Architecture

The federal and South Australian governments have released concept designs for a proposed Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre designed by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
The long-mooted centre will be built on Kaurna land at Lot Fourteen, the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital, which is undergoing urban regeneration.
The architects have worked directly with the AACC Aboriginal Reference Group on the design.
David Rathman, AACC Ambassador, said, “This is a fantastic opportunity for Aboriginal people to have ownership and leadership of what will become one of the state’s leading tourism attractions and to be active participants in that venture through business and career opportunities. There is a lot of excitement for this centre.”

“It has to be a centre they will all be proud of as a place to present their cultures to the world. “The building has to reach out to you, to make you want to come inside and to come back.”

Woods Bagot principal Rosina Di Maria added, “The design team’s role was to listen, and translate the aspirations and ambitions of the ARG into a design response. The architecture evokes a sense of welcome to all visitors – particularly First Nations peoples – and a connection to culture offered through the human experience.
“The Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre will be a place for all Australians to remember ourselves, to learn the truth telling of our past, and to re-imagine ourselves together to create new memories as a connected community. It will be a platform for developing Australian culture – informed by the past, shaped by the now, for our future.”

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The proposed Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre designed by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
Image: courtesy Woods Bagot
The design for the centre originates from Aboriginal concepts of earth, sky and land elements.
The lower level galleries and terraced landscapes will be “carved from earth” with indoor spaces for exhibitions and performances and an outdoor amphitheatre which will be used as a gathering space for Welcome to Country ceremonies.
The upper level galleries will frame views to the sky and natural surroundings.
In between, the ground level areas will extend out to the land in all directions, connecting the building to Kaingka Wirra (Adelaide Botanic Gardens).

“The AACC will welcome visitors through a radically open ground floor, into a safe space with storytelling at its heart,” said DSR partner Charles Renfro. “It will be a building of the 21st century, while remaining agile enough to allow future generations to evolve their own storytelling.”The ground plane will also include 8,100 square metres of public realm with a native landscape that will gently slope towards North Terrace.

The design of the buildings facade draws inspiration from temporary shelters created by Aboriginal peoples that are known by various names such as “wurlie” and “humpy.” A basket-like nest of columns will shape the central space, which will then be clad in a woven skin that will tilt open.

Woods Bagot and DSR will continue to develop detailed designs over the next 12 months. Construction on the project is expected to begin later in 2021.
The federal government is contributing $85 million to the project through the Adelaide City Deal and the state government will provide $115 million.
Woods Bagot and DSR originally collaborated on a competition-winning proposal for Adelaide Contemporary, a gallery proposal for the same site initiated by the previous state government. Following the election in March 2018, the incoming government announced plans for a National Gallery of Aboriginal Art and Cultures. More

Candalepas Associates is leading the design for restoration and redevelopment the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady at 242 Cleveland Street in Redfern.
The $15 million project will include conservation works to the Cathedral building, the construction of a new crypt and alterations and additions to the former St Paul’s rectory.
It will also see the construction of two, three-storey buildings and the demolition of the existing theological college building.

The former rectory and the new buildings will be connected and will together accommodate worship spaces, function rooms, a museum, library, offices, theological college domiciles, guest domiciles, bookstore and the dean’s residence. A new café is also included in the scheme.
The church, now known as the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady, was designed by Edmund Blacket built from 1848. The rectory was designed by John Burcham Clamp. It was an Anglican church for its first century, before being reconsecrated to the Orthodox faith in 1970, reflecting changes in demographics brought about by post-war immigration.

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The redeveloped Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady by Candalepas Associates.

It’s listed on the state heritage register for its significance as an “early ecclesiastical design in the architectural career of Edmund Blacket. Originally St Paul’s Anglican Church, its Decorated Gothic design became one of the established architectural models for parish church construction throughout NSW.”
It’s also noted as significant for its association with the migrant communities that settled in NSW following World War II.
In a heritage impact statement prepared for the development application, Urbis writes that the new layer of development will make an important contribution to the significance of the site both architecturally and for its representative values. “It is likely that the new architectural program of design excellence, will, in time, be recognised to be of significant heritage value,” the report reads.
Candelepas Assosiates won widespread acclaim for its design of Punchbowl Mosque, described in Architecture Australia as “a modern architectural masterpiece”.
The development application for the updates to Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady is on public exhibition until 9 February. More

In 2020, the world’s largest architecture practices doubled their earnings while reducing the number of architects they employed, a survey has found.
The annual World Architecture Top 100 (WA100) survey conducted by British Building Design magazine received responses from 1,000 practices worldwide and ranked them in order of number of fee-earning architects employed.
“This year’s WA100 survey indicates that billings at the four biggest architects almost doubled to nearly $4bn. That fee income was earned against the backdrop of a 9 percent fall in the number of architects employed by the big four,” the survey report states. “Across the whole top 100, the number of architects contracted by 7.5 percent”

The top four in 2021 are Gensler (US), Nikken Sekkei (Japan), HDR (US) and Sweco (Sweden).
Five Australian practices are ranked within the top 100, with Bates Smart edging up to 46 (from 52 in 2020) while retaining similar numbers of architects. GHD Woodhead climbed to 48 (from 59) thanks to an additional 27 architects on the payroll (228 compared to 201). Architectus fell dramatically from 48 to 86 after more than halving their number of architects from 252 to 110, despite increasing their fee income from US$40-49 million to $60-69 million. Hames Sharley’s ranking was also relatively steady at 94 (from 95) and new to the WA100 was Mode Design at 95.

The WA100 survey found that “almost two-thirds (64 percent) report that the pandemic has hit their firm’s financial position over the past six months. The biggest impact has been on projects that were still on the drawing board when the pandemic hit.”

The numbers echo a survey of Australian architects conducted by the Association of Consulting Architects in March 2020 which found at 89 percent of responding practices have had, or were expecting, projects to be cancelled or put on hold.

Globally, 48 percent of respondents expect the construction economy to remain stagnant in 2021, while 28 percent are anticipating decline.
The survey also found that “the regions tipped for growth are Central Asia and the Pacific Rim – in other words India and China.” However, editor Elizabeth Hopkirk warns, “Architects that choose to be drawn into China’s repressive orbit, in particular, must give serious consideration to their ethical red lines.”
In Australia, practices are expecting to be buoyed by government stimulus, including infrastructure projects, as well as growth in sectors such as civic, health, education and defence.
The full WA100 2021 report can be found on the Building Design website. More

The National Gallery of Victoria and the Victorian government have launched the design competition to select an Australian architect to design the new gallery, NGV Contemporary.
It was revealed in November 2020 that the competition would be open only to Australian architects.
Located at 77 Southbank Boulevard, within the Melbourne Arts Precinct, the gallery will span 30,000 square metres, making it the largest public gallery of contemporary art and design in Australia. The proponents note that making the competition open exclusively to Australian architectural teams is an “unprecedented” move for a competition of this scale and civic profile.

Ewan McEoin, NGV senior curator of contemporary design and architecture, said the gallery, the government and other project stakeholders have drawn on the strong commitment they have together to celebrate and foster opportunities for Australian design, carefully designing the competition over the past two years, mindful of the impact such a project would have on the Australian architecture and design industry and also more recently on the state’s post-COVID economic recovery.

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The Melbourne Arts Precinct redevelopment also includes a public garden designed by Hassell and So-il.

“Many international practices have made their names in competitions run in their own countries,” he told ArchitectureAU. “There are many leading international practices who have benefitted from significant competitions that set out to provide opportunities for their own design community”.
“What we’re advocating is that a project of this scale and importance creates global opportunities for Australian practices, because it’s a very important project not only in terms of level of the investment by Government but also just in terms of scale and profile. It will provide a unique opportunity for the team that wins this competition, to have realised a global-scale cultural project and to be in a position to then move forward at a global level.”

The Australian competition is a departure from recent competitions run in other states for large cultural projects, such as the Powerhouse Parramatta competition in Sydney, Adelaide Contemporary competition, or the Queensland Performing Arts Centre extension.
“With these other competitions in other states, there’s a formula that has become expected, and it hasn’t been interrogated enough about why would we run a competition in this way. We have thought deeply about the positive impact it can have on local industry, and what could be long term condition for Australian practices that it creates,” McEoin said.
“The legacy of a major design project and construction project like this has huge potential to create what we call an ‘ecosystem of opportunity’ in Australia. It’s not only the architecture, it’s all of the other associated products and services.”

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The siting of the NGV Contemporary.

Eligibility for the competition is separated into three components: a design lead (with at least 10 years of practice in Australia and project architect experience in the public sector); an anchor (which must have led the design on a project with a construction budget of at least $100 million and have at least 30 full-time staff); and a Victorian participaction requirement (with at least one of the team members to have been a registered Victorian business for no less than 12 months).

“A single architecture practice may fulfil all requirements, alternatively two or more practices may separately fulfil the requirements,” the competition criteria states.

McEoin added, “The criteria for the competition provides a lot of scope. We fully expect that these will be teams that come together. That’s really exciting for us. What’s implicit is that it is also specifically designed to create opportunities for a wide range of practices.”
“For the NGV, after many years of advocating for Australian design it’s a bit of a watershed moment. Selecting a design team for NGV Contemporary through a rigorous and transparent competition process, run in strong collaboration with the Victorian Government and competition advisor CityLab is, I would like to think, the very best way we could procure architecture in Australia today.”

Corbett Lyon, NGV Trustee and chair of the NGV Contemporary design competition jury, said the project offered an unparalleled platform to show off Australia’s design and architecture industries.
“Australian architecture and design is of international repute and the work of its practitioners is celebrated world-wide,” he said. “This competition will showcase the vibrancy and dynamism that fuels Australian design and architecture, as well as the ethos of collaboration that is ingrained into our practices and studios.

“Architecturally, NGV Contemporary will have an indelible impact on the shape of our city, and through this major competition will also have an equally important and long-lasting impact on our local design and architecture industry.”

Delivered by Development Victoria and competition advisors City Lab, the competition will incorporate a two-part expression of interest process and a two-part design competition, with a target of four teams to progress to the final stage. An honorarium will be provided to all competitors selected to progress to the design competition stages. The winning team is expected to be announced in summer 2021/22.
Along with the chair Corbett Lyon, the jury will include Victorian government architect Jill Garner and NGV director Tony Ellwood.
Jill Garner said, “NGV Contemporary presents an unprecedented and prestigious acknowledgment of Australian architectural excellence. It will undoubtedly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a lasting cultural legacy for the state of Victoria.”
In a statement, the competition organizers said the design for the new gallery must consider the function and flexibility required in order to display a diverse range of contemporary art and design while considering the gallery’s connection to the wider community, including the Melbourne Arts Precinct, the Southbank neighbourhood and the wider city. The gallery will connect to St Kilda Road via 18,000 square metres of new elevated public gardens.
“NGV Contemporary will be a thriving hub for local, national and international design and architecture, presented alongside significant examples of contemporary art, fashion and performance,” said Tony Ellwood. “It is therefore only fitting that NGV Contemporary will be designed and built by an Australian design and architecture team. This design competition presents an unprecedented opportunity to create a building of architectural significance that will become part of the fabric of our state and cultural identity.”
Registrations for the competiton are now open via the NGV website and will close on 4 March. More

The multicultural suburb of Dandenong in Melbourne’s south-east is set for major urban renewal, with $600 million to be spent on transforming the area around Dandenong Station into a “vibrant and integrated mixed-use precinct.”
The Victorian government announced in late 2020 that Melbourne developer Capital Alliance had won exclusive development right to deliver the Revitalising Central Dandenong project. Architecture firm DKO has prepared the masterplan for the two-hectare site, which includes the provision of a minimum of 500 dwellings, along with a new Little India.

The first stage of the project will be the development of the new “Little India” precinct to minimize disruptions to the existing traders and maintain the cultural identity of what is Melbourne’s oldest hub of Indian culture and commerce.
The project will also deliver new community space, commercial offices, a hotel and conference centre, an urban brewery entertainment district, an educational training facility, retail tenancies, a cinema and a new dining precinct.

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Revitalising Central Dandenong masterplan by DKO.

Capital Alliance says the project will act as future city hub for the region.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to further urbanize and give central Dandenong the investment it needs to cement its status as the capital of the south eastern corridor of Melbourne”, said the company’s chief executive, Mohan Du.
“We envisage the project at completion will add $1.5 billion in value to central Dandenong, drastically improving the urban experience and overall prosperity for Dandenong.”

The Revitalising Central Dandenong project was first initiated by the state government in 2006. In 2014, RMIT’s director of International Urban and Environmental Management, Beau Beza, described the reasoning behind the urban renewal program in Landscape Architecture Australia.

“Firstly, Dandenong has experienced socio-economic decline/stagnation – high unemployment, slow population growth, and low incomes compared to metropolitan Melbourne,” he wrote. “Secondly, the area has suffered from a diminishing appeal, which is a result of poor urban planning, ‘inefficient urban design and structural economic challenges.’ Thirdly, it was recognized that a long-term term approach created through a range of partnerships was needed to tackle these challenges.”

Capital Alliance will be delivering the project alongside Development Victoria.
“This will be an absolute game-changer for the Dandenong region,” said Development Victoria CEO Angela Skandarajah. “We look forward to working closely with Capital Alliance to ensure the vision is fully realised and that this strategic site adjacent to the Dandenong transport hub is transformed into a vibrant and thriving economic precinct.”
Construction is scheduled to begin “no later than 2023.” More

The $400 million redevelopment of Adelaide’s Central Market Arcade has been approved by South Australia’s State Commission Assessment Panel.
The project, designed by Woods Bagot, will see the existing Adelaide Central Market expanded and restored, bringing back a number of arches that were partially demolished in the 1960s.
The development will also include a 35-storey tower that will house a hotel, office spaces, residences and retail spaces.
The design will integrate the redeveloped arcade with the existing Adelaide Central Market and create a continuous connection between them. The precinct will also include public amenities such as an elevated garden terrace and the Market Hall atrium.

The project was first unveiled in December 2019. At the time, Woods Bagot associate principal and the project’s design director Alex Hall said, “This is a design exploration of the market’s heritage beyond just a facade treatment and makes its brick arches – which have always been emblematic of the market – part of the whole experience.”

The approved design is a direct evolution of the original ideas. “Respecting the grittiness and authentic feel of the Market, and holding close those things locals love about it, the design is the result of great dialogue and collaboration with the Adelaide Central Market Authority, the City of Adelaide, ICD Property and the Office for Design and Architecture SA,” Hall said.

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Adelaide Central Market Arcade redevelopment by Woods Bagot.

City of Adelaide lord mayor Sandy Verschoor said the development would be a once in a generation opportunity for an icon of the city.
“The City of Adelaide is proud to announce that the redevelopment of the Central Market Arcade has been approved,” she said. “This investment provides a unique opportunity to build on what people already love about the market district. “We are excited to be part of ICD Property’s Adelaide’s flagship development, Market Square, building on the Central Market’s importance as a South Australian icon, and provide better connections to Victoria Square and the surrounding streets.”

City of Adelaide assumed control of the shopping centre in September 2018 following 50-years of private ownership. ICD Property was appointed the development parter two years later.
“Market Square will be a celebration of the best of South Australia, and feature fresh new retail opportunities,” said ICD Property managing director Matthew Khoo. “The seamless connection and close partnership with the Central Market is a huge asset to this project.”
The project is expected to break ground in the second half of 2021 and is estimated to take three and half years to construct although a builder is yet to be appointed. More

Peter Crone, a modernist architect, skilled woodworker, conservationist, and expert on the work of Le Corbusier, has died following a cardiac arrest.
Over his half-century career, Crone won numerous awards for his house designs and school buildings, including the Victorian Architecture Medal for the Chapel at Trinity Grammar School in 1993. More recently, he won widespread acclaim for the meticulous conservation of Harold Desbrowe-Annear’s Chadwick House, which he and his wife Jane lived in and restored over a period of 30 years. A piece written by Crone for the May 2009 issue of Architecture Australia, details the extraordinary amount of time and effort that went into the project. “Work over the last 20 years has seen 18 sash windows and hoppers rebuilt and installed by myself,” he recalled. “Work on the living room took more than 18 months of weekends and spare evenings. Throughout our 20 years of completing stage one of the restorations, no drawings or photographs of the original house have been discovered.”

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Harold Desbrowe-Annear’s Chadwick House, restored by Peter Crone.

Peter Crone Architects won the 2008 Australian Institute of Architects’ National Award for Heritage for stage 1 of the restoration.
Born in 1944, Crone trained as an architect at RMIT University in Melbourne, working as a student for Bates Smart and McCutcheon, and Bernard Joyce. He graduated in 1970, before heading to Europe on a Haddon Travelling Scholarship to study the works of the seminal modernist Le Corbusier.
Returning to Melbourne in 1974, he designed a string of modernist private homes. His entry in the Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, written by Conrad Hamann, describes the houses of this period. Eruat House in Belgrave, Victoria (designed with Max May) “harnessed the chamfered, timber style then popular in Melbourne to a bold and monumental scale by dint of angled wings that amplified the house scale in a fusion of ideas paralleling Le Corbusier and United States architect Robert Venturi.” Huebner House in Olinda, Victoria was “a highly urbane, hovering design in concrete block that used a set of forms stemming from Norman Foster, Le Corbusier and the 1960s and early 1970s houses of United States architects Richard Meier, Charles Moore and Charles Gwathmey.”

He designed a range of infill public housing under housing commissioner John Devenish’s program in the early 1980s for the Victorian Ministry of Housing, before becoming the chief design architect for the Public Works Department of Victoria from 1986 to 1989. From 1987 to 2005, Crone and Mick Ross worked as Crone Ross, a school-based practice. Since 2006, Crone continued to design education buildings, completing major works at Presbyterian Ladies College, Burwood, Camberwell Boys Grammar School and Fintona Girls School, Balwyn.
A life fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, he retired at the end of 2018. More

Two distinguished architects, from Queensland and Victoria, have been recognized in the 2021 Australia Day Honours. More