Architecture

At the beginning of 2019, we started discussing the idea of “leverage” as a theme for the 2020 National Architecture Conference. This was a way of thinking about how to generate greater positive influence as a profession; of how to deploy our skills, training, experience and expertise to address contemporary world challenges.
Unfortunately, the conference, like so many other events around the world this year, could not proceed due to COVID-19. But Leverage was, and remains, fundamentally optimistic. We believe that architectural wit and intelligence, agility and diligence, cheekiness and humour, restraint and flamboyance, ethics and goodwill can all be deployed to maximize advantage – in social, environmental and economic terms. We wanted to explore the untapped opportunities for impact and to examine how practices are already finding ways to create progressive change well beyond the convention of our discipline.

Since these early musings, the world has shifted into uncharted waters. And there is an even greater need to find inventive ways to apply our collective intelligence to the problems that face our communities and countries, to test professional models and assumptions.
We believe that architectural wit and intelligence, agility and diligence, cheekiness and humour, restraint and flamboyance, ethics and goodwill can all be deployed to maximize advantage – in social, environmental and economic terms.In February, we established a stream of the conference around the devastating impacts of the bushfires across Australia and worked to find partnerships with organizations such as Gondwana Link in an attempt to take direct action. One of the key drivers of this approach was the recognition by many conference speakers and attendees of the impact of flights on their own carbon emissions. Our expanded awareness of our personal and corporate responsibility highlighted the need to offer a direct and targeted response to attendees. We did this through the funding of native planting and Indigenous land management practices in Western Australia’s southwest, championed for decades by community groups under the distributed network model of Gondwana Link.

As the fires registered the colossal scale of the environmental crisis, COVID-19 has illuminated the challenges that already exist (equitable access to housing, health care, public space, and even reliable information and data). For us, now, Leverage – this hopeful ambition for an amplified impact – feels more relevant and ever more urgent.
Rory Hyde discusses these opportunities brilliantly in his recent article, “A new world.”1 Rory was one of the speakers we had lined up for the conference. Although it is disappointing that we will not have the opportunity to stage live discussions with Rory and the other extraordinary speakers, in the spirit of the Leverage theme, we have “pivoted” to find new avenues to maintain connection. These important conversations will now occur via a series of edited interviews and thought pieces in Architecture Australia and online at ArchitectureAU.com.

In this first instalment on Leverage, Kieran Wong interviews Alan Ricks about the work of Mass Design Group, a practice with an extraordinary record in the world of social impact architecture. What makes Mass different from others in this field is its unique practice structure, which evolved from the founders’ commitment to global effect and working at scale, and the acknowledgement that many models of impact architecture limit participants’ own career trajectories and community agency. We were drawn to Mass’s desire to challenge accepted models of practice and create a business that is sustainable, agile and impactful.

Our theme of Leverage is focussed through four streams – Policy and Politics, Practice and Projects, People and Partnerships, and Polemics and Publishing. Mass has it all! In little more than a decade, Mass has positioned itself to respond quickly to humanitarian need, demonstrating the relevance of design thinking in creating long-term solutions to the global challenges of policy, community, health and infrastructure.
— Emma Williamson, Kieran Wong, Maryam Gusheh and Justine Clark were appointed as creative directors of the 2020 National Architecture Conference. Due to the impacts of COVID-19, the conference did not proceed. More

Sydney’s Taronga Zoo will soon have a new exhibit showing native flora and fauna, with the NSW government approving a $16 million revamp project.
Designed by Lahznimmo Architects with landscape architecture practice Spackman, Mossop and Michaels, the Upper Australia exhibit will feature minimal built forms and will not be visible from the nearby harbour.
The exhibition, which is built on the Country of the Cammeraigal people of the Gai-mariagal, will be home to a wide variety of landscape types and native animals.

“The main exhibit path will snake through various native landscapes, ranging from lush rainforest through to arid woodland and then up into the tree canopy via an elevated boardwalk to view koalas at their natural sitting height in the tree canopy,” the architects wrote.

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The treehouse of the Upper Australia exhibit at Taronga Zoo by Lahznimmo Architects and Spackman, Mossop and Michaels.

“The Australia journey then winds its way down through the Blue Mountains rock escarpment and then underground into the Nocturnal House; where a complete refurbishment of the existing building will provide state-of-the-art keeper facilities and unique night-time viewing of Australia’s nocturnal creatures.”

NSW environment minister Matt Kean said the approval signalled a new chapter for the zoo, which has been an important part of Sydney Harbour’s landscape since 1916.
“The Australia Precinct at Taronga is home to some of our Aussie icons including the koala, platypus and bilby,” he said.
“The project will see new life breathed into parts of the precinct that are more than 30 years old, improving the visitor experience and encouraging more people to get out and learn about the conservation of our iconic Aussie animals.”
Works on the exhibit are scheduled to begin in the coming months and the project will be completed by 2023.

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Blacktown City Council is planning to sell off its administration centre to pave the way for an $800 million private brain and spinal medical centre headed by prominent neurosurgeon Charlie Teo.
The Blacktown Brain and Spine Institute would be located at the site of council’s Administration Centre on Flushcombe Road, which includes the former Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils building and surrounding car park, as well as the building currently housing the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.

The council says the sale would provide funding for the temporary relocation of some council administrative staff while eventually enabling the planned move to new purpose-built administration offices in the CBD as well as the redevelopment of the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre.
The BBSI is being pitched as a world leader in medical research, practice, treatment and recovery, which will attract “medical tourists” from South-East Asia, China and further afield.

It is planned to include a medical research institute (with a university partner), a private hospital, a medi-hotel, retail space, and residential apartments. Announcing the plan for the institute in December 2019, Teo said “I want a centre of health that doesn’t feel like a hospital at all. I want a place that feels pleasant almost like a vacation.”

Details about business partners and funding models for the institute have not been revealed, but the Blacktown mayor says he is confident it could be a city-shaping project.
“This will be a major leap forward in the redevelopment of the Blacktown city centre,” said Blacktown mayor Tony Bleasdale.
“The Blacktown Brain and Spinal Institute will bring hundreds of millions of dollars investment into our city and at the same time, council will be able to develop a landmark administration and cultural centre.
“BBSI would be one of the most significant investments ever in Blacktown City, with an estimated total construction value of $800 million.
“It will also provide facilities to support international medi-tourism which in turn has the potential to generate income from overseas, assisting the NSW economy.” More

A 55-storey office tower complete with a rooftop garden overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge will become North Sydney’s tallest tower, under plans before council.
Designed by Hassell, the tower at 110–122 Walker Street, North Sydney is being pitched as the “future of sustainable workplaces” in what will become one of the most accessible districts in Sydney with the opening of the Victoria Cross Metro Station on Miller Street in 2024.
The developer Stockland said in a statement that it continued to foresee strong demand for quality workplaces in the post-COVID landscape. Hassell principal Liz Westgarth said the project offered an opportunity to push a social and environmental design vision for a resilient place for future generations.

“As the nature of when, where and how we choose to do our work continues to evolve, it was also important to design a building that supports a diverse range of working styles,” she said.

“Therefore, our research into the future of work and the impacts of COVID-19 helped shape the workplace offer, which will allow for highly personalized and efficient planning configurations to meet tenant’s exact demands both now and into the future.”

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110 Walker Street by Hassell.

The building’s design is defined by a porous ground plane that extends the public realm, a simple tower form, articulated to appear as two slender forms, and a crowning rooftop, where the facades extend upwards, providing protection for the rooftop garden.
“The highly activated public domain has been designed to accommodate layered activities over the lower ground and ground levels, offering a diverse landscape setting, activated street frontages with retail and food and beverage offerings to support the building and precinct,” Hassell’s design statement reads.

“This vibrancy and warmth will extend up into the podium. The transparent podium facade celebrates exchange and interaction between the public, semi-public and private experiences within the base of the tower.”

Through-site links will complement existing urban laneways in the precinct, while the landscape planting and materiality takes inspiration from the “tapestries of sculpted rocks, white blossoms and perfumed gullies” of the Middle Harbour landscape.
The design prioritizes sustainability, with an efficient structural system that aims to minimize materials, and a façade design that passively shades the workplaces. “The facade design proposes a simple conceptual approach that orientates solid portions of the facade to the north to help passively shade the facade whilst opening up the highly desirable eastern and south eastern views,” states Hassell.
Construction of the tower is estimated to cost $512 million. The development application is currently before the North Sydney Council, and is to be determined by the Sydney North Planning Panel. More

Construction of the Lyons Architecture designed Bendigo Govhub will soon start after the Victorian government appointed a main contractor for the project.
Bendigo Govhub will be located on Lyttleton Terrace on the site of the existing City of Greater Bendigo offices. The council has sold the site to the state government and will be a tenant of the new facility. It will also house staff from various state government departments.
The appointed builders, Fairbrother and Icon in joint venture, will work with the architects and engineers, Arup, to refine the design. The project team will also collaborate with the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation to incorporate Indigenous design elements and language in the architecture, landscaping and spaces. Bendigo’s built and cultural heritage will also be reflected in the design through the use of materials such as bluestone.

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Bendigo Govhub by Lyons Architects.
Image: Lyons Architects
The four-storey building will have a glass facade that follows the curve of the Lyttleton Terrace. The project will also create a civic forecourt on Lyttleton Terrace and a pocket park on Mundy Street to the northeast, in an effort to connect the proposed building to its surrounds and create a community meeting point.

The building will be made from Victoria’s largest timber frame and will also incorporate other sustainable design measures such as efficient indoor air quality systems, solar panels, and water and energy monitoring systems.

“The GovHub is a really exciting project that will transform and revitalise Bendigo and is just one of a range of projects we’re building to make regional cities an even better place to live and work,” said regional development minister Mary-Anne Thomas.
Bendigo Govhub will be the third of its type to be delivered following Ballarat Govhub designed by John Wardle Architects and Latrobe Valley Govhub designed by WMK Architecture.
The Govhub is also part of a series of redevelopment projects in Bendigo, including Bendigo TAFE campus redevelopment by Architectus and Bendigo Law Courts redevelopment by John Wardle Architects.

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Alex Fitzpatrick, founder of A Design Studio, is fascinated by the scientific and poetic aspects of light – the technical details of a lighting fixture and the ambient effects of the diffused light. “I try to capture light within a material without the light source being visible,” he explains. “It’s about how the light is cast and the effect it creates. The process and product are part of it but not my underlying goal.”

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Alex Fitzpatrick, lighting designer and founder of A Design Studio.

Graduating from university with a degree in industrial design, Alex worked at lighting companies in Canada and Australia, developing expertise in commercial projects, architectural lighting and custom fittings. He also designed a line of decorative LED fittings on the side and in 2015 went out on his own. Using single integrated LED chips concealed within traditional materials such as metal and glass, Alex transforms space with his lights.

Inspired by the sun’s rays filtering through a forest canopy, Alex designed his first fitting, Light Garden, in 2011. The triangular modules have petal-like forms and can be configured in abstract and organic compositions so that light pierces through the gaps and casts patterns of light and shadow on the wall. Alex has evolved Light Garden with larger modules and different materials, including a limited-edition series in alabaster stone for which he received a Maison & Objet Rising Talent Award in 2017.

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Light Garden, Alex’s first light fitting, is inspired by the sun’s rays filtering through a forest canopy.

Continuing to explore the interplay between light and materials, Alex started designing with glass. He collaborated with Sydney-based glass artist Ben Edols to test techniques whereby the lampshade could be illuminated by a hidden light source. The result is Eon, a collection of pendants with crackle glass shades.
Alex used a combination of materials for his Greenway pendant, which is inspired by Macquarie Lighthouse in Vaucluse. Named for architect Francis Greenway, the pendant stacks glass, metal and 3D-printed plastic in a form that references the architecture of the lighthouse and emits light in different ways. “The perforated lattice helps distribute the light, slots in the metal kick light upwards and the glass captures the light within its edge,” Alex describes.
Working with architects and designers, Alex customizes and further develops his light fittings for residential, hospitality and commercial projects. He has also created a line of Crackle Vases, in clear and milky alabaster for his own brand and in richly coloured glass for his partnership with Lane Crawford.
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Sydney’s newest urban pool and recreation centre opened to the public on 1 February.
The Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre is designed by Andrew Burges Architects with Grimshaw and Taylor Cullity Lethlean, who won a City of Sydney design competition for the project in 2014.
The facility contains four pools and an extensive fitness and wellness centre. Its concept is inspired by the rock pools of Sydney’s beaches.
“We felt there’s a kind of fundamental pleasure in swimming in beach pools and that wasn’t evident in aquatic centres,” said Andrew Burges.

“The site itself was literally unconstructed and because there was no existing condition, it was a really important to remake the landscape and the place of where the pool would be. Looking at the beach pools with the goal of rethinking the typology in terms of what kinds of recreational spaces it makes was pretty fundamental to our concept.”

The design team analysed beach pools around Sydney, including Curl Curl, Bronte and Coogee, and brought elements from each into the design of the aquatic centre.

The outdoor 50-metre lap pool includes an unprogrammed pool area that allows for recreational swimming without disturbing the lap swimmers, which was inspired by Bronte pool.

It also has a beach-like entry zone inspired by the Curl Curl rock pool. The “beach” edge of the outdoor pool is also surrounded by umbrellas, cabanas, bleachers, rocks and boardwalks that lead to a 25-metre indoor pool with a hydrotherapy pool adjacent.
The Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre sits at the heart of the Green Square urban renewal area.

“There’s a spine of public facilities within a continuous park which starts at the town centre and moves across the axis,” said Andrew Cortese, managing partner of Grimshaw’s Sydney studio. “The pool has a really public and civic role in the way that it builds cohesion and community life.”
Andrew Burges added, “One of the things we were very conscious of was how dense the area was going to be, and as a result, how much passive recreation – or idle time – would have to be accommodated in this aquatic centre, relative to active lap swimming.”

The site was hence conceived as an integration of park, pool and recreational centre.
“There was an opportunity to reimagine it from the ground up starting with the landscape vision, and then working into a park and recreational vision and then an enclosure and pool concept,” Burges said.
The entry to the centre is conceived as an urban living room and movement through the centre is carefully orchestrated to create separate zones of climate controlled spaces.
The site was also an important area for the local Indigenous people of the Eora nation where fresh and salt water flowed together. This has influenced the public artwork commission, Bangala by Aunty Julie Freeman (Eora/Yuin) with Jonathan Jones (Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi), which features two bronze casts of bangala, or Eora bark water carriers.

Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre is the first recreation centre in Australia to achieve a 5 star Green Star design and as built rating thanks to its energy saving climate control system, photovoltaic panels and other sustainable design principles.
Andrew Burges Architects and Grimshaw also collaborated on a successful competition entry for Parramatta Aquatic and Leisure Centre with McGregor Coxall. Parramatta council approved the design in 2020 and the project in slated for completion in 2023. More

The National Gallery of Victoria has announced the shortlisted teams for its NGV Architecture Commission, which returns in 2021 after a year of absence.
The Architecture Commission is a two-stage open competition calling for architects and multi-disciplinary teams led by a registered architect to consider innovative ways to activate NGV’s Grollo Equiset Garden at NGV International with a thought-provoking temporary installation.
More than 100 submissions for 2021 have been whittled down to a shortlist of five.

The shortlisted teams for 2021 are:
Aileen Sage Architects with Michaela Gleave
Common
MDF Architecture
Simulaa and Finding Infinity
Taylor Knights
Entries were assessed by an expert jury comprising: Tony Ellwood (NGV director andjury chair), Ewan McEoin (NGV senior curator of contemporary design and architecture), Sophie Rzepecky (Assemble Papers editor), Felicity Stewart (Stewart Architecture director), and Louise Wright (Baracco and Wright Architects co-director).

The jury said submissions for the 2021 commission were “rich with concepts grounded in both playfulness and attentive to human scale qualities. Submissions showcased a breadth of research into fabrication techniques and sensitivity to the afterlife of structures.”

The five shortlisted submissions will be further developed and refined in Stage Two, for presentation to the competition jury. The winner will be announced at the 2021 Melbourne Design Week, which begins 26 March, and will be commissioned by the NGV to complete the design development and delivery of the 2021 Commission.
Previous Architecture Commission were designed by John Wardle Architects (2015), M@ Studio Architects (2016), Retallack Thompson and Other Architects (2017), Muir + Openwork (2018), and Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office (2019).

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