Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Architecture Australia

NOTES FROM JUDGING This year we were delighted to receive applications in response to the rich and resonant site of Kerstin Thompson’s Bundanon Art Museum. The significance of this location, as detailed by Thompson in her extensive briefing documents, was treated with insight and intelligence by the applications from across Australia and the world. Whilst many were able to delve into the relationship of Country to history and society, others explored the ecological aspects of the surroundings and the relationship between people and nature. As is always the case with this Prize, there was a gratifyingly broad range of responses exemplified in teams of diverse composition. The brief to design a tapestry to be woven in the Gobelin technique remains as open as ever, with a wide array of scale,…

Under the banner “Ready-made architecture,” the Perth-based enterprise New Resident is challenging the way architecture is procured and projected. The antithesis of a current generation of Australian residential architecture – characterized by the bespoke, distinctive, awarded home – this banner is next gen. It isn’t a new concept. The Australian architect’s role in mass housing today is a shadow of what it was in the postwar decades. From Robin Boyd’s well-known Small Homes Service to the Perth-based Homes Plan Bureau run from the Boans department store, architects were once selling plans to a public looking for northern-lit and efficiently planned spaces connected to generous yards.1 Plan upon plan, this system could reproduce responsive typologies in large numbers across new suburbs. It was the semblance of architecture as system that marked…

Located in the fast-growing suburb of Broadmeadows on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, Meadows Primary School was given funding to upgrade its existing facilities to accommodate an extra 200 students by 2020. Working with a tight budget and an accelerated construction timeline, Project 12 Architecture – alongside Meadows Primary staff, the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA), Alchemy Construct and Simon Ellis Landscape Architects – has delivered a series of new spaces and structures that supports the specific experiences and expertise within the school community. Like so many education projects constructed in Australia over the past 20 years, the existing learning spaces at Meadows Primary are flexible learning hubs – large, open-plan volumes designed to accommodate multiple concurrent classes and a range of teaching and…

The start of the 2020s has seen extreme environmental and economic pressures reshape the way we think, live and work. In a similar manner to architecture’s postwar era, our buildings are responding to – and becoming timestamps of – the present context. The University of Queensland Cricket Club Maintenance Shed, by Lineburg Wang with Steve Hunt Architect, is a small project located in Meanjin, Brisbane that marks a moment in time. Developed over 2021 and 2022, the scheme battled constant cost revisions in response to shortages of labour and materials, which had been rightfully redirected to rebuilding homes lost in the 2022 floods across Queensland and New South Wales. These external factors morphed the building into what it is today: a clever, functional structure that is a prime example of…

MICHAEL MCMAHON In my experience, First Nations-led engagement in the industry is increasingly common. Craig, I’d love to know how you’ve seen First Nations engagement change over the course of your career? CRAIG KERSLAKE Well, that’s a substantial period, I’m afraid to say! I went to two universities and I was the token Indigenous person in the course. People thought I was a bit of a freak ... because I wanted to talk about Indigenous design narratives. I remember feeling quite isolated. Nowadays, we are talking frequently about narratives, community, neighbourhoods, sustainability and being with nature – belonging to Country – and people are realizing that this is all part of First Nations culture. I think it’s an exciting time for us to be in architecture. First Nations applied knowledges…

High summer is a time for family and friends. But it is also a time of climatic extremes. As we experience higher average temperatures, long dry periods and storms, our communities, buildings and infrastructure come under significant pressure. With the increase in severe weather events as a result of climate change, our cities and towns are suffering even more. The threat of bushfire looms constantly over regional communities, and the impact of heat islands can create hostile conditions in our suburbs. Our profession is key to mitigating these effects. Through advocacy, we can help shape policies for density done well and for greener urban precincts. We all have a responsibility to approach design in a way that prioritizes low-carbon-emitting materials. We all have an obligation to avoid the use of…

Rory Hyde Rory Hyde is an associate professor in architecture at the University of Melbourne. His most recent book is Architects After Architecture: Alternative Pathways for Practice, with Roberta Marcaccio and Harriet Harriss. (WRITER, PAGE 16) Ben Cleveland Ben Cleveland is an associate professor and co-director of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. (WRITER, PAGE 28) Derek Swalwell Derek Swalwell has been documenting the architectural landscape for more than 20 years. His photographs have appeared on the covers and in the pages of design publications in Australia and internationally. (PHOTOGRAPHER, PAGE 28) Alex Brown Alex Brown is an architect and senior lecturer at Monash Art, Design and Architecture. Her research explores twentieth-century and contemporary art–architecture relationships,…

Although Simulaa was officially formed in 2020, the concept for it had been brewing for some time. Born of disillusionment with large-scale commercial practice and the desire for an experimental and autonomous project, Simulaa is perfectly named to encapsulate the practice of Anna Jankovic and André Bonnice. An ode to the first object-oriented programming language (Simula), the name references the act of simulation, or a set of events modelled for the purpose of teaching. Jankovic and Bonnice’s experience as studio leaders working alongside each other at their alma mater, RMIT, was critical to the practice’s foundation. As the name suggests, Simulaa captures an interest in technology, ecology, process and pedagogy, and these interests link the practice’s projects thus far. Take, for example, Gas Stack. Undertaken in collaboration with environmental consultancy…

Dirk Yates’s painting Eastern View of 85 Terrace St New Farm depicts an ordinary share-house scene in inner-city Brisbane: two seated figures at the edges of the image converse across a table, while a third is sketched out in the centre, reclining on a sofa. Begun in 2000 during his visual arts studies, the incomplete work is a reproduction of a large photographic print using a 2-millimetre grid of individually painted squares. On the bottom right, a pixelated floor plan gives clues to the spatial construction of the scene: three couches gathered around a table locate the subjects in the domestic interior.1 But there is no fourth seat; no sign of Yates’s own position at the viewpoint of this intimate image. Instead, Yates erases traces of himself – his absence…

PHILIP OLDFIELD To start, could you briefly talk about your practice, where it came from and how it evolved? CLARE KENNEDY Five Mile Radius is about seven years old now. We started as a group of architects who just wanted to get on the tools, but we were also very interested in where materials were coming from. We’re different from a traditional architecture practice because we are 50 percent architecture and 50 percent making. So, half the team is working more on design-based projects and half the team is in our workshop. But the two work very fluidly, hand-in-hand, which is kind of fortuitous when it comes to testing ideas about material sustainability, because we can actually just test things out ourselves. We’re working on what are some larger projects,…

TIFFANY LIEW Could you describe your current roles at BVN and how long you have been working there? ALI BOUNDS We have multifaceted roles. As co-studio principals, Bill and I jointly lead many projects, often collaborating with other principals. Additionally, we support the studio director, overseeing HR, project resourcing, recruitment and studio management. I’ve now been at BVN for 12 years, with two years out in the middle (working in London). BILL DOWZER I’ve been here for 27 years, 22 years as a principal. Like Ali, I think it’s important to lead projects and mentor others in a way that creates a culture of sharing. One of the defining parts of BVN is that all the principals are equal owners, which creates a culture of respect for each other. AB…

(ENTRANT’S DESCRIPTION) Malaysia’s expected sea-level rise is almost five times the global average, and the nation is ranked eighth in the world for mismanagement of plastic waste. Just off the west coast of East Malaysia, Pulau Gaya (Gaya Island) forms part of the Tuku Abdul Rahman National Park and hosts some luxury tourist resorts. The island is also home to many people of the Bajau tribe, more commonly known as the “Sea Nomads.” The government sees the Bajau as illegal immigrants and does not officially recognize their water villages. Little to no basic infrastructure has been provided for them, resulting in ever-increasing waste pollution. The government intends to develop the island into a tourist hub and to relocate the islanders further from the city. The speculative project provides an opportunity…

(ENTRANT’S DESCRIPTION) Gardens on Oxford is an imaginative reinterpretation for cultivation of care in public space. It transforms Oxford Street, Sydney into a street-enriching, sustainable urban landscape through a series of garden beds owned by its community rather than a corporate governing body. The proposal amplifies architecture that accepts mess, idiosyncrasies and informality as a critical alternative for future public space. Current proposals for urban renewal are increasingly additive, resource inefficient and unsustainable. Our society privileges efficiency over sufficiency, apparently forgetting how to give a second life to space. The Gardens challenge this via the belief that transforming what is already there should never come as an afterthought. The Gardens reinvent the public land cared for by the City of Sydney and Woollahra Councils with a new central boulevard. The…

For a gallery of the shortlisted projects, go to: architectureau.com/articles/aa-prize-for-unbuilt-work-2024-shortlist-revealed…

(ACKNOWLEDGEMENT) We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognize their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. As Architecture Australia celebrates its 120th year, we ask what it means to be an architect today. With myriad challenges demanding change in the way we design, what we design and the materials we design with, there are necessary shifts occurring in practice and processes. There is a lot to be learnt from traditional practice, but architects have the capacity to contribute more on social and environmental levels – and a new generation of Australian architects is being particularly proactive about using design to address contemporary issues. This edition is intended to provide a snapshot of the kinds of…

There’s a shift taking place in architecture. The next generation is quietly forging its own path, remaking practice in a way that is relevant to today and points toward the future. What defines this “next gen”? You couldn’t call it a “movement” – there’s no manifesto, no leaders, no defined ambitions, nor even a rejection of what’s come before. But although this next gen has yet to coalesce into a definable shape, a distinct spirit and attitude threads through the practices examined in this issue – and through the many others who could be bundled into this cohort. Following is a list of next-gen attitudes and approaches to architectural practice: an incomplete and uncomprehensive inventory that nevertheless helps to define this nebulous group. For those of you who are coming…

You may never have heard of SO: Architecture. But if you’re an avid scroller of Instagram or short-stay accommodation apps, you will almost certainly be familiar with Liz Walsh and Alex Nielsen’s work. With more than 900 reviews for The Barn Tas and The Bae Tas, the Airbnb Superhosts have inadvertently self-funded a creative practice and established a whole new class of high-quality yet accessible architectural experiences in lutruwita/Tasmania. Walsh and Nielsen have been life partners for almost 20 years, with architecture being their profession and their hobby. Both work at practices renowned for innovative, high-quality tourism and commercial work (Walsh is an associate at Cumulus Studio and Nielsen is a senior associate at Circa Morris-Nunn Chua Architects), leveraging their involvement in some of Tasmania’s most celebrated projects by seizing…

ANDREW NIMMO With the widespread adoption of partial services and the ever-increasing list of specialist sub-consultants architects are required to work with, many architects have expressed concern that the role of the architect is being trimmed year on year. Is this something that concerns you? What actually defines an architect? JON CLEMENTS There’s a generational shift in the industry because the older-school architects were very attached to contract admin – but things have changed. We work in a practice where it’s not unusual to be novated and not to do contract admin, and we still deliver buildings effectively ... Project managers are happy to do the admin. I would say that our value is in the strategic establishment of projects through design and utilizing designers as a vehicle for project…

When one thinks about what constitutes public work, and what a typical public architectural commission might be, rarely does one envisage a playground. Playgrounds are (or have the potential to be) key pieces of urban infrastructure. They not only support child development through play but also serve as active public places for gathering, community and social interaction. The significance of these spaces in our public realm is evident in the increasing number of playgrounds being designed by professionals, in place of the standard assembly of off-the-shelf parts. The latest Queensland example of a playground as a piece of active urban infrastructure is Bradbury Park Play Scape, designed by Alcorn Middleton. Brisbane City Council ran an open competition for the playground in one of the city’s northern suburbs, Chermside, at the…

Over the past few years, we in the architecture and design industry have become increasingly aware of our responsibilities to earth’s climate and communities’ social needs. This conscious shift toward better briefs, processes and outcomes is rippling through practice and architectural pedagogy – and the jury found it abundantly clear in the submissions for the 2024 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work. Across the submissions, three themes emerged: solutions to the housing crisis, explorations into fostering the biodiversity in our cities, and schemes that reimagine city life after colossal inundation caused by rising sea levels. The winning project, Between There and Now by Nathan Arceri, experiments with a new approach to developing and constructing cooperative housing. With housing affordability an ongoing concern for young adults and others, Arceri’s timely concept considers…

(ENTRANT’S DESCRIPTION) The Baugruppen at White Gum Valley (WGV) project in Fremantle presents a vision for sustainable and community-oriented urban infill. Part of Development WA’s “Innovation through Demonstration” projects, this innovative housing initiative reimagines the way we live, emphasizing collaboration, environmental consciousness and architectural distinction, and showcasing a pragmatic way to create less expensive housing in desirable areas. Baugruppen dwellings are more affordable than speculative apartments because they are funded without external investors, removing any profits payable to developers. The future occupants of Baugruppen at WGV are a diverse group, including downsizers, young singles and couples, older couples and families with young children. Central to the Baugruppen concept is the cultivation of social connections. At WGV, communal spaces include a shared kitchen, studio apartment for guests (also eliminating the need…

(ENTRANT’S DESCRIPTION) In considering the 2023 NGV Triennial themes of memory, matter and magic, we ask, “What does Country remember?” Cloaked in a fine bronze mesh, a simple, triangulated form circumscribes a vast field that gathers the elements of the garden in an encompassing light, creating a kind of sensorium and chamber for the Memory of Country. Upon the floor of the field, a vast circular carpet of murrnong (Microseris walteri), endemic grasses and companion perennials grow. The murrnong present their own reality, blossom in their own time, and transition to seed. This seasonality is itself an event. The mesh captures the seed on the breeze. A meandering river of ash and crushed charcoal snakes through the murrnong field, recalling the Birrarung. Entry to the pavilion is preceded by a…