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Major construction has begun at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Theatres Building, which will receive upgrades designed by NH Architecture and Snøhetta. The project marks the Theatres Building’s first upgrades since its 1984 opening. Works include refurbishing the auditorium, bringing sound and staging technologies up to international standards and improving accessibility with new lifts, seats and floors. […] More
Architect and former national president of the Australian Institute of Architects Helen Lochhead has been appointed to the board of the National Capital Authority, where she will serve a five-year term. Lochhead is currently a board member of the Australian Heritage Council, a non-executive director of the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Australia, […] More
From the May 2023 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.
The Church of St Mary-le-Strand was once known to London bus drivers as ‘St Mary’s in the Way’. Standing in the middle of the Strand, a congested artery between Westminster and the City of London, the church was long seen by motorists and urban planners alike as little more than an obstruction. Over the three centuries since its consecration in 1724, the road surrounding the church was gradually widened, taking great bites out of the churchyard and threatening to devour the church itself. Threats to the church only seemed to grow. John Betjeman’s last poem was written as part of a campaign to protect it. In 2017, it seemed its luck had finally run out. With the congregation in single digits, the Church of England prepared to sell it off to become a UK outpost of the Museum of the Bible (in Washington, D.C.). Stripped of furniture and fittings, it would have been little more than an empty shell.
This would have been a travesty. For the church, particularly its interior, is one of London’s architectural glories. It was designed by the Scottish-born architect James Gibbs (1682–1754), his first public commission after his return from Rome, where he had trained in the studio of Carlo Fontana. For an untested young architect, the prominently sited church provided an unrivalled opportunity. He was awarded it as part of his work as Surveyor for the Commission for Fifty New Churches, a body established in 1710 as a monument both to Queen Anne and to the High Church, High Tory ascendancy of her final years. Beginning as the queen’s health deteriorated, the Commissioners knew that they had only limited time to execute their plans. Indeed, when Anne died in 1714, the incoming Hanoverian royal family and its sober Whig ministry quickly wound down the Commission. Only 12 of 50 projected churches were built.
Those that were built, however – the others were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and Thomas Archer – are among the outstanding examples of English architecture of any period. With the Commission eager to make an impression quickly, budgets were almost unlimited. Gibbs seized the chance to show off everything he had learned in Italy. He did not quite have carte blanche, having inherited the foundations of an earlier project by Archer. His initial role had been to design a 250-foot-high monumental column to Queen Anne to stand in front of the church; when she died, however, the commissioners quickly dropped the column and focused their energies on the church, which Gibbs designed, taking on some of Archer’s ideas.
In his executed design, Gibbs decided to make the same point as the monumental column but more subtly. He took his cues from St Paul’s Cathedral – completed in 1711 after nearly half a century of work – showing the sophistication of his Italian training by reworking Christopher Wren’s ideas in a new context. The semi-circular projections of the west and east elevations were inspired, respectively, by the north porch and east end of St Paul’s and, inside, the disposition of the east end closely matches Wren’s design. The ornamental quality of the design is created by Gibbs’s ingenious compression of motifs deriving from St Paul’s into a much smaller area.When built, the church was always expected to be in the centre of London’s life and traffic – in A Book of Architecture (1728), Gibbs explained that he had inserted windows only in the upper storey of the north and south elevations, with niches below, ‘to keep out Noises from the Street’. Of all the churches projected by the commission, St Mary-le-Strand was perhaps the most prominently situated, a point not lost on its architect; he explained elsewhere that ‘the Building can not be too fine for the situation, since it’s so much in viue.’ As envisaged, it was to have been a major monument on the royal processional route into the City of London, something obscured by the comparative unpopularity of the early Hanoverians, under whom it was finished, and their dislike of public processions.
Since last year, the church’s urban context, so important to its design and history, has been completely transformed. Gone are the streams of traffic that smothered it on either side, replaced by raised beds and picnic benches, part of a scheme to unite the campuses of three of London’s universities, King’s College, the London School of Economics and the Courtauld Institute, into a single ‘Global Cultural Thinking Quarter’. Once an inconvenience, the church is now hailed as the ‘jewel in the Strand’, the focus of London’s newest piazza. The project is not yet totally successful. The zigzagging benches in the supposedly Italianate piazza have a strange, playground quality, and the aims of the and the aims of the Global Cultural Thinking Quarter seem ill-defined. Yet, visiting a year on, a once unappealing – and dangerous – thoroughfare is populated with people, loitering, taking in their surroundings and visiting the church.
With St Mary’s at last protected from the engine fumes that have for so long blackened and corroded its exterior stonework, and from the developer’s wrecking ball that threatened it in the 19th century, it is now possible to look towards preserving the fabric for future generations. One major ambition is to make the raised ground floor accessible and also turn the crypt (intended for burials) into usable space for events and church activities. On such a cramped site, the project will undoubtedly be challenging. Above ground, the church hopes to restore original features and relight the space to show its magnificent plasterwork ceiling to better advantage. The interior fittings, though the result of several reworkings, retain important original elements. To help achieve this, the church has been awarded a grant of £3.9 million by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and is currently fundraising for the additional £4.5 million needed for its ambitious plans.
In 1716, as work on the church continued, Gibbs’s former patron John Erskine, Earl of Mar, wrote to the architect from exile in France (Erskine was a Jacobite). It was, he thought, Gibbs’s ‘fair daughter in the Strand […] the most complete little damsel in town’. If done right, the restoration now being planned may bring this church to completion once more.
From the May 2023 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here. More
A $500 million biomedical research facility in Adelaide has reached a construction milestone, topping out at 15 storeys (74 metres). Designed by Woods Bagot, the future home to the Australian Bragg Centre will be Australia’s first proton therapy unit, offering a form of radiotherapy that uses beams of protons to treat diseased tissue. The centre […] More
Newcastle Airport has announced a $240 million partnership with Commonwealth Bank that would fund the airport’s redevelopment, including a new international passenger terminal to be designed by Cox Architecture. The terminal expansion is precipitated by airfield upgrades that will allow for larger, long-haul aircraft carrying up to 400 passengers – more than double the domestic […] More
The Australian Tapestry Workshop has launched the 2023 Tapestry Design Prize for Architects (TDPA) – a unique contest that invites architects from around the world to design a tapestry for a hypothetical site. The 2023 site is the award-winning Bundanon Art Museum, which was designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects. Entrants are challenged to design a […] More
The Australian Institute of Architects has announced the jury for the 2023 National Architecture Awards. The five-member panel comprises the Institute’s national president, Shannon Battisson (chair); architects Shaneen Fantin, William Smart and Stephanie Kitingan; and builder Scott Burchell. “As a jury, we are thrilled to come together to witness work across the country and celebrate […] More
The world’s most influential annual design showcase, Milan Design Week, returned from 17 to 23 April 2023. The enormous array of products on view represented industry-wide reflection and change: Some brands looked back at their long histories; others focused on bettering the future; many offered material innovations and artistic approaches to form.
The following highlights are but a taste of the global talent celebrated at 2023’s Milan Design Week, with more to come.
Thonet
Eponymous design house Gebrüder Thonet Vienna presented new creations in collaboration with Hong Kong-based design and architecture practice AB Concept, Venice- and Stockholm-based Nichetto Studio, and Iranian-French architect India Mahdavi. Stand-out pieces include the dining version of the Loop Chair, designed by India Mahdavi for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna in 2022, as well as the new Mickey, a comfortable armchair of generous proportions that bears Mahdavi’s signature playful touch. Thonet is distributed in Australia by Space Furniture and James Richardson Furniture.
Prowl Studio
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Peel Chair by Prowl Studio Image: supplied
At their Expect Death exhibition at Alcova – this year held at a disused abattoir outside of Milan – collaborators Prowl Studio and M4 Factory debuted their innovative Peel Chair. The biodegradable and compostable stackable chair is constructed from injection-moulded, corn-derived PLA and hemp fibres. The material is designed to be deconstructed and composted at the end of the product’s life, exemplifying Expect Death’s exploration of waste-management and circularity. The material-driven exhibition design immersed visitors in the chair’s journey from birth to death.
Volker Haug Studio
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Und Messing by Volker Haug. Image: supplied
Melbourne-based decorative lighting practice Volker Haug Studio showcased und Messing, a new series of lighting exploring various expressions of brass. Each piece in the range is hand-finished across a spectrum of brass tones from polished to dark bronze – an approach that focuses attention on the craft behind and individuality of each und Messing piece. In addition to creating brass metalwork, the studio is also experimenting with fibreglass.
Objects of Common Interest furniture
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Poikilos collection by Objects of Common Interest. Image: supplied
New York-based design studio Objects of Common Interest presents its Poikilos collection of iridescent resin furniture at the Nilufar Depot gallery in Milan. Curated by Studio Vedèt, the pieces showcased in Poikilos appear poised between solid and liquid states – displaying a milky translucence. The word “poikilos” originates from ancient Greek and refers to the abstract play of light on people’s skin or animals’ coats.
“Iridescence seems to exist only at the moment we are seeing it and is different for each of us depending on our location, the light around us, the gaze, the time of day, and perhaps even our mood. It has the charm of dazzling and unexpected things, that vibrate and cannot stand still,” said Valentina Ciuffi of Studio Vedèt.
Flos
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Update to the 1962 Taccia table lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni from Flos Image: supplied
Eponymous Italian lighting house Flos showcased several new products at Salone, including new innovations and evolutions of design classics. Exemplifying the latter is a refreshing update to the 1962 Taccia table lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. With its distinctive cup-shaped reflector and base reminiscent of an ancient grooved column, Taccia is internationally recognized as one of the most iconic symbols of Italian design. Updated over time with the most advanced LED technology, the Flos lamp is now offered in matt white. Flos is distributed in Australia by Euroluce.
Ross Gardam
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Transcendence collection by Ross Gardam. Image: supplied
Transcendence, a new collection by Melbourne-based furniture and lighting designer Ross Gardam, is a journey of discovery beyond the limits of the ordinary. Referencing geometric motifs, the moon, the ocean and the illusion of motion, Transcendence features a range of unique luminaire designs that are the result of experimentation with different glass techniques. Each piece, such as the Ceto Circlet chandelier, is a sculpture in its own right, revealing different personalities when light is added, reduced, or removed.
Kvadrat collection by Ronan Bouroullec
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Paravent by Ronan Bouroullec for Kvadrat. Image: supplied
Kvadrat presents Paravent, its installation in collaboration with artist Ronan Bouroullec, to celebrate the launch of its latest textile collection. Inspired by Bouroullec’s textural drawings, the Tero Outdoor, Sone, and Alle textile ranges feature patterns that recall the movement of Bouroullec’s artworks: formed by the repetition of lines and created with coloured markers.
“Tero Outdoor embodies a new approach to discreet graphic expression and the world of textiles suitable for outdoor use,” said Bouroullec.
Sone is a unicoloured upholstery textile featuring a subtle graphic design with intersecting fields of texture. Alle is a soft woollen upholstery with an organic line pattern, capturing the rich brushstrokes that characterize Ronan Bouroullec’s drawings.
Made in Ratio
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Made in Ratio collection by Brodie Neill Image: supplied
At the Era exhibition in the Brera Design District, award-winning Tasmanian designer Brodie Neill marks 10 years with 10 design pieces exploring its Made in Ratio collection. Presented as a single monolithic sculpture for viewers to explore, the exhibition features signature Made in Ratio chairs like Cowrie (2013) and Alpha (2015) alongside experimental prototype benches and stools. Some pieces have never been presented publicly, including Core (2020), which is inspired by the archetype of a pillar with two functional reliefs hewn into its stone cross-section, and Arc (2023), a bench that plays with the idea of surface tension with sweeping curves and contrasting smooth and rigid faces.
Laufen
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Space collection by NM3 Studio and Laufen. Image: supplied
At its multidisciplinary Space Collection exhibition at Alcova, Swiss bathroom brand Laufen showcased sleek wet room furniture conceived together with Milan-based design studio NM3. Like Laufen, NM3 works with a deep appreciation for the past and future and is committed to material purity and geometric rationalist design. The collaborative collection comprises objects that are bent, folded and screwed from a single variety of stainless steel. The pieces evoke a conversation around livable spaces, particularly bathrooms: what they mean today and will mean tomorrow. An installation of two single, freestanding steel monoliths was brought to life by LED projections that created a dialogue between moving images and mirrored surfaces. Laufen is exclusively distributed through Reece in Australia.
Rakumba with Tom Skeehan
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Plume by Rakumba with Tom Skeehan Image: supplied
Rakumba and Skeehan Studio unveiled their latest lighting collaboration, Plume. Inspired by the valleys and ridge lines of the Australian landscape, Plume is a sculptural table lamp that comprises two pressed aluminium leaves concealing an internal light source.
“We took a planar 2D material – sheet aluminium – and experimented with an array of processes to transform it. Through this deliberate open investigation, we unveiled unique moments and detailing that can be translated into design and functional inclusions,” said Tom Skeehan of Skeehan Studio.
Muuto
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Midst table designed by Swedish duo TAF Studio for Muuto Image: supplied
For this year’s Milan Design Week, Muuto joined forces with Josephine Akvama Hoffmeyer and Elisa Ossino of H and O to create an immersive exhibition across their apartment gallery at Via Solferino 11 in Brera. Muuto launched two new designs: the generous Midst table designed by Swedish duo TAF Studio; and Mingle Cushions, designed by Thomas Bentzen and finished by Kvadrat in contrasting coloured textiles.
“[The] Midst table is a meeting between the poetic and functional. The name refers to the centre of the table being a gravitational point, while its round shape cancels out hierarchy – there is no head of the table. Its shape naturally draws us in towards its middle, encouraging a meeting of minds and eyes,” said TAF Studio.
Muuto is distributed through Living Edge and other retailers in Australia.
District Eight with Adam Goodrum
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Collette chair by Adam Goodrum for District Eight. Image: supplied
District Eight is a furniture brand established in 2010 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This year, the brand will showcase its three latest furniture and design object collections – created in collaboration with designers Michele De Lucchi, Toan Nguyen, and Adam Goodrum. Collette by Sydney-based designer Adam Goodrum is a collection of seating and tables that celebrates the natural beauty of wood and demonstrates the production skill of the master craftspeople at District Eight.
Miniforms
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Sodcoffee tables by Greek designer Yiannis Ghikas for Miniforms. Image: supplied
Italian furniture brand Miniforms has added two new colours to its Soda range of coffee tables in collaboration with Greek designer Yiannis Ghikas. Originally released in 2020, Soda is made from hand-blown Murano glass and, despite its transparent appearance, weighs a sturdy 20 kilograms. Made by master glassmakers in Italy, Soda features one single volume with three large petals forming the base. The tables now come in four colourways: new ‘Amethyst’ and ‘Blue,’ and existing ‘Amber’ and ‘Petrol Green.’
Casamilano
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Arne collection by Roberto Lazzeroni for Casamilano. Image: supplied
As part of Casamilano’s new series of pieces designed by leading Italian architects, Roberto Lazzeroni was commissioned to design the Arne series. The link between past and future is evident in Lazzeroni’s projects. Receptive to the history of design and its “signs,” Lazzeroni defines his aesthetic as “sentimental design.” The Arne collection embodies this via a family of modular tables with oval legs covered in leather, wood or platinum-painted steel ferrules. Available in various sizes and shapes, the customizable tabletops are forged from precious marble slabs. More
