Subterms
Iredale Pederson Hook Architects has been appointed to design the Aboriginal short-stay facility in the suburb of Cannington, south Perth. To be built on a 7,000-square-metre site on Hamilton Street, the facility will be for Aboriginal people across Western Australia who have travelled to Perth. “Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects will consult with stakeholders across Western […] More
Works are underway on an urban renewal precinct at a disused TAFE site in south Brisbane, where the project will deliver 281 homes that include 75 social and affordable units and a 169-apartment retirement living facility.
Designed by Archipelago, the 3.1-hectare Parkside Yeronga precinct will also include commercial tenancies, small-scale retail, a community centre and more than 4,000 square metres of open space.
Archipelago has designed the commercial building, community centre and whole-of-site master plan, which provides the guiding principles and urban design framework for the development. The firm’s landscape architecture team has designed the public realm.
“It will be a place that is sensitive to its context and respectful to its neighbours, demonstrating diversity done well,” Archipelago says of the project. “The unique combination of proponents permits an abundance of residential offerings – from private luxury residential, to supported retirement living, to social and affordable housing – this will be a neighborhood that is welcome to all.”
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Parkside Yeronga community centre by Archipelago. Image: Archipelago
The site between Park Road and Villa Street in Yeronga was identified as a “Priority Development Area” in 2019, allowing the state government to override council planning processes. But as the Brisbane Times pointed out, the site sat neglected up until this year, with “disintegrating bunting emblazoned with ‘unite and recover’ government messaging and declarations of ‘coming soon.’”
The state government is contributing $40 million to the project, which is being delivered as a public-private consortium led by Economic Development Queensland, alongside JGL Properties, Brisbane Housing Company and Retire Australia.
“This development is [a] great example of the private sector and government working together to deliver a range of housing options including private housing, social housing and retirement living,” said premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Deputy premier Steven Miles added, “Parkside Yeronga is a great example of how we’re activating under-utilized urban land to deliver more homes for Queenslanders.
“Not only will this partnership deliver over 280 new homes, it will also be a great place to live and raise a family with open green space and a community centre.” More
Liverpool Civic Place, a $600 million development that combines council chambers, community facilities, commercial offices and a hotel, is taking shape, with the first stage of the precinct topping out on 17 May.
Designed by FJC Studio (formerly FJMT Studio), Liverpool Civic Place will set two office towers, a public library and an art gallery around a new public square.
The most prominent building on the corner of Scott and Macquarie Streets will be the new library, distinctive for its circular plan and offset levels.
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Liverpool Civic Place by FJC Studio. Image:
FJC Studio
Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun said the precinct, which is being developed in a public-private partnership between Liverpool City Council and developer Built, would be fitting for Sydney’s so-called “third CBD.”
“South West Sydney is one of Sydney’s fastest-growing districts, and the opening of the Western Sydney International Airport and Aerotropolis has catalysed investment in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries that will also generate significant employment and economic opportunities for the south-west region,” he said.
“Liverpool will be at the centre of this growth and will strategically connect businesses from east to west. It will also be home to one of the city’s fastest-growing and most inclusive populations, which is expected to double to half a million people in the next 20 years. It represents the modern face of multicultural Australia, with more than 40 percent of our residents born overseas and half of our population speaking a language other than English.”
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Liverpool Civic Place by FJC Studio. Image:
FJC Studio
The first commercial office tower is expected to be completed later in 2023. Stage one will also include the opening of the new council chambers and offices, public library, art gallery and public square.
Stage two of the precinct will include a nine-storey hotel and the second commercial tower, with construction expected to begin shortly.
“Liverpool Civic Place will also be one of Greater Sydney’s most connected precincts, offering just a 30-minute connection to Sydney Airport and the new Western Sydney International Airport, less than four minutes’ walk to Liverpool train station and direct access to the M5, M7 and new M12 motorway connection to the new airport,” said Built development director Jono Cottee. More
The Western Australian Planning Commission has approved a proposal to build the state’s largest spa facility: the $25 million Tawarri Hot Springs, designed by Plus Architecture.
Looking out over the Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River in the ritzy Perth suburb of Dalkeith, the facility will be built on the site of the run-down Tawarri Reception Centre – once home to the historic open-air Dalkeith Hot Pool, which was known for attracting skinny dippers.
The facility will feature pools, saunas and Turkish baths alongside a restaurant, rooftop bar, cafe and day spa. It will cater to up to 220 guests at a time.
The built form will comprise a series of orthogonal pavilions, which Aspect Studios carefully integrated with the landscape design. Plus Architecture Perth director and project lead Patric Przeradzki said the design aimed to emphasize the site’s natural beauty through an interplay of natural materials.
“We have focused on a series of design contrasts in this project, such as hot and cold, dark and light, indoor and outdoor,” he said. “These encourage a sense of curiosity as guests explore the different pavilions and routes they can take across the site.”
Plus Architecture looked to Europe for inspiration, incorporating features seen in spas in France and Italy.
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Tawarri Hot Springs by Plus Architecture. Image:
KiP Creating
“Our research enabled us to understand how these wellness destinations serve both the individual and the community,” said Przeradzki.
“People use these places to relax in the spa, but they also want to explore the space, take photos and socialize. It was therefore also important to give equal attention to the moments that exist between the ‘spa’ experiences, such as dining and leisure time.”
Spearheaded by property developers Barry Jones and Kathryn Gunn, the spa proposal has proved controversial. The City of Nedlands council opposed the project, fearing floods and loss of public access to the foreshore.
At a public meeting on Thursday 18 May, Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle labelled the project a “monstrosity of concrete” and said its goal of 6 Green Stars amounted to “greenwashing,” WA Today reported.
The redevelopment of Tawarri Reception Centre was first proposed in 2016. The council refused to lease the land for the spa proposal in 2022 but was overruled by the state government, which deemed the project to be of state significance.
The State Development Assessment Unit unanimously approved the project on Thursday. Co-owner Kathryn Gunn said the Tawarri Hot Springs had already generated enthusiasm in Perth.
“While we expect to attract visitors from interstate and overseas, the Tawarri Hot Springs has been designed for and by the people of Western Australia and Dalkeith – using local materials and stories to deliver a peaceful and sustainable wellness destination for the suburb we’re proud to call home,” she said.
“There’s nothing like it in WA, which is why we are so excited to be working with our community to deliver the project.” More
The Australian exhibition has opened at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale with an immersive installation that reconstructs the semi-fictional “Queenstown.” At the end of the second Elizabethan Age, when the voices of First Peoples call for truth-telling and self-determination and the climate crisis feels increasingly like an unwinnable race, Unsettling Queenstown explores colonialism and its […] More
Melbourne Design Fair
More than 150 designers from across Australia and around the world will be showing their work at the Melbourne Design Fair, running from 18 to 21 May at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The fair is an annual platform for designers, galleries, design agencies and organizations to promote and sell collectible design pieces. Pick up a beautiful piece of glassware from Adelaide’s Jam Factory, a unique piece of jewellery from Munich-based Helen Britton or a transformative room divider from Melbourne designer Nicole Lawrence.
Waste Dream: from waste to furniture
Waste Dream is an exhibition presented by Melbourne furniture store Cult Design in partnership with Mater, a Danish company specializing in circular-economy furniture. Mater makes furniture made from fibrous waste materials such as coffee bean shells, fishing nets, sawdust and beer kegs. Book in for a free guided exhibition tour with Mater’s Ole Bjerg.
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Circular Materials exhibition by Cult x Mater. Image:
Cult x Mater
(No Things) Matters
These three annual design exhibitions are prompted by one question: “What matters to you?” (No Things) Matters is the first in the series, followed by (Some Things) Matters and (All Things) Matters in the coming years. Taking over the ground floor of the Villa Alba Museum, the first instalment hosts “a tactile cornucopia of material samples, interpreted tools, experimental forms, and visual documentation.”
Design House
Presented by Fitzroy gallery Oigåll Projects, Design House features 10 designers’ works – not as detached objects on pedestals to politely examine, but as functional art performing its function. “Design often gets the shitty end of the stick, plopped into white wall galleries to be examined at a 40-centimetre to 1.5-metre clearance,” says Oigåll Projects. “This is stupid. These objects inform our lives, improve them, sometimes inconvenience them but always enrich them. You need to pick ’em up, turn them on, move them out of the way of the screen while watching Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4. Not just look at them: get a chux on it, Daryl. See how she cleans up!”
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Viv’s Place by ARM Architecture will be discussed at Social Housing Deserves Good Design! Image:
Tatjana Plitt
Social Housing Deserves Good Design!
Well-designed social housing creates “happier, safer, healthier and wealthier citizens.” Responding to a new wave of high-quality social and affordable developments, this panel shines a light on the transformative potential of social housing. Presented by placemaking consultancy Village Well, the panel will include Vanessa Brotto, CEO of Haven: Home Safe; Jack Panton, director of Launch Housing; Jesse Judd, director of ARM Architecture; and Village Well CEO Valli Morphett.
Open Table
Flack Studio presents this curated exhibition, which responds to the idea of gathering around a table. Works of art and design will facilitate conversation and connection through creative responses to the table and the memories, rituals and habits we associate with it.
Numbulwar Pop-up Studio and Exhibition
Numbulwar Numburindi Arts, a collective of artists out of the east coast of the Northern Territory, is putting on a pop-up studio, exhibition and weaving circle in the Tait showroom. A focus of the collaboration will be an exhibition of master weavers Joy and Rose Wilfred’s works, which reimagine Tait’s iconic Tidal chair.
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The Silo Project is a group exhibition housed in six former grain silos in inner-city Melbourne. Image:
Josee Vesely-Manning
The Silo Project
The Silo Project is a group exhibition housed in six former grain silos in inner-city Melbourne. The work is specific to the historic site, while also presenting new and experimental design strategies. “Implications of material obsolescence and industrial labour, urban ‘renewal’ and gentrification and our collective response to the built environment are all suggested,” state the curators.
See the full program here. More
What does it mean to “reset” in the wake of a crisis – to return to “life as usual” in the face of changing social, economic and environmental climates?
The Architecture Symposium: Reset, curated by Jemima Retallack of Retallack Thompson and Aaron Peters of Vokes and Peters, will examine the residential work of architects and designers who question the idea of “usual” and challenge our perceptions of housing for the future.
Taking place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 28 July 2023, the one-day symposium features local and international speakers who have been invited to share “diverse and engaging stories about the home, reminding us, perhaps, of things forgotten, overlooked or misunderstood.”
“They will inspire us to reconsider the assumptions of the architect, the agency of the occupant, and the public role of the (supposedly) ‘private’ building,” the curators said.
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Torre Huergo 475 by Adamo-Faiden. Image: Adamo-Faiden
Among the keynote speakers will be Marcelo Faiden of Adamo-Faiden (Buenos Aires, Argentina), whose radical apartment buildings feature unprogrammed space for maximum flexibility. The practice’s Once Building, in the Buenos Aires barrio of Núñez, even resists the label “apartment building,” with its six modular units designed to be used as either apartments or offices.
Faced with a COVID-era exodus to the suburbs, Faiden advocates for a renewed focus on the city.
“Through [the city’s] density, we can have an intelligent usage of the territory, of the planet and its resources,” Faiden said in a 2021 lecture. “I believe architecture plays a fundamental role in enriching the urban culture.”
Hailing from New Zealand, Spacecraft Architects directors Caroline Robertson and Tim Gittos will discuss projects like their recent Block Party, which offers a potential alternative to developer-driven projects by fostering communality in medium-density housing.
“With a developer-driven model, the cost of a given housing unit is the cost of development plus a profit margin,” Gittos told ArchitectureAU. “In this model, which is loosely cohousing, you get the housing at cost price – there’s no profit margin. Whatever that leaves you, in the way of change, you can spend on the housing itself and make it better or make improved amenity.”
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Annerley House by Zuzana and Nicholas. Image:
Christopher Frederick Jones
From Australia, keynote speakers will include Chris Major and David Welsh of Welsh and Major and Nigel Bertram and Marika Neustupny of NMBW Architecture Studio.
Presenting case studies will be Zuzana Kovar, director of Zuzana and Nicholas; Kate Fitzgerald, director of Whispering Smith; and Andrew Power, who made a splash with his first project in Australia, a humble suburban take on the Palladian villa called House with a Guest Room.
Tickets for The Architecture Symposium: Reset are on sale now.
The Architecture Symposium: Reset is a Design Speaks program presented by Architecture Media, publisher of ArchitectureAU. It is supported by major partner Planned Cover; supporting partners Tasmanian Timber, Galvin Engineering, and Parkwood Doors; and hotel partner Ovolo Woolloomooloo. More
The restoration of Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion and the transformation of a rusty 1901 water tank into a “sound chapel” are among the 17 winners of the 2023 National Trust Heritage Awards.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects received the Judges’ Choice Award for the Bondi Pavilion restoration, described as “an incredible project that has completely revived this iconic building.”
The winner of the Adaptive Re-use category is Cobar Sound Chapel, a permanent sound art installation in Cobar, New South Wales created by composer and sound artist Georges Lentz in collaboration with Glenn Murcutt.
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Cobar Sound Chapel by Georges Lentz with Glenn Murcutt. Image:
Anthony Browell
Other winners include a gleaming six-metre-high sculpture by Aboriginal artist Judy Watson and a restored Art Deco Greek café in Gundagai.
The winner in the Advocacy category is the Millers Point Community Resident Action Group, whose “Don’t Block The Rocks” campaign sought to protect The Rocks from “developers’ greed” just as Jack Mundey and the Green Bans did in the 1970s.
“Congratulations to this year’s 17 winners and thank you to all of those who entered the awards,” said National Trust (NSW) CEO Debbie Mills.
“We saw a huge range of projects, and judges were truly impressed by the dedication and imagination that has gone into preserving special places for everyone.”
NSW heritage minister Penny Sharp said the projects showed the diversity of heritage across the state.
“These winning projects are a reminder of the many ways we can interpret and protect our shared stories. From Sydney to Gundagai, these projects show that it is possible – and imperative – to bring heritage to life for the people of New South Wales to enjoy and explore,” Sharp said.
Architect Matt Devine chaired the jury, which featured Barrina South, Caitlin Allen, Charles Pickett, David Burdon, Kathryn Pitkin and Lisa Harrold.
The 2023 winners are:
Judges’ Choice
Bondi Pavilion Restoration and Conservation project – entered by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Aboriginal Heritage
bara Monument for the Eora – entered by Judy Watson, Hetti Perkins, City of Sydney, City Plan Heritage, UAP
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bara Monument for the Eora – entered by Judy Watson, Hetti Perkins, City of Sydney, City Plan Heritage, UAP. Image:
Chris Southwood
Adaptive Re-use
Cobar Sound Chapel – entered by Cobar Sound Chapel Ltd
Advocacy
Don’t Block the Rocks – entered by Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc
Conservation – Built Heritage
“Ways Terrace” 12–20 Point Street, Pyrmont: Conservation and Upgrade Project – entered by Land and Housing Corporation, Department of Planning and Environment
Millers Point Townhouse – entered by Design 5 Architects
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Don’t Block the Rocks – entered by Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc. Image:
Millers Point Community Resident Action Group Inc.
Conservation – Interiors and Objects
The Yellow Dress Project – entered by National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
Conservation – Landscape
Northern Rivers Rail Trail, Tweed section – entered by Tweed Shire Council
Education and Interpretation
Remembered and Revisited: Victoria Theatre Newcastle – entered by Out of the Square Media, Century Venues and Gavin Patton
Events, Exhibitions and Tours
Building Bridges Emu Projection – entered by Clarence Valley Council
Mulaa Giilang: Wiradjuri stories of the night sky – entered by Orange Regional Museum
Resources and Publications
Storyplace – entered by Museums and Galleries of NSW
Gunyah Goondie and Wurley – entered by Thames and Hudson Australia
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Remembered and Revisited, Victoria Theatre Newcastle – entered by Out of the Square Media, Century Venues and Gavin Patton. Image:
Courtesy National Trust
President’s Prize
Restoration of the Niagara Cafe, Gundagai – entered by Luke Walton and Kym Fraser
Lifetime Achievement
Ian Stapleton
Heritage Skills
Ken Ellis
Cathy Donnelly Memorial Award
Sharon Veale More
