping, to break up the horizontal forms “which may easily become too monotonous and unrelenting.”
SJB said its revised design “seeks to strike a balance between vertically stacking and offseting balcony elements. The planter and balcony projects create variation across the facade and provide varying intensities of greenery, in keeping with the ‘Sydney cliff face’ concept.”
Taylor Brammer Landscape Architects is behind the landscape design, which incorporates intensive planting across a range of communal spaces.
The Green Heart space on level three is conceived of as a sprawling network of intimate spaces dissected by timber decking. “As the central green space for the development, this is signified through advance tree plantings in deep soil beds, tall palms allowing dabbled light through and pockets of open turf,” the landscape architects state.
Another communal space on level seven dubbed Emerald in the Sky aims to capture and distribute reflected light throughout an expansive communal terrace. It features a large swimming pool and lush vegetation including advanced trees to provide a green belt around the terrace, minimizing noise from the traffic below.
The development application is on exhibition until 19 May. More

Lake Eildon in the alpine region of Victoria will be redeveloped with a range of new tourism activities, under a masterplan for the area featuring designs by Cumulus Studio.
The man-made lake 150 kilometres north-east of Melbourne is home to the township of Bonnie Doon, which was made famous by the 1997 cult Australian film The Castle. The area will be transformed with new walking trails, fine dining and boutique accommodation options.
“Lake Eildon will soon be known for much more than its serenity,” said Mary-Anne Thomas, minister for regional development.
A key focus of the masterplan, prepared by Melbourne consultancy firm Urban Enterprise for Regional Development Victoria, is to attract a new type of visitor to the area – high-spending “lifestyle leaders” who are looking for new experiences and high-end facilities, as opposed to habitual visitors, who generally return to the same camping spot or holiday home and have low levels of expenditure. The authors note that the region has attracted almost no investment in visitor accommodation over the past 30 years and food and beverage tourism experiences are almost non-existent.
“Many people already know that Eildon is an amazing part of Victoria and with new investment to capitalize on its natural assets, that number will grow significantly,” said Jaclyn Symes, the member for Northern Victoria.

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Concept design for the Lake Eildon Masterplan by Cumulus Studio.

The masterplan calls for new resort-style accommodation, the development of various nature-based precincts, a skyline touring route and investment in sewage infrastructure.
Cumulus has prepared designs for two nature-based precincts identified as priority projects in the plan.
The Mt Pinniger nature-based precinct would include an architectural lookout, a café/restaurant with views of the lake, a walking trail from Eildon township and a glamping development with 12 glamping tents.
It would be delivered a public-private project, with government expected provide $5.2 million out of a total $16.2 million for the walking trail and lookout structure.
A similar precinct at Fry Bay would feature eco-retreat accommodation overlooking the lake, with 20 pods and a general hub building; another lookout; walking trail from Goughs Bay township to the lookout and accommodation and mountain bike trails. It’s expected to cost $23.9 million, with government to contribute $1.9 million.
Another identified development opportunity is the creation of Indigenous cultural experiences. Lake Eildon sits within the traditional lands of the Taungurung people, and prior to the construction of the lake between 1915 and 1929, the land was a key meeting spot; significant Indigenous heritage remains within the lake.
“There is opportunity to develop a tour throughout the region that links key cultural heritage sites, such as Cathedral Ranges, Lake Eildon National Park, and Lake Eildon itself,” the masterplan reads. “This could include facilitated walks to sites, bush tucker experiences, camping with custodians, and on-water touring components.”
The state government in a statement said it was working with representatives from a range of organizations responsible for Lake Eildon to keep the plan moving forward.
“The projects in this masterplan have the potential to unlock significant tourism investment at Lake Eildon, attracting a wide range of visitors from across Australia,” said tourism minister Martin Pakula. More

An early design of iconic Perth architect Iwan Iwanoff has been recreated in a virtual reality experience.
The project by Frame Labs in collaboration with architect Stuart Harrison is part of a Screenwest and State Library of Western Australia initiative, WA Reflections, to recreate and reinterpret forgotten parts of the state’s history.
Frame Labs worked with Harrison to decide on the best building to recreate, based on the available material from the state library’s archives.
Reflections of Iwanoff tours Harrison House, which was designed for Jack and Maria Harrison in 1953. It was located at Dodonia Gardens in City Beach and has since been demolished.
Frame Labs says the house was chosen “because it represented the essence of Iwanoff’s design work and was an early commission,” and also the people who had lived in the house provided “unparalleled access to fantastic research material.”
The house would have one of Iwanoff’s earliest commissions in Australia after he emigrated Europe through the International Refugee Organization resettlement scheme in 1950.

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Reflections of Iwanoff at the launch of WA Refelctions. Image:

Charles Hayne

Iwanoff later worked as a draughtsman for Krantz and Sheldon in Perth and for Yuncken, Freeman Bros, Griffith and Simpson in Melbourne.
The funding from Screenwest and the State Library of WA have allowed Frame Labs to demonstrate proof of concept of their innovative documentary format.
Stuart Harrison is both producer and voice over artist for the virtual reality tour.
Plans are in place for a six-part series with Harrison that would examine the works of six iconic architects in Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne through a hybrid of television, streaming and virtual reality formats.
The WA Reflections initiative is designed to engage with emerging and mid-career filmmakers to interpret archived collections at the State Library and bring them to life in a screen experience.
Other projects include a dramatization of a murder mystery that took place in the ballroom of WA’s Government House, a look back at the early days of rock and roll at the iconic Hi-Fi club and the projection of archival Frederick Samson films over the streets of Fremantle.
Each of the screen experiences will be presented to the public at live events from July to October. The screening of Reflections of Iwanoff will take place on 9 September. More

For almost a century, the statue of a dog sitting on a tuckerbox has been a popular roadside attraction just outside of Gundagai in New South Wales.
Now the famous Dog on the Tucker Box monument is set for an architectural make-over, with Cox Architecture preparing designs for new facilities and public space at the stop-off point along the Hume Highway.
The inspiration for the much-loved monument came from a doggerel poem by a “Bowyang Yorke” circulating from the mid-19th century that, in various versions, depicted a dog either protecting or spoiling the food of a bullock driver down on his luck.
A monument to the dog was first erected in 1926, but the monument that stands today, modelled by Gundagai stonemason Frank Rusconi, was unveiled in 1932 by then prime minister Joseph Lyons.
Chris Millman, a director at Cox, sees the planned architectural intervention as a way to honour the legend and celebrate the resilience of regional Australia.

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Dog on the Tucker Box masterplan by Cox Architecture.

“The Dog on the Tucker box is a classic story of true Australian mateship, but also how regional communities doing it tough can battle back to find new ways of attracting visitors and investment,” he said. “This was what was behind the original building of the monument back in 1932 as part of a ‘Back to Gundagai’ week.”
“As we emerge from COVID-19 and the 2019/20 bush fires, we’ve seen a renewed enthusiasm for the great Australian road trip with more people choosing to visit our wonderful destinations in regional areas. The Hume Highway has always been a key route for these travellers and the ‘Dog’ is one of the most popular stopping points between Sydney and Melbourne.”
Working with planning consultants Ethos Urban, Cox had developed a vision centred around the idea of “paddock to plate,” with hospitality offerings serving up high-quality local produce, public open space with views of the rolling Gundagai countryside and active play areas for kids and families.
Ethos Urban associate director Stefan Meissner said the setting provided a great opportunity to create a truly unique destination and that there was the potential to providing accommodation on the site such as hotel rooms or a full-facility caravan park to encourage visitors to stay longer.

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Dog on the Tucker Box masterplan by Cox Architecture.

“There’s an opportunity here to create a new gateway for the Riverina region that acts as a destination in itself and attracts people…” he said. “We want to provide visitors with great food and dining that brings in the best of local produce, straight from the farm and paddock.
“We also see an opportunity to create better open space and a quality of experience that eclipses other options on this route to create a destination in itself.”
The plan is being pushed by Canberra developer Superstruct, which says it has entered into an agreement with Gundagai-Cootamundra Council that provides the option to acquire the site for development, subject to planning approval. A masterplan for the site is currently on public exhibition, and the developer says detailed designs could be completed by the end of 2021, with the project then expected to take around two years to build.
Local mayor Abb McAlister said the proposal presented a great opportunity.
“For many years, Council has recognized the important role the Dog on the Tucker Box plays in our community but have not had the financial capacity to reinvest the necessary infrastructure to bring it back to life,” he said. “We welcome the proposed masterplan by SuperStruct. Group as it ensures Council still retains ownership and also ensures the site gets the necessary investment it truly needs.” More

One year on from the onset of the pandemic lockdowns, the Association of Consulting Architects is conducting its fifth “pulse check” survey to gauge how the industry is fairing. The organization’s initial surveys in March 2020 revealed the seismic impact of the pandemic on architecture practices, with more than $5 billion worth of work cancelled. […] More

Architects are well represented on the shortlist of the 2021 National Trust Heritage Awards, recently announced in Sydney.
Running since 1994, the National Trust awards program recognizes excellence across the heritage conservation, arts and culture, architecture and design, publishing and community sectors. Architects dominate the adaptive re-use category this year and are also prominent in the conservation: built heritage category.
“There are diverse range of projects and initiatives recognized this year, and they represent the full spectrum of heritage and role it plays in defining and enriching place, telling the stories of our diverse communities and connecting people,” said architect Matt Devine, chair of the National Trust Heritage Awards jury.
The awards celebrate projects, initiatives and individuals that demonstrate excellence in the conservation, protection, and interpretation of Aboriginal, built, natural and cultural heritage.
Along with Matt Devine, the judging panel includes architectural historian and heritage specialist Noni Boyd; landscape architect Saneia Norton, National Trust conservation director David Burdon, and heritage experts Miranda Firman, Siobhan Lavelle, Lisa Newell and Phil Bennett.
Individual awards including the Heritage Skills, Lifetime Achievement, Cathy Donnelly Memorial and the Judges’ Choice will be announced at the National Trust Heritage Awards ceremony on Thursday 13 May.
The 2021 National Trust Heritage Awards Shortlist
Adaptive Re-Use
Carr Street, Coogee – entered by McGregor Westlake Architecture
Cottage Medical, Berry – entered by Nicholas Powell Architect
Sub Base Platypus – entered by Lahznimmo Architects
The Sydney Retreat – entered by Bronwyn Hanna

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Sub Base Platypus – entered by Lahznimmo Architects. Image:

Ben Guthrie

Conservation: Built Heritage
Alpha House Restoration, Kamay 2020 – entered by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Australian Museum Project Discover – entered by The Australian Museum and Orwell and Peter Phillips
Greenway Window Conservation and Upgrade Project, Milsons Point – entered by Land and Housing Corporation, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Lowy Institute, Sydney – entered by Hector Abrahams Architects
Pawley Street, Surry Hills – entered by NSW Land and Housing Corporation, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Restoration of Cathedral of St Michael and St John, Bathurst – entered by Cathedral of St Michael and St John, Bathurst
Shell House, Sydney – entered by Adriel Consultancy
Conservation: Interiors and Objects
Conservation of the Art Gallery of NSW Bas Reliefs – entered by International Conservation Services
Preserving and Promoting Australia’s Theatrical Heritage: From Storage Rooms to Performing Arts Archive and Community Performance – entered by Seaborn, Broughton and Walford Foundation
Restoration of the Historic 1890 William Hill and Son Organ in the Hunter Baille Memorial Presbyterian Church, Annandale – by Ralph Lane OAM
Conservation: Landscape
Spains Wharf, Kurraba Point – entered by Aspire Stone Masonry

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Australian Museum Project Discover – entered by The Australian Museum and Orwell and Peter Phillips. Image:

Brett Boardman

Aboriginal Heritage
Leagues Club Park, Gosford – entered by Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation
Walking on Country – entered by Shoalhaven City Council
Advocacy
Mulgoa Valley – entered by Friends of Fernhill and Mulgoa Valley Inc
Save Willow Grove – entered by North Parramatta Residents Action Group
Continuing Tradition
George Proudman Fellowship Program – entered by Ministers Stonework Program
Tuckombil Barn – entered by Traditional Timber Frames
Education and Interpretation
Fairbridge Children’s Park, Molong – entered by Clouston Associates
House Music at Your House – entered by Sydney Living Museum
Kamay 2020 Commemorative Sculptures– entered by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Sydney Opera House, Tours Immersive Digital Experience (TIDE) – entered by Sydney Opera House
Warrane, Sydney – entered by Trigger
Heritage Events, Exhibitions and Tours
Carrington Road Industrial Marrickville – entered by Louisa King and Ali Wright
The Coal Loader App – entered by North Sydney Council
Dennis Heritage Day – entered by Museum of Fire
Developing Sydney: Capturing Change 1900 – 1920 – entered by City of Sydney Council
Fragile Beauty, Rich and Rare – entered by Pamela Pauline Photography
Inherit: Old and New Histories – entered by Orange Regional Museum
Papunya Tula: 50 Years 1971 – 2021 – entered by Utopia Art Sydney
Spring Harvest 2021 – entered by Sydney Living Museum
‘Thresholds’ by Julia Davis and Lisa Jones – entered by Sydney Trains
Tourists Paradise – entered by Port Macquarie Museum
Heritage Resources and Publications
Callan Park – Barnet Buildings External Fabric Maintenance Plan: An asset management and development consent document – entered by Ministers Stonework Program
Designing a Legacy – entered by Tim Ross, Modernister Films and Production Group
Vitalising Veteran Car Club Website – entered by The Veteran Car Club of Australia (NSW) Inc. More

A series of new buildings on the edge of Hyde Park will “reinvigorate a significant piece of Sydney’s streetscape,” according to a development application.
The proposal for 201 Elizabeth Street, for which FJMT has produced a reference design, calls for several distinct volumes around an existing 40-storey modernist tower. The northern volume extends out to the Park, Elizabeth and Castlereagh street boundaries and rises to 45 metres at the street frontage, re-establishing a historic street wall.
FJMT explains in planning documents that, by the 1930s, Elizabeth Street had developed a clearly defined character of low (average five-storey) and high (9-10 storey) street walls with only the lantern of the original T&G building at 201 Elizabeth Street rising above. Most of the buildings along this elevation were stone, brick or rendered masonry “which brought warmth and Sydney specific context to Hyde Park.”
This consistent street wall was broken when the T&G building was demolished in 1975, replaced with the tower that stands in its place today.
Designed by Kann, Finch and Partners and completed in 1979, the tower had a forecourt that “[broke] the strong corner definition with negative space.” A low building occupied by a Starbucks café now occupies that space.
“The intersection at Park Street and Elizabeth Street defines the city’s edge and entry point along Park Street,” states FJMT.
“The form at this corner re-establishes the historical street wall at this crucial point at the city’s edge.”
In addition to the northern volume, on top of which is a smaller volume set back eight metres from the street, the development application calls for a lower volume capturing the existing tower lobby and extending to the Southern boundary and Elizabeth Street, and a southern volume aligning with 227 Elizabeth Street’s podium and preserving view lines to St Georges Church.
The existing tower, which is not heritage listed, will be retained. The proposal would add 11,059 square metres of ground floor area, with the ground plane activated by retail tenancies and office space above.
“Sunken retail voids will be replaced by street hugging buildings activating Park and Elizabeth Streets and providing pedestrian connections between new and existing transport nodes,” state the architects.
“Active frontages have been provided along Park, Elizabeth and Castlereagh Streets with a through site link connecting Castlereagh and Elizabeth Streets.”
The development application now before the City of Sydney is for the building envelope only. A design competition will be held to arrive at the final design. More