Architecture

A historic reservoir in Sydney’s inner-west will be transformed into a childcare centre for 159 children, according to plans submitted to council by Little Lane Early Learning and Milton Architects.
The Drummoyne Reservoir has been a distinctive feature on the suburb’s skyline since 1913 and is listed on the state heritage register for its technological and historical significance, as well as for its “fine, well-designed Federation Free Classical structure.”
It consists of a large utilitarian tank, supported by a colonnaded tank stand in the classical style, with a seven-storey concrete tower rising on the southern side.

Milton Architects’ scheme for the site involves the adaptive reuse of the heritage structure and the construction of a new two-storey building along with three levels of basement car parking.
The childcare centre will be spread across five levels within the reservoir tank itself, with an outdoor play area and garden on the rooftop.

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The proposed Little Lane Early Learning centre at the Drummoyne Reservoir by Milton Architects.

In all, there will be more than 1,700 square metres of unencumbered outdoor play areas spilling out across the ground and upper levels, with the centre of the site proposed as a “soft landscaped area” between built forms.
“We want to focus on creating a community-based centre that encourages children to participate,” Little Lane owner Shan Kuo told The Daily Telegraph. “The design is focused on what is best for the children and how the children can learn to become part of the community.”

Entry to the childcare centre will be through the ground floor of the reservoir tank where two indoor playrooms will open directly to an outdoor play area along the south-western boundary of the site.
More play area will be spread across levels three to five, with an outdoor play area with a northern orientation is located within the unenclosed portion of these levels.
The project will involve the demolition of some heritage fabric but heritage architect Lucas Stapleton Johnson found that “given the robustness of the overall form and design of the Reservoir, the proposed changes will result in minimal visual impacts and the Reservoir will continue to be clearly understood as a former water reservoir and its original form and configuration will continue to be appreciated.” More

The rooftop of the Art Gallery of WA will be transformed into an indoor and outdoor gallery and the largest rooftop venue in Perth.
The rooftop transformation, designed by TAG Architects and FJMT and dubbed Elevate, will create an open air sculpture park that will feature works from the State Art Collection.
The project will also create a rooftop venue capable of hosting 500 people, was well as an external lift and bridge from the Perth Culture Centre precinct, which will allow people access to the rooftop after hours.

“Elevate will provide stunning views of the hills, the city skyline and the New Museum, and the combination of rooftop events, artworks and people will add vibrancy to the Perth Cultural Centre precinct,” said culture and arts minister David Templeman.

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Rooftop development at the Art Gallery of WA by TAG Architects and FJMT.
Image: Courtesy Art Gallery of WA
A new internal gallery will also be located on the roof. The conservation lab will be relocated from the roof to the basement, where new facilities will enhance the conservation, preservation and preparation of works for the State Art Collection.

The main gallery building of Art Gallery of WA, designed by Polish émigré Charles Sierakowski, was “designed in the Bauhaus method with a Brutalist exterior, which was popular in European design,” according to Perth Heritage. The building has an unusual hexagonal plan, which allows visitors in the gallery spaces to gain glimpses of other spaces. Internally, the building is also distinctive for its hollow honeycomb ceiling.

For the rooftop redevelopment, the WA government has also commissioned a 34-metre-long work by Noongar artist Christopher Pease that will wrap around one third of the rooftop wall.
“Aboriginal art is not only strikingly beautiful, it is critical to truth telling and provides us insight into the history of our state and the connection of First Nations people with these lands,” said treasurer and Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt.
The WA government awarded the construction contract to ADCO Constructions. The rooftop project is due be completed in January 2021. More

The Sydney suburb of Crows Nest will have a new high perch under plans before the council for a 36-storey tower.
Designed by Turner and Silvester Fuller, with urban design input from Roberts Day, the apartment tower will be the tallest in the area will occupy an entire block known as Fiveways Junction, between the Pacific Highway and Falcon Street.
The 140-metre tower will comprise three interconnected “mini towers.” Nineteen existing allotments will be demolished for the development, which will feature a five-storey podium housing a mix of retail, commercial and community spaces.

In all, the development will accommodate 310 dwellings and 10,000 square metres of non-residential floor space in flexible floorplate sizes.
By way of public benefit, the developer Deicorp is proposing to build a 2,000 square community building with landscaped rooftop open space, along with providing affordable housing “up to a total value of $20 million.”

The site is the only one in Crows Nest to be identified as “significant” in the NSW government’s Metro system strategy and will be within walking distance of the proposed Crows Nest Metro Station, set to open by 2024.

The architects say the existing commercial and retail tenancies suffer from poor connections and the absence of suitable public spaces protected from the Pacific Highway, with many of them vacant and poorly performing.

“The amalgamation of the 19 allotments that currently make up the Fiveways Junction will enable this currently ‘lost space’ to be transformed as a vibrant and welcoming gateway to the Crows Nest Village,” planning documents state.
“The new ground plane will offer shade, soft landscape, urban furniture and a pedestrian friendly environment which will provide easy and safe connections to the major bus stop on Pacific Highway and to adjacent precincts.”

New laneways through the site will be designed to reinforce connections to existing street-grid and create additional permeability for the neighbourhood.
The proposed community building occupies a key corner of the site, “encouraging movement and social ownership.”
“The proposal offers a significant civic component that is easily separable as a stand-alone stratum and identifiable element,” the architects state. “The permeable nature of the podium multiplies the available perimeter connecting the tenancies, the public domain and creating excellent workplace amenity.”
The form of the podium has been designed to connect with the existing street walls along Falcon and Alexander streets and Pacific Highway and to relate in scale and detail to nearby heritage buildings.
Deicorp is hoping to attain planning approval by October 2021. More

The Committee for Sydney and the NSW government have launched an open ideas competition to reimagine Sydney’s public spaces.
The competition seeks ideas that could enhance the way public spaces bring people together, encourage inclusivity and reflect unique aspects of the city.
NSW planning and public spaces minister Rob Stokes said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the beneficial role public spaces play in the mental, physical and the social wellbeing of communities.

“So much of the pandemic has been focused on what we can’t do. This is about what we can do, about seizing the incredible opportunity we have to rethink our streets, parks and public spaces into the future,” Stokes said.
“That’s why we want you, the people of Sydney, to share your ideas on how to improve, change and create even greater public spaces across Sydney.”
Caroline Butler-Bowdon, executive director of Public Spaces at the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, added, “We’ve seen how much value and joy great public spaces bring to people from our experience of the pandemic, but our public spaces make a difference to people’s lives 365 days of the year.

“The Public Space Ideas competition is a great opportunity to reimagine our public spaces – our streets, our parks, our community places. No idea is too small. We encourage creativity and vision.”
The competition will be judged across categories with nine awards to be handed, including best public facility, best open space, best street and a people’s choice award.
“Ideas could include transforming an existing public space or creating something completely new, but we want to hear from the community across Sydney about what they would like to see,” said Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of the Committee for Sydney.

A winner will be awarded by the minister along with two special categories: one for children and young people and the other for university students.

Entries will be judged by a 13-member panel that includes NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin, AILA national president Shaun Walsh, Gehl Architects partner and managing director Henriette Vamberg, as well as representatives from Sydney’s universities: Elizabeth Mossop (UTS), Helen Lochhead (UNSW), Kerry London (Western Sydney University) and Robyn Dowling (University of Sydney).
The competition is open to everyone and entrants will be required to submit a 250 word description and an image of their idea, in the form of a sketch, drawing, rendering or similar. Applications close on 28 August.
The competition is supported by Aecom and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. More

The University of NSW’s Faculty of Built Environment will merge with two other faculties as a response to the financial hardship brought on by COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the restructure, the university will also reduce its workforce by 493 full-time-equivalent positions.
The university will reduce its existing eight faculties to six by combining built environment with the faculties of art and design, and arts and social sciences. The roles of two deans and two vice-presidents will also be axed.

A spokesperson for UNSW Sydney told ArchitectureAU, “The Faculty of Built Environment will become the School of Built Environment in a new and stronger Faculty of Arts, Architecture & Design (faculty name subject to consultation). The School of Built Environment will move intact to the new faculty and will continue to offer degrees in architecture.
“By bringing together the creative arts, humanities, design and architecture into this new Faculty we are creating clearer and more attractive choices for students, and more opportunities for staff to interact with and connect their important research and teaching to colleagues at Kensington.”

The move follows the federal government’s refusal to extend the JobKeeper wage subsidy to the university sector.
“We need JobKeeper in our universities now, and then we need a fundamental rethink of the higher education system,” Troy Wright, secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union NSW, told media on 15 July.
In June, the federal government proposed major changes to university fees for students. Fees for architecture degrees would decrease by 20 percent, however fees for humanities degrees would increase by 113 percent.

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A new cultural hub celebrating Jewish life and culture will be built in Elsternwick, under ambitious plans revealed by a number of Melbourne’s key Jewish institutions.
The Jewish Arts Quarter will be centred around a new eight-storey building at 7 Selwyn Street designed by Melbourne’s Mclldowie Partners that will bring together the Jewish Museum of Australia and the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library, along with performing arts and co-working spaces.

The building will be woven into an existing precinct that includes the Jewish Holocaust Centre, Sholem Aleichem College and Classic Cinemas, and will “shine as a beacon” to the Australian Jewish experience and to social connection and cohesion in Melbourne.
“The ability to rejoice in the widest range of arts and culture will encourage everyone that visits the quarter to appreciate and gain a better understanding of what we can offer – especially as we emerge from these challenging times,” said Barry Fradkin, president of the Jewish Museum of Australia: Gandel Centre of Judaica.

Mclldowie Partners’ design for the eight-storey Jewish Arts Quarter building is defined by a deliberate division between podium and tower, with the podium housing the museum and co-working spaces occupying the tower.

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Jewish Arts Quarter by Mclldowie Partners.

“The podium aims to respond to the existing rhythm of Selwyn Street by sitting in direct alignment with its neighbours, particularly the Jewish Holocaust Centre to the north,” the architects state in a design report.
“The design draws on horizontal references from both the Holocaust Museum and Classic Cinema which breaks down the facade so that it responds intimately with the human scale of the street.”
“The highly textured concrete of the podium has a material richness and patina that reflect the passing of time. A series of curved panels peel away from the facade, a playful invitation to the museum beyond, akin to opening the pages of a book or the calligraphic quality of Jewish written language.”

Along with permanent and temporary exhibition spaces for the museum, the podium will house learning spaces for school groups, adult education classes and public programs, a museum shop and a café serving contemporary Jewish cuisine at ground level.
In the basement, a multipurpose performing arts venue will accommodate up to 300 for theatre, dance, music and comedy performances along with lectures and other community uses.
The tower, setback from the street and the neighbouring apartment building, has its top corners lifted, “as if peeled to match the sculptural quality of the podium below.”

It is fully glazed to the east to provide natural light to the office spaces, and clad in a veiled metal screen on its other facades. “The design expresses, in its facade, the building’s civic and cultural value, whilst considering its immediate and broader context,” state the architects.
Though the project is yet to go before council, it is supported in principle by the Victorian government and the Glen Eira City Council.
“The Jewish Arts Quarter offers a wonderful opportunity for the wider community to come together – regardless of race or religion – to celebrate the rich Jewish culture that is so much a part of Elsternwick and Glen Eira,” said mayor Margaret Esakoff. “It will provide a welcoming space for everyone to celebrate Jewish life, culture, food, arts and music.” More

Construction is underway at the Meadowbank Education Precinct in north-west Sydney, a major project which will replace the existing Meadowbank Public School and Marsden High School.
Designed by Woods Bagot, the precinct will cater to 1,000 primary students, 1,500 secondary students and 120 intensive English language students.
The school facilities are being built on a spacious corner block that is home to around 275 existing trees, and the design is based around a concept of “learning in the landscape.”

“The specific site context and analysis developed an instinctual connection with the mature landscape and tree canopies that occupy large portions of the proposed site,” Woods Bagot’s design report states. “This has resulted in proposing [buildings] that enhance connections with nature and maximize outdoor learning and play opportunities.”

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The high school entrance at Meadowbank Education Precinct by Woods Bagot.

Classrooms will be divided across two five-storey buildings, with the primary school taking up the three lower levels of the northern building facing Rhodes Street and the high school occupying the remaining two levels, plus all five levels within the southern building.

The northern building accommodates general learning spaces for the high school, while the southern building features specialized hubs and the gymnasium.
A tiered landscape-covered building will connect the two schools, housing the Primary School Library and High School Library. “Consisting of mezzanine levels, voids and direct access to the central landscape this space forms the heart of the building, the educational glue where students from various years come together interact and collaborate,” Woods Bagot states.
This central building forms a hill of sorts, with the landscape extending upwards and reaching every level of the adjacent buildings, so that “where possible every available surface can be used as space for learning and play.”
Internally, a “tartan” grid structure allows for flexible learning spaces, with the grid expanding and contracting as the program changes throughout the building.
The school project is expected to be completed by 2022.
TAFE NSW Meadowbank

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Multi-Trades and Digital Technology Hub by Gray Puksand.

Next to the school precinct is the Meadowbank TAFE campus, which will also undergo a major revitalization to designs by Gray Puksand, currently under consideration.
The major part of the project is a new Multi-Trades and Digital Technology Hub that will house a combined Construction and Building Trades facility with an Information and Communications Technology/Cyber Security facility.
Gray Puksand describes its design for the hub as a “true building in the round,” in which each of the four facades actively respond to their context.
“The design presents unashamedly as a public building adding to the streetscape in an harmonious juxtaposition to the residential neighbours,” the design report states. More

After 3,000 people in nine public housing towers in Melbourne were placed under the harshest coronavirus lockdown in Australia so far, acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly referred to the towers on 5 July as “vertical cruise ships.” The statement was a reference to the danger of contagion in these overcrowded buildings. However, such terms play into a long, international history of vilifying public housing estates.
Legions of social housing towers, such as Pruitt Igoe in St Louis and the Gorbals Public Housing Estate in Glasgow, have been demolished since the early 1970s after being blamed for a wide range of social issues. But high density is not the problem. It is the way such buildings are designed, maintained and funded.

Blaming specific built forms distracts attention from decades of under-investment in social housing. The result has been tightly rationed, poorly insulated, deteriorating and overcrowded housing. Much of it is due for retrofitting or renewal.

In this article we discuss successful, safe and sustainable models of retrofitting social housing blocks.
Are public housing towers obsolete?
Most high-rise public housing estates across Melbourne (and indeed internationally) were built during the “golden age” of public housing. This era began after the second world war and lasted until the 1970s. More than 60% of Victoria’s housing stock is over 35 years old. Much of it is in need of retrofit or renewal – it is impossible to ignore this looming requirement.
However, government responses thus far have been to allow the towers to quietly decay or to demolish towers while transferring public land to private ownership with nominal increases in social housing. One in five public housing tenants live in dwellings that do not meet acceptable standards in Australia.
An alternative to demolition
The Architects Journal of the United Kingdom is advocating retrofitting of ageing housing stock because of its many social, economic and environmental benefits. We agree with this in many cases.
The substantial embodied energy in a salvageable building makes its destruction environmentally wasteful. Re-use also reduces the social displacement that occurs with demolition. And when the full cost of demolition is calculated, Anne Power and others have shown retrofits are cost-effective.
The Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017 put a spotlight on retrofit strategies. It exposed some of the broader tensions regarding repair and maintenance versus merely over-cladding to meet environmental targets or remove “eyesores” and aid neighbourhood gentrification.
Three shining examples of retrofits
Grand Parc Bordeaux
Grand Parc Bordeaux received the 2019 Mies van der Rohe Award, an annual European Union architecture prize. This transformation of three 1960s social housing blocks included the restoration and retrofitting of 530 apartments.
The project added deep winter gardens and open air balconies to the façade of each dwelling. Expansive glass sliding doors open from the apartments to the balconies.
Prefabrication of balcony modules enabled residents to stay in their apartments throughout construction. This approach avoided the large-scale displacement often associated with social housing renewal. The modules were crane-lifted into place, forming a free-standing structure in front of the housing block.
The retrofit also replaced lifts and renovated access halls.
DeFlat Kleiburg, Amsterdam
DeFlat Kleiburg by NL Architects and XVW Architectuur won the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2017. This project is a retrofit of one of the largest housing blocks in the Netherlands, which was at risk of demolition.
The architects oversaw the refurbishment of the structure and communal areas. The project left an empty affordable shell for buyers to customise as they wished.
Park Hill Estate, Sheffield
In the United Kingdom, Sheffield City Council is undertaking a part-privatisation scheme with developer Urban Splash of the contentious Park Hill Estate. The late-1950s social housing blocks are being gutted to their concrete shells and new apartments developed within.
Architects Hawkins/Brown and urban designers Studio Egret West designed phase one. Mikhail Riches designed phase two, which is under way.
The project involves a significant change in tenure to a mix of one-third social to two-thirds private.
Public housing estates are part of a system
The above examples reflect architectural approaches to preserving brutalist architecture. However, architecture is just one part of any social housing response. In Australia, any retrofit or redevelopment should aim to retain or increase the amount of social housing, given the huge shortfall.
Vienna, Austria, has one of the most successful social housing systems in the world. Over 60% of the city’s population live in social housing and have strong tenancy rights. Robust funding mechanisms supply and maintain access to affordable and high-quality housing.

The government funds about a quarter to a third of all housing in Vienna each year – up to 15,000 apartments a year. Most subsidies are in the form of repayable, long-term, low-interest loans to build new housing. The decade-long operation of the system means repaid loans can be used to finance new construction, decreasing the budgetary burden.

A developer competition process was introduced in the 1990s to judge social housing bids. This means developers vie with each other to offer high-quality, energy-efficient homes.

For social housing to work, it must provide enough stock to meet housing needs. It must also receive enough funding to manage and maintain the housing.
Recent events have highlighted what multiple reports, commentaries and protest movements have been saying for years: Australia’s ageing social housing stock requires immediate attention. Australians need much more new social housing.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. More