Architecture

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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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