Architecture

When the 2023 Sydney Design Week “Amodern” launches on 15 September, its program of more than 60 talks, tours, exhibitions, workshops and films, will present macro and micro ideas to highlight six platforms: Eco Systems, Material Cultures, Communal Cities, Micro Cycles, Connected Threads and Photofields.
Conceptually shaped by the writings of the late French philosopher, Bruno Latour, who advocated for a stronger connection between nature and society, Amodern will take the public inside urgent social, environmental and ethical issues to meet designers, researchers and architects at the forefront of change.

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Keinton Butler, creative director of Sydney Design Week and senior curator, design and architecture at the Powerhouse Museum. Image:

Sean Slattery

“We wanted to include as many new voices as possible this year,” remarks Keinton Butler, the festival’s creative director, and senior curator, design and architecture at the Powerhouse Museum, as we discuss the program that is tantalizingly broad in scope and layered in research and action, poised to upend the status quo. “The idea is to open up the discussion around entrenched ideas and narratives about production and consumption, and to involve greater Sydney and some of the practices we haven’t worked with before. I think with the sociological and ecological context in which design operates, where designers are tasked with responding to the changing climate, design practices are becoming more cross-disciplinary and complex as a result.”
New voices, talent and perspectives are front and centre, with each platform investigated by curators across a range of design disciplines and industries. Architecture Amplified’s Kate Goodwin and co-director of Sibling, Qianyi Lim, are behind the Building Communities Symposium that will explore how built environments can provide cohesion and belonging for different communities. Wiradjuri anti-disciplinary artist and Powerhouse design resident, Joel Sherwood Spring, has curated “Objects testify: to understand the impact of Australia’s built environment on First Nations communities at a very important moment. While the multifaceted urban food program part of Eco Systems curated by Megafauna’s Xinyi Lim, explores the way design practices and new technologies are finding inventive solutions to secure the city’s food systems at a time of growth and climatic extremes.

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UTS’s Material Ecologies Design Lab (MEDL) will present research into algae and biomaterials, rubber and glass circularity. Image:

Courtesy Powerhouse Museum

Other standouts include the exhibition and workshop series inside UTS’s Material Ecologies Design Lab (MEDL) and the team’s fascinating research into algae and biomaterials, rubber and glass circularity; Modest Fashion Design Studio’s exploration of cultural identity and emerging talent in Parramatta; the future of food production in action at Jiwah Indigenous Rooftop Farming in South Eveleigh, Urban Green Sydney in a carpark below Barangaroo, the National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre and Warragamba Dam; the story of Liddell Power Station’s metamorphosis into a clean energy hub for the contemporary photography commission “Yesterday New Future”; and the PHIVE Building Communities Symposium that explores the interrelationship between architecture, community and equitable environments through walks, talks and site-specific performances.
The 2023 Sydney Design Week’s keynote address will be delivered by South Korean designer Kwangho Lee. The program opens the door to the diversity of practice and the creative minds working across Sydney’s design scene.
“This design week is hopefully going to plant a seed for new ideas and approaches,” continues Butler, who has been involved in every element of a program that builds on her curatorial interest in designers responding to social, ethical and environmental issues. “Warragamba Dam provides 80 percent of Sydney’s drinking water so that draws on larger issues around design, water usage, energy and food production. While, on a molecular level, algae, fungi and micro-plastics all highlight a connection between nature and society. These are all very potent ideas for us in responding to the changing climate and the work that needs to happen, and I feel incredibly optimistic. I hope the public gets that feeling too.”
See the full program for Sydney Design Week. More

The Design Institute of Australia (DIA) has revealed the winners of its flagship program for talented, budding designers, the Graduate of the Year Awards 2023 (GOTYA).
The program received 163 nominations, of which 73 were shortlisted and nine reaped the prestigious Australian prize.
The 2023 guest jurors included Alena Smith, Csilla Csabai, David Smith, Evan Reeves, Harriet Sutherland, Jack Flanagan, Jan-Marie Jaillei, Jayden Lim, Kate Bednarz, Nicole Gemlitski, Paloma Hodgins, Peter Lambert, Sally Evans, Sara Horstmann, Spiroula Stathakis, and Timothy Wilkinson.
DIA CEO Jo-Ann Kellock said GOTYA is a critical program for up-and-coming designers, who presented a mix of concepts, technical drawings and prototypes.
“It connects Australia’s emerging designers and unites them with our most respected educators and designers from leading design practices,” Kellock said.
“This year, we introduced three new cross-disciplinary design categories: Place, Use and Interact. The graduates presented projects with an expansive scope and ambition, spanning diverse mediums. They proposed human-centred design solutions focusing on behaviours, technology, our environment and our impact on emotional, mental, and physical well-being.
“Comprehensive portfolios highlighted the dedication to leveraging design to improve people’s lives and positively impact society.”
Australian Graduates of the Year Awards 2023 major category winners
Place ­– category winners
Sandra Srun, University of New South Wales
Kate Masters, Sydney Design School
Use – category winners
Joanne Odisho, RMIT University
Isobel Baker, University of Technology Sydney
Interact ­– category winners
Gabrielle Versace, Swinburne University of Technology
Zoey Portilla, North Metropolitan TAFE
State Graduates of the Year Awards 2023 winners
Western Australia Graduate of the Year
Elena-Dea Burger, Curtin University
South Australia Graduate of the Year
Jamieson Davis, University of South Australia
Victoria Graduate of the Year
Joanne Odisho, RMIT University
Queensland Graduate of the Year
Liam Georgeson, Queensland University of Technology
New South Wales Graduate of the Year
Sandra Srun, University of New South Wales
The national graduate of the year, recipient of the Madeleine Lester Award, will be announced on Thursday, 2 November, in Sydney to coincide with the Designers Australia Awards 2023 major category winners and the recipient of the President’s Prize announcement. More

Australian rug brand Art Hide has collaborated with New York interior designer Sasha Bikoff to develop a new collection of bold rugs, tapestries and cushions.
Six handcrafted rug designs have been released in a range of maximalist styles, colours and shapes, with designs depicting butterflies, fungi, geometric shapes and patchwork patterns.
Each rug in the Bikoff collection offers a unique aesthetic with the Fragments and Pastiche ranges featuring angles and shapes, the Mariposa, Dans Le Bois and Funghi ranges portraying psychedelic scenes of nature and the Shibori range drawing on eastern influences through an inhouse dyeing process.
Bikoff said her designs were inspired by nature, music and a bohemian lifestyle.
“Art Hide and I really connect over our love and usage of colour. Combining unexpected colours is something that has always excited me. When learning about the artisan construction of Art Hide rugs I started to think of patterns to patch the hides together and different arrangements of colours. That is where my mind started to drift to quilts and patchwork. I created two patchwork designs and the collection grew from there,” Bikoff said.
“The story didn’t start with your granny’s patchwork but rather with these psychedelic fashion driven patterns inspired by Dolce and Gabbana in the 90s, as well as quilts from the 70s hippie era. The patterns are modern, bold, geometric and colourful.
“The collection started to take on a bohemian hippie 1970s Woodstock feeling, and I was then inspired by nature to introduce more whimsical designs, such as the mushroom, the butterfly and the woodlands.”

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Pastiche by Sasha Bikoff. Image:

Art Hide

Founder of Art Hide Kura Perkins said the collaboration marks the first time the rug manufacturer has partnered with an outside designer.
“We wanted to work with someone who shared our passion for creating unique, statement-making pieces,” Perkins said.
“Sasha’s eye for colour and pattern made her the perfect fit.”
Two vintage inspired wall tapestries and cushions have also been released as part of the collection, which is now available on Art Hide’s website and 1stDibs. More

Emma Williamson, co-founder of The Fulcrum Agency, says architects are uniquely placed to contribute to the national conversation in the lead up to the Voice referendum on 14 October.
In 2021, eight new performance criteria focusing on the engagement of First Nations Peoples and understanding and respecting Country were added to the National Standard of Competencies for Architects.
“The connection to Country framework that’s being adopted is really important,” Williamson said, “but having deeper and more sophisticated conversations might see the response to design [that includes] deeper, earlier engagement and doesn’t end up being a public artwork response.”
“And [a successful] referendum would reinforce that and open the door for deeper and better conversations.”
Williamson is among a group of architects who have banded together to encourage their peers to show their support for the Voice on social media.
“Within the profession, probably the majority of people are in support of the Voice, because we’re already professionally working within this framework that recognizes the Indigenous occupation of the land prior to colonial settlement,” Williamson said.
“This is an opportunity to do a very small thing, which is to state why are you voting “yes” because those declarations are examples of simple ways that people have considered what’s important to them.
“The Indigenous population is only 3 percent so it’s the non-Indigenous population that really need to do the work now.
“I recognize the incredible toll that it’s taken on First Nations people to do all of the work to this point and I think we all need to pitch in to do some of the lifting.
“All of us if we believe in this need to consider how we can have a small amount of influence on that.”
Carey Lyon, director of Lyons Architecture said that architects have a responsibility to engage in “the most important public debate to be had in Australia for many, many decades,” adding that a “yes” vote would be “the most practical way for design professionals to, in the future, acknowledge what First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to say about their built environment.”
Jefa Greenaway, Victoria’s first Indigenous registered architect, said, “This is a nation building opportunity. It is time for architects and the design profession to step up.”
“Australia has the oldest continuous culture in the world – this is an extraordinary fact,” added Rachel Nolan, founding director of Kennedy Nolan.
“I feel so lucky that we are being offered an opportunity to walk and work together and have this Voice embedded in our Constitution.”
For information and resources see the Voice and Uluru Statement from the Heart. More

The 2023 Australian Good Design Awards have awarded four architectural design projects with their highly esteemed Best in Class accolade.
From a community-minded residential precinct to a spooky tour, a restaurant with a diverse sea to plate experience and a scenic destination for wine lovers, the 2023 architecture category paid homage to a mixed assortment of projects across the commercial, public and residential sectors.
Architectural Design ­– category winner
Nightingale Village ­– Architecture Architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe, Clare Cousins Architects, Hayball, and Kennedy Nolan.

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Nightingale Village is a medium-density residential precinct comprising 203 homes across six buildings in Brunswick. Image:

Tom Ross

Nightingale Village is a medium-density residential precinct comprising 203 homes across six buildings in Brunswick. Six architecture firms united through Nightingale Housing to deliver their own building, with the precinct setting new standards for community-centred design and environmental sustainability outcomes.
Architectural Interior Design – category winner
Delatite Cellar Door – Lucy Clemenger Architects with landscape by Tommy Gordon

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Delatite Cellar Door by Lucy Clemenger Architects and Tommy Gordon. Image:

Derek Swalwell

The Delatite Cellar Door provides a unique wine tasting and dining experience located in the foothills of the Victorian Alps. The building utilizes environmentally sustainable design principles in a new commercial setting, as well as reflects the identity of Delatite’s owners.
Architectural Place Design – category winner
Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion ­– Chat Architects, Angsila Fishermen Community and INDA Chulalongkorn University.

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The open-water dining pavilion design is a refreshing take on the widely deployed bamboo oyster scaffolding. Image:

W Workspace

Located off the coast of historic Angsila Fishing village in Thailand, the oyster scaffolding pavilion seeks to reinvigorate the struggling fishing industry through the creation of a new oyster eco-tourism infrastructure model. The open-water dining pavilion invites visitors to have a unique and refreshing dining experience on the bamboo scaffolding, offering the floundering industry an opportunity for diversification and prosperity.
Architectural Installation Design – category winner
Pentridge Prison Tours – Art Processors

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Pentridge Prison Tours by Art Processors and National Trust of Australia (Victoria). Image:

Brent Lukey

Art Processors partnered with the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) to transform Pentridge Prison into an immersive and unforgettable visitor experience by opening up the chilling historic site to attendees, providing them with the opportunity to uncover unsettling truths about a callous epoch in Australia’s history.
The 2023 Good Design of the Year Award was given to an airbourne disease tracking device that helps agricultural growers manage their crops. BioScout by Tiller Design uses machine learning algorithms to identify and analyse spores in the field.
Elsewhere in the awards, Reef Design Lab’s Erosion Mitigation Units (EMU) received the Good Design Award for Sustainability and industrial designer Marc Newson was awarded the Australian Design Prize for his work with well known brands such as Qantas, Louis Vuitton and Ferrari. More

A state significant development application has been lodged for the establishment of a RNA Pilot Research and Manufacturing Facility, designed by HDR and sited at Macquarie University’s Wallumattagal campus in North Ryde. The facility, located approximately 13km from the Sydney CBD, the facility on the corner of Gymnasium and Culloden Roads would be used to […] More

A development application for an elevated tower held up by 20-metre stilts, designed by Architectus and Woha, has been lodged for the site of the heritage-listed former Evans Deakin Dry Dock in Kangaroo Point, Brisbane.
Located on a 4,964-square-metre block at 26 Cairns Street, the proposed waterfront building would house 232 units, comprising 40 one-bedroom, 112 two-bedroom, 72 three-bedroom and eight four-bedroom apartments, as well as five underground parking levels with 458 car spaces.

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Braced by V-columns, the raised tower has been designed to free up the ground plane for communal use. Image:

Architectus and Woha

Braced by V-columns, the 24-storey raised tower has been designed to be protected from flood events. The height of the building frees up the ground plane for communal use with a proposed outdoor space to provide access to the historical dock, a restaurant, cafe, ampitheatre, and lookout.
Plans depict the building being shrouded in greenery, providing shade to balconies. Co-founding director of Woha Richard Hassell said the project will set new standards for Brisbane “by providing nature-based solutions to regenerate and form new relationship between the man-made and natural world,” Hassell said.
Architectus principal studio leader Karl Eckermann said they are elated to be working on such a distinct project.
“Having worked in partnership with the Brisbane community to create the much-loved Gallery of Modern Art, we’re thrilled to be part of the team creating a new riverfront destination along the Brisbane River,” Eckermann said.
The design team will be targeting a 5-star Green Star rating through the integration of rooftop solar capture and stormwater harvesting initiatives.
The application for the project was lodged to Brisbane City Council by Delta Australia Holdings. More

The doors to a revived 1960s beach treasure, a family tree house inspired by a Californian dream and historic homestead will be open for public viewing at the 2023 Sunshine Coast Open House.
The 2023 edition of the free architecture and design festival will feature rare, behind-the-scenes tours, talks and interactive experiences such as a “paint and sip” class in a Queenslander and an opportunity for students to become an architect for a day.
The festival will also provide a rare opportunity for individuals to meet the people who have designed and constructed these properties.
Properties open for public inspection include Eumundi House by Peter Ireland, Banksia House by Dragi Majstorovic at Kings Beach, which showcases architecture in an award-winning garden by Kirsti Sheldon, Hodgson House in Currimundi by Laura Hodgson, revealing a recent renovation of an old beach shack transformed into a family home, and the Art Room in Tinbeerwah by Bark Architects, showing how a building can be repurposed and given new life.
Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Mark Jamieson said the community event aims to celebrate the region’s historic, contemporary and sustainable buildings, as well as provide recognition to the design firms responsible for the innovative projects.
“Our region is well known for its design and architecture,” Jamieson said. “From the coast to the hinterland, we have a history of great design that is acknowledged nationally and internationally.
“Sunshine Coast design celebrates the region’s unique history and architecture with built form that considers the local climate, prioritises indoor-outdoor living and maximises living within the landscape. The Sunshine Coast Open House festival offers rare, behind-the-scenes access to the Sunshine Coast’s best buildings, including private homes, corporate buildings, heritage treasures and sustainable spaces.”
The program will be officially launched by Queensland governor, Jeannette Young, at Sunshine Coast City Hall.
Sunshine Coast Open House committee chair and Clare Design director Lindsay Clare urged everyone to attend.
“I invite everyone to visit this year’s range of well-designed homes and buildings that showcase the importance of responsive design for the future of the region. Good design can help decrease the cost of living as you don’t need to live with air conditioning all summer and heating all winter,” Clare said.
“Sunshine Coast Open House will allow people to tour a selection of historic and architecturally significant buildings as part of the 2023 program as well as attend walking tours, ‘paint and sip’ events focused on the Queenslander, a heritage conference and library talks featuring stories about stunning Sunshine Coast buildings.”
Sunshine Coast Open House is part of the Open House Worldwide network, founded by Open House London in 1992.
For bookings, volunteering or learn more about Sunshine Coast Open House can visit www.sunshinecoastopenhouse.com.au. More