Architecture

The City of Melbourne is preparing the ground for the $40 million redevelopment of the Queen Victoria Market.
Councillors will vote on three separate applications on 13 April, for two new sheds designed by NH Architecture – the “trader shed” and “northern shed” – and the revitalization of the food hall to designs by BSPN Architecture.
While NH Architecture’s designs for the redeveloped sheds were first released in early 2020, the concept designs for the food hall are new.
“Traders have told us that the existing food court, which was built in the mid-1990s, is outdated and limits the potential to grow their businesses,” Melbourne mayor Sally Capp said.
“This upgrade will include an improved dining area including more seating, flexible layout, cooking demonstration area, greenery, new flooring and roof.”
Council management’s report to the Future Melbourne committee, which recommends approval for the food hall transformation, says the project would create “an exciting contemporary hospitality destination within [the] market precinct with an improved connection to Queen Street.”

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The Queen Vic trader shed by NH Architecture.

The trader shed and northern shed, which received heritage permits from Heritage Victoria in December 2020, would include new logistics, storage, waste and recycling facilities, customer toilets and dedicated trader toilets, showers and meeting rooms for the market’s 2000-strong workforce. Sally Capp said they would deliver important safety, efficiency and sustainability improvements.
The advocacy group Friends of Queen Victoria Market, however, says the proposed changes risk developing a “shopping centre” operational model with fewer traders operating in a “boutique market” and entertainment precinct.
The group detailed in a social media post how the planned reduction in delivery points and loading time would create a “logistical nightmare,” noting that centralized delivery, unloading and re-stocking was more appropriate for a supermarket.

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The Queen Vic northern shed by NH Architecture.

Council management is recommending that the redevelopment of the sheds be approved as well.
Capp said the construction of the food hall, trader shed and northern shed was expected to get underway in early 2022, subject to approvals.
“Queen Victoria Market is one of our most iconic destinations and we are committed to its renewal because this project creates hundreds of jobs now and will help to attract more shoppers for decades into the future,” she said.
“Investing in the market is about delivering upgraded facilities for traders and customers to help local businesses thrive again and bringing back the buzz to one of our most important tourist destinations.”
Works are underway for the $30 million heritage shed restoration and the Munro mixed-use tower development next to the market. More

The Australian government has launched a design competition for a National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, to be built on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.
Establishing a national memorial was a key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In October 2020, the federal government committed $6.7 million to the project to establish “a place of truth and commemoration” and “to provide a dedicated and enduring place to reflect, pay tribute and remind future generations to be ever vigilant in protecting our children.”
Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston said, “Consultation told us the memorial should be a place of remembrance and a place that honours victims and survivors,” Minister Ruston said.
“Without the strength of victims and survivors Australia may have never been able to come to terms with the awful truth about the abuse perpetrated in institutions entrusted to care for young Australians.
“Their voices have created changes in all levels of society to ensure that children are protected from abuse in all institutions now and forever and this memorial will serve as a permanent tribute to them.”
The competition is open to all Australian design professionals and collaborative teams, which may include architects, landscape architects, artists, sculptors, engineers, as well as those who have lived experience of institutional child sexual abuse.
The competition website states that the design is “is of national significance [and] requires a high degree of design exploration, innovation and skill.”
The government has chosen a site on the Acton Peninsula, close to the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
The site straddles Lawson Crescent and the edge of Lake Burley Griffin, and is described as “a foreshore urban woodland with panoramic views across Lake Burley Griffin to Stirling Park, Lennox Gardens and Parliament House. It enjoys glimpses through to the National Arboretum and the Brindabella Ranges to the west.”
The jury will include an architect and landscape architect, as well as representatives from the National Capital Authority and the National Memorial Advisory Group, which includes people with personal experience of institutional child sexual abuse. It will be chaired by Peter McClellan, who was chief royal commissioner of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Submission to the competition open on 12 April and will close on 21 May. Construction of the memorial will start later in 2021, and it is due to open in 2022.
“A national call for submissions has been deemed the most appropriate way to select a suitable design for the Memorial and we encourage those with the skills and expertise to apply,” said Nola Marino, Assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories. More

The planned $708 million overhaul of Sydney’s tired Harbourside Shopping Centre will go before NSW’s independent planning umpire after attracting hundreds of objections and raising concerns over the privatization of public space.
Proposed by developer Mirvac, with initial concept designs by FJMT, the project would include a 42-storey apartment tower – the main cause of concern for many – and would see the existing buildings demolished.
The development is supported by the state government’s Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, which notes its potential for “economic growth and job creation” and for the delivery of new and improved public domain areas.
The design has undergone a number of changes since it was first exhibited by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in 2016–17, receiving more than 134 objections; but it doesn’t appear to be getting more popular, with the latest round of public engagement, in late 2020, attracting 192 unique objections from the public out of 233 submissions.

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The proposed Harbourside Shopping Centre redevelopment, concept design by FJMT.

The City of Sydney, in its latest submission, notes that while changes such as the relocation of the tower have improved the design, the amended concept proposal does not address its primary concern: the “effective privatization of public land.”
“The City reiterates that Darling Harbour is a precinct for all of greater Sydney with a network of open spaces that encourage various leisure activities within the harbour foreshore,” writes director of city planning, Graham Jahn.
“The assertions made for the provision of residential accommodation are not meaningfully substantiated and do not warrant the conversion of public land for private use.”
Other key concerns raised by the council and the public include the height and scale of the tower and podium, overshadowing of the foreshore, view loss and lack of public benefits.
Kevin Sumption, director of the Australian National Maritime Museum, which sits adjacent to the subject site, also raised concerns about the lack of consultation. He writes that despite Mirvac claiming it had “completed over 3.5 years of extensive stakeholder consultation,” the museum had received no communication from the developer.
In its assessment report in support of the proposal, the state planning department notes that while it appreciates the council’s concerns about privatization, “the proposal supports the revitalization of an underperforming shopping centre with a vibrant mixed-use development, which would deliver significant public domain and open space improvements together with increased permeability, accessibility and activation at podium levels.”
As a state-significant development, Mirvac’s proposal is subject to state government consideration, as opposed to council. Any projects that receive at least 50 unique objections go before the Independent Planning Commission for determination. The planning commission is holding an online public meeting on the project on Wednesday 28 April.
FJMT’s concept design has been peer-reviewed by Architectus. Aspect Studios has done the public domain concept design. A competitive design process would decide the design team for the project. More

The Archdiocese of Brisbane has unveiled ambitious plans to build an eight-storey office block next to the historic St Patrick’s Church on Morgan Street, Fortitude Valley.
With architectural design by BVN, the project is one of a number of recent proposals to build commercial buildings in close proximity to churches, including Candalepas Associates’ design for a tower above the mid-century St Peter Julian’s Catholic Church and FJMT’s cantilevered hotel above a Gothic former church building.
A development application submitted to council describes how the design has been configured to respond to the existing church while contributing to the Fortitude Valley urban fabric and public realm.
Located between the church and several two-storey ancillary office buildings, the tower will accommodate 11,550 square metres of office floor space. An activated three-level-high outdoor garden room at the ground plane will feature integrated landscaping and seating and an articulated soffit with a direct connection to the church. Urbis is landscape architect on the project.
“The proposal offers a contemporary, flexible and sustainable building designed for the 21st century, with interwoven community workplace and landscaped realms,” said BVN in a design statement.
“The building has a distinctive appearance provided through its facade types that respond to orientation and draw reference from the existing church.
“Each floor features living greenery and access to the outdoors overlooking the Church to the South-West and the Brisbane CBD beyond.”
Designed by Andrea Giovanni Stombuco and built from 1880 to 1882, St Patrick’s is a Gothic-style church that was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992.
It is significant for its association with the consolidation of the Catholic church in Queensland in the last quarter of the nineteenth century as well as for its architectural style and the “monumental and finely detailed quality of the exterior.”
BVN’s design aims to preserve views to the church from James and McLachlan streets.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Brisbane told The Urban Developer the project was about securing the future of the church.
“The driving force behind this application is the need to ensure the parish can financially support its ageing St Patrick’s Church, which has been part of the community for more than 140 years,” he said.
“The parish also maintains the historic St Stephen’s Cathedral, which requires ongoing maintenance.
“Both churches have long-standing roles in their communities and we want them to be places of gathering for another 150-plus years.” More

Architectus and Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects’ redevelopment of the State Library Victoria has won the architecture category of the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards and a medical machine that creates 3D digital images of the human eye has won the top prize.
Announced during Melbourne Design Week, the premier’s awards aim to celebrate professional and student designers working across a variety of fields.
The redevelopment of the state library has been a years-long process, with the new design was fully opened to the public in December 2019. Reviewing the project in Architecture Australia, Conrad Hamann said it was marked by the architects’ willingness to go with the building’s idiosyncrasies and episodes.
“The work recognizes that large institutional buildings such as this carry inside them their own history and culture, and that refurbishment is as much a weaving, a negotiation, as an outright renewal,” he wrote.
The project is one seven category winners.
The overall winner, which also won the product design category, was designed by Cobalt Design and Cylite to help specialists treat vision impairment. It streamlines the diagnostic process by integrating the functions of five existing instruments into a single, automated platform.
“Cobalt Design and Cylite have shown us that great design can have a meaningful impact on people’s lives and not only spark creative thinking but shape our society for the better,” said Creative Industries minister Danny Pearson.
In the fashion category, HoMie won for the sustainability initiative Reborn, which transforms garments destined for landfill into desirable one-off pieces while raising money for charity.
Sebastian White won in communication design for a series of posters promoting the Isol-Aid Live Music Festival during isolation, and Transpire with Vodafone Foundation won in digital design for DreamLab, a mobile app that uses networked smartphones as a distributed supercomputer to process medical research data on cancer and COVID-19.
In the design strategy category, RMIT University, Public Journal and SBS won for Bundyi Girri for Business, a set of frameworks, skills and techniques that helps non-Indigenous people to “cultivate the self-awareness required to be in active relationships with Indigenous peoples and Country.”
The design firm Today won in the service design category for the Working with Children Checks for Indigenous Applicants program, which “expressed the WWCC framework with sensitivity to the needs, rights and culture of Indigenous Australians.”
Best in the student design category went to RMIT students Charlotte McCombe, Tanuj Kalra and Jui Deepak Apte for Aegis, a bio-constructed hospital PPE made from marine weeds, and to VCE student Hanna Gough for a craft kit that serves as an emergency economic tool and transforms recyclable waste.
This year’s winners were selected from a field of 97 finalists. More

The University of Canberra plans to spend $5 billion on property development at its Bruce campus over the next 20 years, despite the economic headwinds facing the university sector with the loss of revenue from international students.
Included in the 20-year masterplan prepared by MGS Architects with Turf Design Studio are new light rail connections and a sports hub and indoor arena. The plan details several interconnected hubs designed to increase services available to the campus and Belconnen community.
The hubs will be focused on health, aged care, early learning and housing – with the aim being to create an “all-encompassing community-focused campus on which people can live, work, and study.”
In total, the plan envisions an increase in core university facilities of at least 60,000 square metres and a 210,000-square-metre increase in partnership and commercial buildings and/or tenancies.
This will support a campus population of 45,000, consisting of 12,000 residents, 15,000 students and an enterprise and business population of at least 18,000.
University of Canberra vice-chancellor Paddy Nixon said the plan was to bring together those who are already part of the university community with those in the greater Belconnen area.
“The Campus Master Plan will integrate our campus with community through a range of neighbourhoods where people can live, learn and work,” he said.
“The masterplan envisages Canberra’s public transport network strengthened with the city’s Light Rail service travelling from Civic, through the University campus, and onto the Belconnen Town Centre.”
The masterplan calls for a new arena and multi-court sports centre.
“We also want to expand the sporting facilities available to the community – welcoming our neighbours to use the grounds for their exercise and recreational activities,” said Nixon.
MGS Architects says the masterplan aims to reinforce the university’s distinctive bush character, linking key spaces to the region’s significant landscapes, and supporting existing ecology and biodiversity.
“Even as the campus increases in density, this character will be preserved, offering a recognizable point of difference and uniquely Australian experience for campus users,” the masterplan states. More

One-hundred-and-one luxury apartments will appear to float above the heritage David Jones department store building on Castlereagh Street, Sydney, under a scheme developed by FJMT.
Construction is underway for the 111 Castlereagh Street project, which will include a 34-storey tower with apartments from level 14 up and office space from levels seven to 12. The heritage podium, designed in the interwar functionalist tradition and completed in 1938, will continue to house retail space.
In a design statement, FJMT describes how the extant building’s distinctively curved form gives civic presence to the corner of Market and Castlereagh streets, while its sandstone and travertine facade appears as if it were carved from solid stone.
“The new architecture of 111 Castlereagh beautifully complements this historic sandstone context with a new bronze elliptical sculptural form that seems to hover above the heritage,” the architect states. “This curvilinear architecture appears to bear no load on the grounded heritage building – yet its impact is seen and felt through rippling layers of outdoor landscape featuring a swimming pool, social spaces and podium gardens.”
A central atrium will create a vertical flow through the core of the design, flooding the retail and commercial levels with light.
“Suspended above this atrium, the residences embrace grand living rooms alongside intimate spaces and refined detailing,” says FJMT. “The dominant elevation facing east will capture the city’s most coveted views: the lush canopies of Hyde Park and beyond to Sydney Harbour.”
The original department store was designed by Mackeller and Partridge, and was part of an ongoing tradition of centralized commercial, financial and professional dealings in the CBD with particular associations with that eminent Australian firm, according to its heritage listing.
That listing calls the building a fine example of the functionalist design tradition, “expressive of the department store use and well related to a strong townscape character at an important city corner.”
Adrian Pozzo, CEO of developer Cbus Property, said, “The Castlereagh site offers a prestigious address with rare historic character in the centre of Sydney. It provides the opportunity to offer the best of both worlds by both showcasing the heritage and also bringing it into the future, with new architecture and world-class commercial and residential assets.” More

Victoria’s highest court has rejected an appeal from three consultants who were found to be liable for damages to a Docklands apartment building that caught ablaze in 2014.
The fire was sparked by an cigarette butt and subsequently raced up the building’s aluminium composite cladding. The specification, installation and assessment of the cladding material thus became a crucial issue in the legal proceedings brought on by the owners against the builder.
In 2019, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that the architect of the Lacrosse apartment building, Elenberg Fraser, the building surveyor and fire engineer had each breached their respective contracts with the builder, LU Simon, which in turn was liable to the building’s owners for the $12 million in current and anticipated future losses.
The tribunal apportioned 25 percent of the liability to the architect, 33 percent to the building surveyor and 39 percent to the fire engineer. The judge ordered $5.75 million to be paid by the builder initally, with the consultants to reimburse the builder and pay for the remainder of losses as they arose.
The three consultants appealed the tribunal’s decision, proposing 25 grounds for appeal and 11 issues that required resolution. However, the appeals court rejected all grounds for appeal made by the architect.
The court considered two issues relating directly to the architect. First, whether Elenberg Fraser had directed the builder to select, or permitted the builder to select, the product Alucobest “or any composite metal cladding product that was contrary to the Building Act 1993 and the Building Code of Australia”; and second, whether the Tribunal erred in finding that Elenberg Fraser was “negligent in respect of its inspection and approval of the Alucobest sample.”
The tribunal had originally found that Elenberg Fraser breached its contractual obligations to the builder when it specified a cladding material “indicative to Alucobond.”
Elenberg Fraser contended that the specification did not necessarily prescribe the use of an aluminium composite panel (ACP) with 100 percent polyethylene core; that the specification of an ACP product did not constitute a “failure to take care;” and, crucially, that “it was for LU Simon, in the implementation of the T2 Specification, to select materials that complied with applicable legal requirements.”
The court rejected Elenberg Fraser’s submissions. “Quite simply, Elenberg Fraser’s reliance on the terms and conditions of the D&C Contract [design and construct contract] (including the T2 Specification) to make good that submission is misplaced.
“To construe the T2 Specification as submitted by Elenberg Fraser would require us to ignore the obligations expressly imposed on Elenberg Fraser under the Elenberg Fraser Agreement and would have the unreasonable result of absolving Elenberg Fraser of its liability to LU Simon as a consequence of the contractual obligations owed by LU Simon to the developer.”
On the matter of negligence in the inspection and approval of the Alucobest sample, Elenberg Fraser had told the original tribunal hearing that “its obligation to inspect and approve samples [was related to] visual characteristics only and did not extend to approving a sample on the basis of its regulatory compliance.”
The appeals court found that “The proper construction of that obligation is the legal question underpinning the first of the ‘two distinct breaches’ determined by the Tribunal to flow from Elenberg Fraser’s ‘inadequate assessment of the Alucobest sample’.
“Significantly, Elenberg Fraser does not raise any ground of appeal in relation to the second of the two breaches, that is, the breach of its broader obligations as head design consultant. It leaves undisputed the findings underpinning that breach.”
“As a consequence, even if we found that the Tribunal erred in its construction of the Sample Approval Obligation, the Tribunal’s ultimate conclusion that Elenberg Fraser breached its broader obligation as head design consultant as a result of its inadequate assessment of the Alucobond sample, remains unchallenged.”
The court also considered issues raised by the three consultants regarding whether the builder LU Simon was a concurrent wrongdoer under the Wrongs Act 1958 and if it also failed to take reasonable care.
“Elenberg Fraser submitted that the Tribunal failed to consider the question of LU Simon’s selection of Alucobest in the context of its responsibilities as a builder. Elenberg Fraser submitted that there was a case in negligence advanced against LU Simon at trial that even if the T2 Specification permitted LU Simon to select Alucobest, as a builder, LU Simon was negligent because it selected a product that did not comply with the BCA.”
“We are unpersuaded by the submissions of Elenberg Fraser that the Tribunal somehow considered the selection process engaged in by LU Simon ‘in the context of a designer but not in the context of the responsibilities of a builder,’” the court said. “To the contrary, the Tribunal’s Reasons […] show that the issue of LU Simon’s selection of the ACPs was one that the Tribunal considered in the wider context — taking into account the terms of the D&C Contract and the terms of the consultants’ agreements.”
The original tribunal decision was labelled a “landmark” with “significant ramifications right across the building and construction sector” by then national president of the Australian Institute of Architects Clare Cousins.
Bronwyn Weir, a lawyer and author of the Building Confidence report, wrote, “This decision confirms that courts will expect architects to prepare documents that demonstrate BCA compliance. The involvement of other specialist consultants does not relieve the architect from its obligation to understand and apply the BCA to its design.” More