Architecture

Construction at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Woden Campus is starting to ramp up following an approved development application for the main building. The educational facility, designed by Gray Puksand, will feature a suite of new amenities including a new ‘light-rail-ready’ public transport interchange as well as more open, green spaces for residents, students, […] More

Claudia Takada from Clarke Hopkins Clarke has been announced the winner of the 2023 Buildner Office Design Competition for her proposal for an office space in Blackheath, New South Wales.
The speculative project has been designed with the knowledge that working remotely is now possible from anywhere in the world as long as there is internet. It offers a remote working space in an Australian bushland setting for urban workers. The proposal seamlessly blends with its surroundings and incorporates a “breathing” theme, with each room able to access an outdoor pergola or wooden shutters for airflow.
Takada created a tranquil design that reflects her own working-from-home aspirations.
“Tactile, slow and calming are words we probably associate with time spent outside the working environment. This proposal aims to change our understanding of office environments by incorporating community uses, timeless materials and an open, breathable structure that opens out into a verdant, sometimes harsh landscape,” Takada said.

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Takada created a tranquil space that reflects her own working-from-home aspirations. Image:

Courtesy of Claudia Takada.

Dubbed Blackheath Creative Hub, the proposal provides a flexible alternative to office work by adapting to evolving work patterns. The design caters to the unique needs of both office workers and the wider community by integrating co-working spaces, private offices, multi-purpose areas, soundproof booths and meeting rooms, a communal kitchen and dining area, an open library, small nooks and multiple private and shared entry and exit points.
Takada said she projected her own aspirations onto the design. “I’m quite introverted so I feel more comfortable in smaller, enclosed spaces, which are accommodated in this scheme,” she said.
“Tactility is something else I like to think about with my design, especially from a user point of view. It makes the whole experience more interesting and inviting. I especially love using Australian timbers like Jarrah and Blackbutt, playing with the colours inherent in each one, using them to accentuate certain ideas or structural items or as a background finish that brings a lot of warmth.”
Juror Julia Murphy, a managing partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, said, “This project offers a poetic relationship of nature and the outdoors to the post-covid office landscape and takes a radical approach to humanism in the office environment.”
A submission dubbed Parasitic Office by University of Sydney students Weicheng Li and Zihan Xu received an honourable mention in the competition. More

A $1.5 billion, four-tower proposal in Brisbane, designed by architects Cottee Parker, has been submitted to Brisbane City Council for assessment. The application proposes to transform a 9,361-square-metre site at 79 Logan Road in Woolloongabba into a tourism hub in time for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Dubbed the Gabba Heart Precinct, the project includes plans […] More

Designs by Liminal Architecture for the $20 million redevelopment of Cosgrove High School in Glenorchy, Tasmania has been released for public review.
The redevelopment of Cosgrove High School seeks to deliver modern learning and support facilities including a student hub, social area, cultural gathering spaces, flexible outdoor learning spaces, a catering kitchen, health and fitness facilities, as well as a new administration centre, upgraded accessibility across the site and to Main Road and increased parking options.
Designs for the school, submitted as part of a development application to Glenorchy City Council, call for the partial demolition of existing facilites to make way for a new three-storey building.
A 2022 master plan has been reviewed by the Community Reference Group, a body made up of members of local government, tertiary institutions, non-government agencies, the community and sporting organisations, and has now been released for community feedback.
The masterplan took into consideration the steady climbing of student enrollments at the school, addressed the need for a future proofed design and highlights the school’s desire to focus on the wellbeing of students and staff through the delivery of new spaces.
A spokesperson for Cosgrove High School said it is a very exciting time for their students, staff and the wider community, who have all been part of the planning process through extensive consultation since 2019.
“The project will provide a high-quality mix of new facilities for our Years seven to 12 students. These works will see us in a better position to support contemporary teaching and learning for our current learners, as well as future generations of Cosgrove students,” the spokesperson said.
“Demolition of some of the existing infrastructure is required in readiness for construction works to begin on the site in early 2024. It is expected that these works will commence in October 2023.”
The development application can be viewed on the Glenorchy City Council website until 29 August. More

Foreground Architecture, Clarke Hopkins Clarke and Baldasso Cortese have been appointed by the Victorian government to design nine new kindergartens in a bid to increase family access to early childhood education. The early learning centres are set to open in 2025, with Foreground Architecture appointed for the design of kindergartens at Mildura South Primary School, […] More

The final design of the 200-metre-long Sydney Harbour Bridge Cycleway has been unveiled with construction expected to be carried out over 18 months, commencing in early 2024.
The announcement of the timeline of the project comes after a Review of Environmental Factors (REF) and a comprehensive period of community consultation.
Landscape architects Aspect Studios are working alongside Collins and Turner, Yerrabingin, Design 5 Architects, Eckersley O’Callaghan, JMT Consulting and Electrolight on the project.
The three-metre-wide bike ramp will extend from Bradfield Park North, connecting with the Sydney Harbour Bridge Cycleway via an upgraded cycle route that links Middlemiss Street to the existing bicycle network. A new zebra crossing will also be established on Alfred Street South for pedestrians and cyclists to cross.
The elevated cycleway will feature a large-scale Aboriginal artwork depicting interconnected eels, as well as Indigenous names to honour the Gadigal and Cammeraygal people. The illustration, designed by Aboriginal artists Jason Wing and Maddison Gibbs as part of a design competition, shows two different coloured eels on their journey between freshwater and saltwater, highlighting the lifecycle of the eels as well as the physical transition. The eels signify the past and present resilience of Aboriginal people in overcoming barriers, adapting to new landscapes and seascapes and surviving social changes.
New South Wales Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty David Harris said projects that incorporate First Nations elements facilitate the sharing of culture. “Aboriginal culture is a living, dynamic culture and integral to Aboriginal identity. It has the ability to attribute places with meaningful identity and connection to Country. Initiatives such as this bring the oldest living culture in the world to life in meaningful ways, for all of us to share,” Harris said.
Transport minister Jo Haylen said they received more than 1,000 submissions from community members, organizations, schools and councils with input on the design. Following the high volume of community feedback, design refinements have been made to minimise the visual impact of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and improve safety.
“This project will be a game changer for kids, people on e-bikes, or people using cargo bikes. The Sydney Harbour Bridge cycleway will finally be accessible for anyone riding a bike,” Haylen said.
“The Minns Labor Government wants to make it easier for anyone who can walk or ride a bike, to walk and ride. It frees up space on the roads and on public transport for others, it’s a lot of fun, and you get to enjoy one of the world’s best views as you zoom along the deck of the Harbour Bridge. I look forward to seeing work begin early next year.” More

The third and final stage of the Geelong Arts Centre redevelopment is now complete, making it the largest dedicated regional performing arts centre in Australia.
Designed by ARM Architecture, the $140 million phase is the third and largest of the more-than-decade-long project to transform the precinct. It follows two refurbishments: the Playhouse Theatre by Studio 101 Architects in 2010, and the Ryrie Street facilities by Hassell in 2019.
The latest stage, Little Malop Street, consists of a 550-seat, multi-format theatre – which can expand to host 850 in live gig mode – and a 250-seat contemporary hybrid theatre that can open out onto Little Malop Street for indoor-outdoor events.
The project was achieved through a co-design process with Geelong Arts Centre, the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and the wider First Nations community.

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The Moonah forest is represented in the carpet of level one. Image:

Peter Foster

“Geelong Arts Centre had quite a strong Indigenous engagement and Indigenous inclusion policy,” explained Ian McDougall, founding director of ARM Architecture.
The practice was appointed to the project in November 2019, but its work was delayed by pandemic lockdowns: “We abstained from doing a lot of design until we had a discussion with the Wadawurrung in late 2020,” McDougall said.
“Performing arts centres are strongest when they speak of their place, their location. And that requires or demands engaging and continuing the story of Indigenous place – that was a very strong part of the process of designing and creating the building.”
Traditional stories of land, water and sky have been woven into the design. The street level of the building draws on the theme of the ochre Country; the middle floor represents the Moonah forest; the carpet of another level and the walls of the 250-seat theatre evoke the sea. Sky Country and the night sky are represented by Bunjil, whose features can be seen in the carpet of level three.
ARM Architecture also worked with proponents of the project to select four Indigenous artists, all of whom live on Wadawurrung Country, to embed artworks into the spaces’ designs.
Art by Tarryn Love (Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong) was selected for the 550-seat theatre. Her work, which focuses on yoowak (the night), is embedded into the timber wall panels.

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The 550-seat Story House Theatre is lined in timber panels that feature artwork by Gunditjmara Keerray Woorroong artist Tarryn Love. Image:

Peter Foster

For the ground-floor restaurant, tattoo artist Gerard Black (Worimi) created a large-scale work inspired by his time growing up on Wadawurrung Country and his experiences of Spring Creek. The artwork represents eels moving through water and ripples forming in their wakes.
Musician Mick Ryan (Ngarrindjeri Gunditjmara) made a soundscape with a range of instruments, tree branches, nesting birds and winds to emulate the environment of the Moonah forest.
Textile artist Kait James’ (Wadawurrung) works reference souvenir Aboriginal tea towels from the 1970s and 1980s. Twenty-three of her “tea towel” artworks have been digitally scaled and printed onto metal panels for the building’s facade.
The Little Malop Street facade features a sculptural form – a calliope – inspired by the travelling circuses of the early twentieth century.

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The “drape” of the Little Malop Street facade is intended to create drama and theatricality on the street. Image:

John Gollings

“Part of the thematic of the building is the history of performance,” McDougall said. The calliope is part of a set of decorated circus wagons, which usually contained music machines.
The design concept “is an amalgam of both post-settlement thematics as well as original and continuing narratives of the place of Geelong.”
Internally, each of the spaces has its own distinct aesthetic identity. A stairway is lined in several colours of stone, and a vivid tunnel connects the building to the adjacent Ryrie Street building. The tunnel is an extrusion of the Little Malop Street entrance’s calliope motif, which is also repeated at the tunnel entrance inside the Ryrie Street building.
“The brief and the ambition for Geelong Arts Centre was to make it a welcoming space and to express the diversity, cultural difference, demographic difference that is the community of Geelong,” McDougall said.
The idea of it being welcoming is that there isn’t one theme. All worlds are possible. It’s an expression of the diversity and also of richness and joy.”
Geelong Arts Centre CEO and creative director Joel McGuiness said, “The Grand Opening Festival marks the culmination of years of dedication, passion, and community collaboration, reaffirming Geelong Arts Centre’s commitment to extraordinary cultural expression for the region, Victoria, and beyond.” More

The Australian Institute of Architects has opened entries for the 2024 Dulux Study Tour, a coveted prize for early-career architects to travel the world and visit some the best international architectural sites and practices. The prize is open to Institute members who are within 10 years of graduation from the AACA Accredited Master of Architecture […] More