Architecture

Durbach Block Jaggers has unveiled designs for a super-skinny hotel in Sydney’s Haymarket that will be just over six metres wide but soar to 110 metres above its Pitt Street address.
Reminiscent of the new breed of luxury “pencil” skyscrapers popping up in New York, the 410 Pitt Street tower will house 178 hotel rooms along with a three-storey lobby, meeting rooms a roof terrace and a “hammam” with plunge pool, spa and sauna, sundecks and flying balcony on the rooftop.
Its facade will be clad in marble and metallic materials that will provide a soft diffused light.

Durbach Block Jaggers won a design excellence competition to deliver the tower, winning out over Scott Carver, Sissons Architects and SJB.

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410 Pitt Street by Durbach Block Jaggers.

The firm’s proposal comprises three detailed sections aimed at demonstrating the “transitional relationship between horizontals and verticals on the façade.”
The competition jury described the design as “powerful, well thought out, creative and enchanting.” They praised the active façade and the opportunity for public interaction and engagement at ground level along with the planning and spatial qualities of the public areas in the scheme.

“[The proposal] exhibited an engaging story and an innovative and unique approach for the constrained site and design brief.”
The tower will replace a boarding house.
Tricon Management Group has submitted a development application for the $35.7 million project, which is on public exhibition until 2 February.

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An underground herbarium and an “indoor pleasure garden” have been proposed for Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in a 20-year masterplan for the Melbourne gardens.
The masterplan, launched in December 2020, create a series of new garden experiences and help “guide the post-COVID recovery of Melbourne” by providing opportunities for residents and visitors to engage with nature.
A key project, the new Sensory Garden by Central Lake designed by Andrew Laidlaw has been completed and was opened to coincide with the launch of the masterplan.

The sensory garden features a series of immersive plant experiences designed to simulate the senses through views, colour, sound, scent, textures and forms of plants.
The premier project outlined in the masterplan is the Nature and Science Precinct, which, along with the Arts and Culture and Sports and Entertainment precincts, is intended to be one of Melbourne’s three major destination by the Birrarung (Yarra river). The precinct will be located at the site of the existing herbarium.

John Wardle Architects along with Laidlaw and Laidlaw Design Landscape Architects were appointed to design the new precinct in May 2019. The masterplan provides details of the design, including the underground herbarium and vault, which will house the 1.5 million plant species in the State Botanical Collection.

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A new underground herbarium and vault in the Nature and Science Precinct of the Royal Botanic Gardens masterplan.

The 1988 extension to the herbarium will be demolished and the original 1934 herbarium building will be refurbished. The precinct will also include a new welcoming public space on Dallas Brooks Drive, which will become the destination meeting point, and connections to Ian Potter Children’s garden.
Other projects include a new entry gate by the Birrarung, between the existing A and H gates. The new gate will become a new major entrance to the gardens and will celebrate Indigenous landscapes, plants, animals, landforms and people.

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A new Birrarung gate in the Royal Botanic Gardens masterplan.

At the corner of Alexandra Avenue and Anderson Street, the A Gate will be redeveloped into a terraced garden with a focus on health and wellbeing.
Huntingfield Lawn, an under-used piece of land between the northern border of Government House and Alexandra Avenue will to be recontoured to create new amphitheatre venue for small theatrical performances.
Hopetoun Lawn will be redeveloped into Wild Wood, a natural bush children’s area and unstructured play space.
The masterplan will be delivered in stages, culminating in the construction of the New Lakeside Conservatory on the existing site of the Terrace Tea Rooms. The masterplan describes the proposed conservatory as an “indoor pleasure garden.”
“Sitting sensitively in the landscape as a grand folly, this structure would become a major new landmark and destination in Melbourne,” the masterplan reads. More

Three Sydney schools will receive upgrades together worth $290 million, after the New South Wales government gave the projects the green light.
The Architectus-designed $250 million overhaul of Chatswood Public School and Chatswood High School will deliver more than 150 new and refurbished teaching spaces along with dedicated performing arts spaces, new sport and recreational facilities and new libraries.
Education minister Sarah Mitchell said the school upgrades would transform the teaching and learning experiences for students and staff.

“Upgrades to Chatswood Public School will include up to 53 classrooms with special programs and support classrooms while Chatswood High School will include up to 123 classrooms with special support classrooms,” she said.
The character for each of the Chatswood schools is distinct. Architectus describes how Chatswood Public School on Pacific Highway will have a fine-grain urban character with brick and sandstone, while Chatswood High School on Centennial Avenue will embrace its natural bush setting.

Meanwhile, the $40 million upgrade to Darlington Public School, designed by FJMT, will deliver 19 teaching spaces, a special programs room, canteen and a library.
FJMT’s design reponds to the existing character of the school, which “sits at the nexus between the fine grain of the Darlington terrace houses and the large scale of the University of Sydney.”
“The urban response to the site is to continue the dominant street alignment of the terrace houses which characterise the surrounding context,” the design report states.
“The rhythm of the existing buildings that characterises the suburb of Darlington has been maintained, where the new development draws reference from the surrounding context and key buildings.”

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The $2.1 billion Waterfront Brisbane office development designed by FJMT and Arkhefield has been given approval to be built on the Brisbane river, next to the Harry Seidler-designed buildings Riparian Plaza and Riverside Centre.
Brisbane City Council and developer Dexus announced the approval for the controversial two-tower project at Eagle Street Pier at a press conference just days before Christmas 2020.
Deputy mayor Krista Adams said the Eagle Street Pier precinct would be revived to include new public realm and a new riverwalk as part of the development.

“This approval follows six months of working with the applicant on their plans to enhance the existing riverside destination and deliver a better experience for residents and visitors,” she said.
“The Eagle Street Pier precinct was established as a dining precinct more than 30 years ago and this refresh will ensure it continues to provide dining, entertainment and spectacular riverside experiences for future generations.”

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Waterfront Brisbane by FJMT and Arkhefield.

Included in the scheme are two towers of 49 and 43 floors along with approximately 9,000 square metres of riverside public open space and a new 280-metre riverwalk connecting Waterfront Place to the Riparian Plaza. The riverwalk will be funded by the council and delivered by Dexus, with construction set to begin in 2022.
The previously included private pontoon to the north has been removed and replaced with a new publicly accessible, shaded space.
The approval comes despite opposition from residents of the Riparian Plaza, and a scathing assessment of the proposed design from Penelope Seidler, director of Harry Seidler and Associates and wife to the late Harry Seidler.

In a letter to the council in 2020 Seidler said she was “horrified” by the proposal which would “obviously have a detrimental impact on the iconic Brisbane waterfront.”
“Waterfront Brisbane appears as an over-scaled wall of glass positioned without any regard to the established principles respected in the design of all other towers to their mutual benefit and to the benefit of this part of Brisbane,” she wrote. “The proposed design seems to turn its back in disrespect of Brisbane: ‘if you are not on our waterfront, you don’t exist’. The building shape forms a wall separating the city from the river.”

In a design statement submitted to council in October, FJMT and Arkhefield describe how the design has been updated to better suit the river-front location, in response to council comments. “The architectural expression of the podium elements has moved away from vertical surfaces with façade operability, towards a more horizontal expression with continuous landscaped edges,” the architects state. “Deep overhangs provide increased shading and multiple opportunities for occupied outdoor terraces. The architectural expression has moved toward a more subtropical language that extends the Riverwalk vertically though the podium levels. The expression is of a multi layered edge condition populated by inhabited and welcoming landscaped spaces to stop and gather.” More

The National Gallery of Victoria has unveiled its much-anticipated Triennial exhibition, which features 86 projects from more than 100 artists, designers and collectives from more than 30 countries.
The exhibition includes more than 30 new major commissions, including architectural commissions by Australian and international architects and designers.
BTVV (Switzerland and Finland) were invited to create an installation after their whimsical Swiss national pavilion won the Golden Lion Award at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Like the Swiss pavilion, the Triennial installation plays with scale and perception.

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Walls 4 Sale: near new and supersized by BTVV.
Image: Sean Fennessy
“BTVV are an architecture studio that takes issue with architecture,” said Simone LeAmon, curator of contemporary design and architecture at NGV. They are critiquing their own discipline from within.
“For this commission, they came to Melbourne and they witnessed what we’re all witnessing which is the building boom, and they took particular interest in the language of selling off the plan.”

The studio made particular note of the distorted wide angle perspectives in renderings of apartments and the over emphasis on kitchen appliances in real estate.

“They’ve taken what they see as being a very insincere language of visualizing and representing real estate and they have built it,” LeAmon explained. “So you will walk through doors that are oversized, you will encounter appliances which make you feel like Alice in Wonderland. It is quite a surreal experience.”
The studio also plays on the speculative development market with a tongue-in-cheek proposal to construct an apartment tower over the Roy Grounds designed NGV International building.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma collaborated with Melbourne artist Geoffrey Nees on a timber pavilion made from trees that had died during the Millennium drought at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

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Botanical Pavilion by Kengo Kuma and Geoffrey Nees.
Image: Tom Ross
“When an arborist deems a tree unsafe sometimes that tree needs to be felled and that timber is very precious,” LeAmon said. Some of the trees pre-date European colonization. “If you walk inside the pavilion, you will encounter timber from all these trees and the smell is quite extraordinary.”
The pavilion is built using a traditional Japanese technique where interlocking pieces are held together only by tension and gravity.
LA-based Australian architect Liam Young created a 15-minute animated film installation that proposes that in the future, the entire world’s population would live together in a single densely packed city.

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Planet City by Liam Young.
Image: Tom Ross
“The provocation is we do this to let the rest of planet to return to its former state. This is a speculative design. It suggests we need to think differently about how we live in the future, how we design our cities, how we even live together as human beings,” LeAmon said.
Other new commissions include the transformation of the NGV Gallery Kitchen by English architect Adam Nathaniel Furman and Australian studio Sibling Architecture. The installation draw on influences from the boudoir, the salon and the nightclub to create a space with “flamboyant scenography and décor.” It is intended to be an inclusive space that is “especially welcoming to those who may not feel comfortable or safe in the public realm.”

The mammoth Triennial exhibition is underpinned by four themes: illumination, reflection, conservation, and speculation. The artworks – some of which have been several years in the making and others created in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns – explore some of the most pressing issues of today, including isolation, conservation and climate change.
Other artworks in the exhibition includes the world’s first quantum artwork – a 100 square metre screen depicting a speculative work by Turkish artist Refik Anadol, made using artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
The exhibition is open from 19 December 2020 until 18 April 2021 and entry is free.
“There couldn’t be a better way to welcome Victorians back to the NGV – the people’s gallery – than with the spectacular second NGV Triennial,” said Victorian premier Daniel Andrews.
In unveiling the exhibition, Andrews also announced a $20 million donation from the Ian Potter Foundation towards the development of the proposed NGV Contemporary. More

The NSW government’s final strategy for the Pyrmont peninsula clears the way for the controversial Star hotel development, with a 110-metre tower allowed at the northern end of the casino site and a 140-metre tower approved for the southern end.
The decision to allow the development follows a prolonged battle over the proposed tower development, with state government MPs trading blows with the government’s own planning department and the City of Sydney over its appropriateness. The original 180-metre tower, designed by FJMT, was recommended for rejection by the planning department and was ultimately axed by the Independent Planning Commission. When the government announced a planning strategy overhaul for the area in July it was criticized for aiming to resurrect the controversial development; in September, Star Casino announced its intention to build two towers, instead of one.

The release of the final Pyrmont Peninsula Place Strategy means the casino can now prepare a development application. Planning minister Rob Stokes said the strategy would provide more certainty and clarity regarding the future of the CBD’s western gateway.
“We’ve listened to community and business feedback and have adapted the plan so that Pyrmont remains a prosperous and unique part of Sydney,” he said.
“Striking a balance in planning is never easy and the unique geography and history of Pyrmont’s settlement pattern provided a particular challenge. Our fundamental task was to encourage economic development while enlivening the peninsula, boosting jobs and providing for more quality public open spaces for everyone to enjoy.”

The strategy also confirms that a new Sydney Metro station will be built in Pyrmont as well as a new active transport link from Blackwattle Bay to the Fish Market Light Rail Station.
It also calls for a “low-line” (modelled on New York’s High Line) beneath the Anzac Bridge pylons and Western Distributor overpass, comprising a ribbon of public, recreational space. Wentworth Park greyhound track land and the temporary pop-up school will also be transformed into publicly accessible open space.

“Our plan will unlock public access to Sydney’s foreshore from Blackwattle Bay to Woollomooloo Bay [which hasn’t been accessible] since the 1800s,” said Stokes.
“The pandemic has shown us the importance of public space and this strategy provides hectares more open space, uninterrupted foreshore and plenty of community infrastructure to support new and existing development.”
Building heights will be allowed of up to 170 metres at Harbourside, while at Blackwattle Bay, 156 metres will be the maximum.
The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment will now prepare masterplans for the Pyrmont Peninsula’s seven sub-precincts: Pirrama, Darling Island, Blackwattle Bay, Tumbalong Park, Wentworth Park, Pyrmont Village and Ultimo. More

A design that envisions a “democratic gathering space under a landscape canopy” has won the NSW government’s design competition for a new public pavilion at Watermans Cove, Barangaroo.
Behind the winning design in the national Pier Pavilion competition is architect Jessica Spresser, of the eponymous Brisbane studio Spresser, who worked in conjunction with fellow architect Peter Besley and Arup. The teams’s design was selected out of 170 entrants and five shortlisted designs announced in September.

“Personally, this means a great deal as a young Australian architect and I thank Infrastructure NSW for putting together this competition,” Spresser said.
The competition jury praised the design for its timeless appeal and a symbiotic relationship to the surroundings. The pavilion design includes a green rooftop garden and 123 columns built using white “oyster concrete” from local Sydney rock oyster shells.

“The pavilion is designed as a democratic gathering space under a landscape canopy and will act as a meeting place, a site for events, a memorable part of the city and an oasis of tranquillity.”

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The Pier Pavilion winning design by Jessica Spresser in conjunction with Peter Besley and Arup.

With the winner selected, the design will undergo refinement before Infrastructure NSW lodges a development application for construction. Once built, the pavilion will be open year-round and will be used for a broad range of programmed events.
“Jessica’s design is sophisticated and iconic, celebrating the natural elements of land, sea and sky that compose the site,” said planning minister Ron Stokes.
“Our vision for Barangaroo has been to ensure that more than half of the area was dedicated public space. Seeing the potential of how the area will look, through the eyes of talented architects, is a thrill for me as minister for public spaces.”

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A 12-storey apartment building dubbed the “Trellis” for its framework of criss-crossing structural columns, deep balconies and pronounced slab edges will be built at 20-24 Edmondstone Street, South Brisbane, under plans before council.
In its design for the tower, Rothelowman has sought to challenge the traditional podium-tower composition, by removing the podium altogether.
Instead, the tower is raised on large columns reminiscent of the stilts of a Queenslander and the ground plane is given over to landscape and pedestrians.

“The columns from the Trellis overhead hold the street edge giving order and dignity to Edmonstone Street,” state the architects in planning documents.

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Trellis tower at 20-24 Edmondstone Street, South Brisbane, designed by Rothelowman.

“Passive design principles inform a layered facade where the horizontal shading projections and balustrade assembly allows for full height openings to living areas. This along with naturally ventilated corridors celebrate the liveability of the Brisbane environment.”

RPS is the landscape architect for the project, in which landscape takes priority throughout. The ground floor lobby becomes a conservatory as part of a “curated landscaped interior experience…where the enclosure dissolves and allows the forest to take centre stage.”
The development also includes a landscaped rooftop shaded by a generous pergola structure with 360-degree views. A 65kw rooftop solar system and associated battery storage is anticipated to offset around half of common area power usage for the residents.
Developed by Aria Property Group, the tower will house 110 apartments, including 66 two-bedroom apartments and 44 three-bedroom.

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