Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Architecture Australia

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) took a distinct stance in launching a two-stage design competition in 2021, for “The Fox: NGV Contemporary,”1 by opening it exclusively to Australian multidisciplinary teams. The eight proposals for the new gallery, to be located on Southbank Boulevard adjacent to the existing NGV International, commendably are now being exhibited by the arts institution for public scrutiny, after the winner was announced in March 2022 – an act that should be the norm rather than the exception. An accompanying publication2 outlines what was an exhaustive competition process. A two-part expression of interest was held, from which eight practices were given six weeks to respond to the NGV’s brief (see page 20 for images from Stage One proposals). Based on their proposal’s vision, functionality, urban design…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation Sydney’s George Street Plaza constitutes a place and a moment “in between.” In the July 2022 issue of Architecture Bulletin, titled “Dindarra/Between,” guest editor Michael Mossman relates the word Dindarra (the Kuku Yalaji word for “between”) to “the Third Space – the space and moment between interacting cultures in our contemporary cultural landscapes.”1 Designed by Ghanaian-British Architect David Adjaye, in collaboration with First Nations Australian artist Daniel Boyd, the George Street Plaza sits in between cultures. It also sits between moments in time, marking a distinct philosophical shift, especially in Australia, from a period that celebrated the “hero” architect, building, view, to one that seeks to decentralize the architect and their architecture. This new perspective envisages architecture as…

Public sector roles constitute an important avenue for the diversification of career pathways for architects. Yet there are few models for career paths involving public sector work visible in the profession. This dossier mentions several examples through which architects are being connected with public sector career opportunities, including through secondments and internships. However, there is a strong argument for addressing this occlusion at the point of professional education and making career pathways involving public sector work more visible to students. While practice-based experience is an integral part of the pathway to professional registration in Australia, increasingly, universities are being encouraged to provide work-integrated learning and to explicitly address the employability of graduates. This is also an opportunity to shape broader cultural change in the profession. The following article by Moore,…

Built on the land of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples Fifteen years ago, the Queensland government’s Smart State Council presented the Smart Cities: Rethinking the city centre1 report to then premier Peter Beattie. The report proposed actionable visions for the future of Brisbane’s city centre, including “dramatically and innovatively enhancing connectivity throughout“ and “creating a ‘knowledge corridor’” to link and harmonize areas of forecast population growth with an S-shaped spine of emergent and potential creative, cultural and knowledge-intensive precincts snaking from Bowen Hills to St Lucia. By 2017, the nascent “knowledge corridor” had evolved such that the residential intensification associated with this urban renewal was putting significant pressure on enrolments in existing inner-city schools. The Queensland government, connecting the dots of opportunity and need, fast-tracked the introduction of two new…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation After many years of inaction, railway infrastructure in the Sydney basin is undergoing its largest building boom since the creation of the City Circle line from 1926 to 1956. Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project; by 2030, Sydney will have four metro lines, 46 new stations and a 113-kilometre standalone metro railway system. One part of this project is the Sydney Metro City and Southwest line – and one part of this involves tunnelling under Central Station, Australia’s busiest railway station, to insert two metro platforms. This work has triggered the opportunity to upgrade the whole station with new entries, connections and circulation spaces; and to uplift the overall look and feel by making the facility…

Design review shares a lineage with the design critique that is familiar to every architect trained in the studio system, yet the skills involved in contributing to a successful design review panel are distinct, and often gained through direct experience. As design review processes are adopted in more jurisdictions and become more entrenched in built-environment governance, there is an ongoing challenge to develop an evidence base that can inform their development and safeguard their integrity. The following three short reflections from design review panellists provide concrete examples of the value that these panels contribute in a variety of contexts and project types. First, Stuart Harrison reflects on his work as a panellist with the Office for Design and Architecture SA (ODASA) and highlights how, at its best, the design review…

Built on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation On the Acropolis of Athens, the ruins of the Parthenon glow white. But according to archaeologists, the building was once highly decorated in bright shades of red, blue and green. Over the almost 2,500 years since the temple was built in dedication to the goddess Athena, the effects of weather and human activity have caused the colours to fade. Adam Newman and Kelvin Tsang’s reimagining of the Parthenon for the 2022 NGV Architecture Commission is, then, at once disrupting and faithful. Erected in the Melbourne gallery’s garden until October 2023, Temple of Boom is one-third the size of the original Parthenon and displays the work of several local artists of diverse backgrounds and styles. The architects are interested…

Will the 2032 Summer Olympics yield a “lasting legacy”? Exactly what this means for Queensland and the vast conurbation considered “Brisbane” for the purpose of the event – stretching north to the Sunshine Coast, south to the Gold Coast and inland to the ranges – and how this legacy might be achieved are yet to be made clear. The massive investment made to host the Olympic Games is usually rationalized by the global exposure that the event brings and the facilities it generates. Since the earliest conversations in Brisbane, the focus has been on the opportunity for positive urban transformation of the kind achieved by significant, but well-targeted, investment. Proponents cite precedents such as Barcelona, Sydney, Vancouver and London, where bold, visionary Olympic investment drove urban renewal and became a…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation Given the stature of SANAA, the significance of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the nation’s cultural life, and the long wait for the institution’s much-needed expansion, the opening of Sydney Modern has drawn the attention of design and mainstream news media locally and abroad. Much of this coverage has been frothy and parochial. Readers of Dezeen differed, with some calling it confused and diluted, while others wondered whether SANAA’s vision had been compromised.1 (This is not the case. In interviews, both SANAA and the architects in association, Architectus, said they believe that the design process, including value management interventions, led to a tighter and better outcome.) There are also longer, balanced, comprehensive assessments – Julian…

The expertise that architects and designers bring to the work and processes of government has significantly changed since the era when public works departments were engine rooms for the design and production of public buildings, housing and infrastructure. The dismantling of public works offices that coincided with the neoliberal turn in built-environment governance is often associated with diminished investment in civic architecture and the public realm. Yet there is an expectation that governments will be responsible custodians of the built environment and should play a fundamental role in setting standards and conditions for high-quality development. This dossier recognizes the need for a new understanding of the contribution that architects and designers are making to address this challenge from a diverse array of roles and positions in government. The re-establishment of…

Built on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin nation Writing 25 years ago about John Portman in an essay on the fragmented “disurbanism” of Atlanta, Rem Koolhaas argued that Portman’s synthesis of the roles of architect and developer – “a self-administered Faustian bargain” – had eliminated necessary creative tension. In Portman’s megastructural projects, “the vision of the architect [was] realised without opposition, without influence, without inhibition.”1 The architect-as-developer model has a long, chequered history. For every Solidspace (London) or architect-led Baugruppen (Berlin) capitalizing on the freedom to experiment outside prevailing real-estate-market logics, there are countless speculative, small-scale homebuilders looking to simply capitalize, through nondescript exercises in entrepreneurial city-making. Portman himself framed his hybrid career as an enlarging of architectural agency, elevating the importance of design within…