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Entries are now open for the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards, the annual program celebrating home-grown design in all its forms. Now in their 27th year, the awards are open to designers, architects, design studios and businesses across eight categories: architectural design; communications design; design strategy; digital design; fashion design; product design; service design; and student […] More
Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting have unveiled their design for the biggest public cemetery in Melbourne in 100 years.
The team won an international design competition for the project in 2021.
Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust has appointed the consortium to design the first stage of the 128-hectare greenfield site in Melbourne’s western fringes, adjacent to Gilgai Woodlands Nature Conservation Reserve at Harkness.
The design has been informed by Wurundjeri culture and champions cultural awareness, knowledge exchange and understanding, the team said in a statement.
Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust also hopes to “reimagine” the public cemetery, transforming it from a “memorial park” to a place of multiple uses: grief and bereavement support, diverse communities’ events, exercise and recreation activities, and local habitat and ecology conservation.
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Arnold’s creek in Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting’s design for a Harkness cemetery Image:
Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting
“Cemeteries are one of the few places in urban areas that bring so many communities, histories, belief systems and lives together in harmony, to respectfully reflect and meaningfully celebrate what is important to them,” said Andrew Eriksen, CEO of Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT).
“GMCT’s cemetery project at Harkness is firmly rooted in our values of compassion, respect, integrity, and sustainability. It will provide the communities in that region the same social value as all our sites – a place dedicated in perpetuity to remembrance, thoughtfully designed and supported by dedicated staff.”
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A proposed smoking ceremony space in Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting’s design for a Harkness cemetery. Image:
Architectus, Aurecon, McGregor Coxall and Greenshoot Consulting
The design team said, “The reimagined cemetery will be a place that repairs Country, connects Country to people to and people to one another. A place that adapts and reflects our changing society.”
“The design comprises three axes – ecological, cultural, and community. The Cultural Line presents a dramatic threshold that contrasts and amplifies the vastness of Melbourne’s West. The Natural Axis, Arnolds Creek, is a demonstration of the commitment to Caring for Country and a sustainable future. The centrepiece of the cemetery is the Core, which is positioned at the confluence of the three axes and celebrates Country and elevates the beauty of the landscape.
“The reimagined cemetery will embody fundamentals of Circular Economy – Regeneration, Resilience, Sustainability. The new cemetery aspires to be off grid, utilizing on-site sources for energy and water. A site-wide integrated water management plan will be created to capture, cleanse, infiltrate and detain water on site for reuse.” More
The South Australian government has unveiled concept designs for a new Adelaide Aquatic Centre, which will replace the existing centre in the northern park lands at Pardipardinyilla / Denise Norton Park. In September 2022, JPE Design Studio and Warren and Mahoney were appointed to design the new centre. Concept design for Adelaide Aquatic Centre by […] More
The King’s Birthday 2023 Honours have been announced and it includes four architects among the 1,192 Australians recognized for “meritorious, distinguished and conspicuous services.”
Peter Phillips has been appointed an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to heritage conservation to architecture and to professional organizations.
Peter Phillips. Image: ICOMOS
He’s currently a board member of International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), and has been an expert member of International Scientific Committee on Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage since 2008.
Previously, he was the president of ICOMOS Australia and has worked as a heritage and architecture consultant since 1997.
The following architects were appointed Members (AM) of the Order of Australia:
Lindsay Johnston, NSW
Lindsay Johnston. Image: Ozetecture
For significant service to architectural building and design education. He was the Dean, Faculty of Architecture Building and Design at the University of Newcastle from 2000 to 2002, Chair of National Environment Committee from at Roya Australian Institute of Architects from 2000 to 2002, and Chair of National Education Committee from 1996 to 1999.
He was awarded New South Wales Premier’s Award, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, in 2000, as well as Royal Australian Institute of Architects, National Education Prize, in 2002.
Mary Patricia Marsland PSM, SA
For her significant service to architecture in a range of roles, including Chair, Board of Management of South Australian Housing Trust from 2006 to 2011, President of South Australian Chapter of Royal Australian Institute of Architects from 1992 to 1994, Chair of South Australian Heritage Council from 2005 to 2008.
Previously she worked as an architect from 1973 to 2006.
Simon Chan, NSW
For significant service to multiculturalism to the Indigenous community and to the arts. Chan is the president of Chinese Australian Forum New South Wales since 2022, president of Haymarket Chamber of Commerce from 2014 to 2022, chair of Aboriginal Benefits Foundation from 2015 to 2018. He has been a registered architect in New South Wales since 1976. More
Milligan Group, the developer of a proposed skyscraper over Sydney’s Hunter Street Station, has applied to demolish the site’s current buildings as part of the project’s next phase.
Located on the corner of Pitt and Hunter Streets in central Sydney, the planned 52-storey commercial office tower is set to become the world’s tallest hybrid timber building. It will cover approximately 51,000 square metres and include retail tenancies within its podium. If approved, the project will surpass the under-construction Atlassian headquarters, designed by Shop Architects and BVN.
Initially outlined in 2022, proposals for the site received final endorsement from the Central Sydney Planning Committee in February 2023.
The design of the tower will be selected from a design competition, which started in May 2023, before being presented to the state government for approval.
The proposed tower will rise over the top of the new Hunter Street Station, part of the New South Wales government’s $6.5 billion Sydney Metro West rail line. Currently under construction and due to open in 2030, Hunter Street Station joins eight new stations on the Sydney Metro West line, which will form a 24-kilometre rail link between Westmead and the CBD.
Three of the site’s four existing buildings will be demolished if the City of Sydney approves Milligan Group’s application. A four-storey Victorian Italianate building at 15–17 Hunter Street, formerly known as Pangas House, will be retained due to its heritage status.
Milligan Group described the project as “a legacy building for Central Sydney in the form of a world-class commercial office tower in the commercial core of the CBD.”
A second commercial tower is scheduled to be built over Hunter Street Station, Sydney Metro reported in 2022.
Sydney Metro said the proposal is “consistent with the Central Sydney planning strategy, which allows increased building density and heights in suitable locations while protecting public spaces.”
According to the report, the two towers will differ in height in order to comply with sun access and plane regulations. More
Woods Bagot’s Perth studio has been appointed to design the Western Australian government’s new agriculture headquarters. The New Metropolitan Facility for the Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development will be built on Murdoch University’s Perth campus and will feature modern laboratories and technical workspaces for around 350 staff. The $320 million project is intended […] More
The 2023 Serpentine Pavilion by French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh will open to the public on Friday 9 June in London’s Kensington Gardens.
Named À Table, the 300-square-metre pavilion is a circular timber structure with a birch plywood roof, inspired by the form of a palm leaf. Pleated wooden plates radiate out from a central lightwell with scalloped edges, allowing natural light and ventilation into the pavilion.
According to Ghotmeh, the title À Table is a French call to sit down together at a table to engage and participate in dialogue while sharing a meal. She further explained that the design is inspired by the nearby tree canopies and aims to create a gathering space to generate conversation.
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The 2023 Serpentine Pavilion is designed by French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh Image:
Harry Richards
“À Table is an invitation to dwell together in the same space and around the same table,” said Ghotmeh.
“It is an encouragement to enter into a dialogue, to convene and to think about how we could reinstate and re-establish our relationship to nature and to Earth.”
A series of glued laminated timber columns draws the perimeter of the pavilion, supporting the cantilevered wooden beams that connect to the centre of the structure. Between the beams are wooden screens with plant-like cut out patterns.
The low roof, which measures 4.4 metres high at the centre and drops to 3.1 metres high at the eaves, references the “toguna,” a structure found in Mali, West Africa, which is traditionally used for community gatherings to discuss current issues.
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A lightwell at the centre of the roof allows natural light and ventilation into the pavilion Image:
Iwan Baan
Inside the pavilion, a circular table skirts the perimeter, inviting visitors to sit and convene. Crafted from oak, with a dark-red finish, the table features scalloped edges that mirror the roof.
The pavilion will be dissembled and reassembled at a different location after it closes at Kensington Gardens on 29 October 2023, thanks to a modular system that has been adopted in the making.
Ghotmeh is the 22nd person to be commissioned for the Serpentine Pavilion since the first structure was designed by architect Zaha Hadid in 2000. Last year, Chicago artist Theaster Gates created Black Chapel. More
The Australian Institute of Architects has announced its support for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples in the referendum scheduled for later this year. “We recognise that Constitutional Recognition of First Nations peoples is the right and just thing to do and is a critical step in righting many […] More
