Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i Architecture Australia

Saniflo SFA has recently introduced a new product, the Sanialarm Interlock, which is designed to be used with most Saniflo products. The Sanialarm Interlock was developed in response to the increased specification of pumps as an alternative solution for commercial office space repurposing, and the need to safeguard against flooding in the event of a power failure. This is a complete “plug and play” alarm interlock package that doesn’t require an electrician for installation. The Sanialarm performs three simultaneous functions in the event of a high-level issue: it sets off an audible alarm, shuts off incoming water supply to prevent flooding, and cuts the power supply to the dishwasher or washing machine. Ideal for commercial office kitchenettes to safeguard against flooding, the unit comes with a visual alarm as well…

Jury citation In all great works of architecture, the structure and the uses, the architecture and the senses, the space and its composition have a proclivity toward a deeper understanding of the way a perfect form can develop one’s consciousness about universal values in nature. The form in many of the great buildings seeks such a oneness with internal alignments and considered structural rhythms. The universality provided to this building through structure, daylight and amenity, through order in the plan and poetry in the whole, brings to light the architectural discipline like no other building noted by the jury this year. It is precise and poetical without idly seeking novelty of form. This highly resolved building develops a relationship to the ironbark forest into which it is sited and around…

Jury citation Brit Andresen, who was called on to give early design appraisals for this project, raised the obvious but oft-ignored challenge for large sports buildings: the need to “humanize the space.” The architect’s success in meeting this challenge at Barker College Rosewood Centre is a palpable element of the work and evident even through the Zoom screen. Large spaces are described by the necessary structure, poetically revealed and concealed for spatial effect. This engaging proposition of structure and space develops a sports hall for a child’s psyche. In the case of adolescents, architecture, as elusive as it may be, is able to influence a higher sense of order; and this is now possible at Barker College, a progressive co-educational private school. Transcending its use as a sports hall, this…

Jury citation Smart Design Studio is a highly considered home for the practice of architecture. Located in Sydney’s industrial periphery of Alexandria, the development adapts existing warehouse structures. The bones of the space are retained, with targeted interventions to extend and optimize the spaces for studio use. Large, existing, south-facing glass clerestory windows illuminate a central room furnished with freestanding joinery blocks. These 14-metre-long modules incorporate space for desks, storage, pinboards and model display: generous yet efficient. This primary workspace is flanked by ancillary meeting, reception and services areas, including a canteen and a central drafting table for the founding director. Meeting rooms overlook the workspace from a mezzanine level. The new street frontage borrows from its industrial context, with a singular and robust curved brick facade and steel fenestration…

Jury citation The interior architecture of the new Smart Design Studio in Sydney is the unifying design language of this inviting, urbane campus. It is integral and finely calibrated to the architectural envelopes – stridently new and innovative structures and adaptively re-used industrial heritage fabric. In each of the interior spaces, the daily habits of use and activity are carefully anticipated and accounted for, and special moments of interaction and engagement are celebrated. This renovation is an architectural calling card for its architect occupants and speaks to Smart Design Studio’s approach to the practice of architecture (across scales and building types) and its commitment to advancing sustainability discourse and innovation. Upon arrival into the formal reception room, first glanced through the elegant, steel-framed glazing along the western street edge, the…

Jury citation Reference to the wartime coastal bunkers of Europe and Australia may have been the generative reference for this amazing house, but the constructed imagery of the reference is the antithesis of this design’s relationship between interior and landscape. Concrete quality is dependent on many factors: formwork tightness, concrete mix, placement and a love of the material. This house takes the béton brute of Le Corbusier, via Perret and Behrens, to a new level of detail and sophistication. The juxtaposition of boardmarked and smooth surfaces illustrates the potential of this superb material. Emerging from an enveloping landscape, the project’s hovering platforms are a work of horizontal excellence. The detail of apparent separation of vertical and horizontal concrete surfaces, often with top light, results in exquisite sequences as one moves…

Jury citation The presentation of this house to the street does not immediately give an understanding of the constraints of its refurbishment. Located in a flood zone, the existing house required a permeable lower level to accommodate non-habitable use and to allow a free flow of flood waters through the property. The brief was for a house that facilitates outdoor living space with positive connections to both ground and garden, and that allows indoor–outdoor living. The street elevation constitutes a two-storey screened parti that establishes privacy to the garden terrace on the upper level. The masonry base exhibits a muddied palette of reds and terracottas, as if the waters had already coursed through. Ascending to the upper level, the materiality softens in reference to the retained gum trees, with freestanding…

Jury citation At Monash Woodside Building for Technology and Design, a transdisciplinary facility for the faculties of engineering and information technology at Monash University’s Clayton campus, sustainability is integrated into, and inseparable from, the operation of the enterprise. The passive design strategy shapes the architecture to showcase the performance-based approach and to provide unique learning opportunities. Currently the largest Passive House-certified project in the southern hemisphere, the building has established a pathway for Monash to achieve net-zero carbon by 2030. Its tight thermal skin of clear, high-performance glazing, combined with whole-house mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, are key Passive House principles to even out indoor temperature and lower energy consumption. The building is 100 percent electrically powered, providing 60 percent of its own power through solar panels. Water is collected…

Jury citation Founded in 1827, the Australian Museum has earned an impressive set of superlatives as Australia’s first, longest serving and most intact cultural institution. Layered as it is with archaeological potential – beginning with the site’s 1820s convict garden and including abundant later additions, such as the notable Lewis, Barnet and Vernon wings dating from the mid-1850s – carving out legibility would ordinarily attract a heavy hand. Not so with commissioned Australian Museum Project Discover team Cox Architecture and Neeson Murcutt and Neille. Neeson Murcutt Architects was responsible for earlier work on the Crystal Hall that astutely reoriented the museum to William Street, its original frontage. The 2020 design overlay furthers the highly strategic response, prioritizing changes that will sustain the museum into the long term while revealing a…

The elegant choice to elevate interiors, the Dulux Venetian Plaster Collection combines ancient craftsmanship and cutting-edge design. Perfected by hand, and smooth and cool to the touch, this unique plaster range is akin to a work of art. Inspiring the imagination, Modello is the most versatile product in the Venetian Plaster Collection. Finished in one application, its rich flexibility allows for an array of effects to achieve a designer-savvy look. The artisan finishes include Bamboo, Split Stone, Seagrass and Lava. Texture your finish using one of Dulux’s specialized trowels, imported from Italy, and overcoat with Ombra to create a feature finish with a decorative tint. Bauta, available in four pearlescent hues – gold, silver, bronze and copper – produces a metallic finish and can be applied to Modello to create…

Jury citation Quiet as it may seem, befitting its relatively minor scope, this work displays a deep understanding of the original plan of this important heritage building and its potential long-term future. Hitherto suffocated by poor decisions and even poorer government interventions, the building as cast in 1846 by Mortimer Lewis, a clearly profound architectural mind, was deeply stifled in its natural development. It may be argued that these interventions, which were guided by the museum’s masterplan, were not ambitious enough to open the obvious central courtyard and enable the building’s passage into the realm of an abiding work with international reach. However, the team of Cox Architecture and Neeson, Murcutt and Neille has mindfully and selflessly paved the way for this work to be furthered. The enduring nature of…

Jury citation This work is a considered exploration of the relationship between form and use, with the soundwaves of music delivered in frozen forms on a vibrant campus. This vibrancy does not detract from the regard the forms have for the historical buildings; there is a deftness in the way the forms are at once deferential to heritage and complete in their singularity. Ideally considered for the use of adolescent boys, there is a humanizing element in the use of forms that shows a deep understanding of the tasks to hand. The work takes a further step to seek to change the behaviour of the students and causes that behaviour to change tempo in any relation to the architecture. The sense that a building is able to affect tempo and…

Jury citation The architectural rigour and excellence of the Land 121 Facilities Project, located at Townsville’s Lavarack Barracks, are analogous with the significant leadership role the defence forces play as stewards of Australia’s built and natural environments. The Australian Defence Force is one of the country’s largest property owners and the custodian of three million hectares of land. Lavarack Barracks opened in 1966, and this major Australian Army base currently supports a population of 3,817 military and 626 civilian personnel. The Land 121 project is providing new buildings and upgraded facilities throughout Australia to support the Australian Defence Force’s new vehicle fleet. This precinct at Lavarack Barracks, for the 3rd Combat Service Support Battalion, is both a clear response to the functional imperatives of the defence force and an elevation…

“There were special moments when clients accompanied us through the projects, giving remarkable testimonies of the value of the architecture customized to their brief and the site.”Alice Hampson, Jury Chair, 2021 National Architecture Awards Jury citation Divided House is a sophisticated dwelling that deftly entwines urbanity, architecture and art. The interior architecture of the building is generated through an impressive and intriguing overlay of longevity, comfort and craft, with the latter deployed with a level of detail and expression that elevates the everyday experience. This condition is exemplified in the contrasting of the raw, natural materials that define the interior envelope and the pops of striking, kaleidoscopic colour that peek out from the insides of the thoughtfully conceived joinery or lie just behind the door of one of the surprise-inducing…

Jury citation Through the skilful retention of as much existing fabric as structurally possible, this work rescues a warehouse of great social significance and the repository of many neighbourhood memories. The architect has interwoven new materials to develop a unique formal expression for the small (150-square-metre) site. A third storey, added to achieve two dwelling units, is organized around a full-height, rear-wall light well, allowing internal bedrooms/studies on the ground floor to gain light and ventilation. The exposed sandstone wall and retained graffiti of the light well contribute to the reading of a rich history and layered materiality. The third storey provides large external terraces to each unit, held behind a beautiful, translucent, polycarbonate and steel mesh exterior screening. From the street, the facade presents a layered vertical composition: a…

Jury citation At Smart Design Studio, the ambition for longevity is underpinned by investment in a sustainable future. Commencing with the adaptation of an existing warehouse space for studio use, the project capitalizes upon the existing fabric, replacing only what was necessary. Large, existing, south-facing glass clerestory windows illuminate the workspace. Adapted with actuators, window operation is integrated with the building management system. Combined with ceiling fans and underfloor temperature control, this helps to minimize the need for artificially conditioned air and lighting. Rainwater is collected for all non-potable use. Extensive photovoltaic solar panels, combined with battery storage, create an energy-positive building with sufficient power to export to its neighbours. Targeting a six-star NABERS rating, the employees of Smart Design Studio continue the work of the built infrastructure by reducing…

Jury citation Jackalope Pavilion exquisitely exploits the tension between the transience of the exhibited decorative arts and the permanence of utilitarian form. The opportunity to base a commercial design around an impermanent artwork is rare, and rarer still is the architectural skill to deliver the temporary in a temporal pavilion that harks back to sacred experience. The structure’s decoration and pragmatics defer to the art – an extraordinary 100-square-metre expanse of continuous rainfall – in a surprising compositional offering that rejects the now-familiar mute art box. The architecture celebrates its fleeting position in St Kilda, as the enveloping cloud of whitened scaffold melds with the typical Melbourne sky. Accomplished on many levels, this work by March Studio is as personal as it is universal, offering architecture as art in a fulsome…

Jury citation Across the nine freestanding buildings that make up the expansive Land 121 Facilities Project at Lavarack Barracks, steel is deployed as an efficient and resilient kit of building parts, and thoughtfully configured as an architectural language. The project continues a longstanding collaboration between the architect and the client. In the most recent tranche of work at the Townsville site, which is one of the Australian Defence Force’s largest bases, the architect has further evolved and refined an architectural approach that has delivered a suite of highly successful works, completed in stages of redevelopment from 1999 through to the present. The poised steel architecture of these new facilities, which profiles the nimble and robust qualities of the material, is tuned to its landscape setting and responsive to the dry…

In the March/April 2021 edition of Architecture Australia, we titled a review as “The Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame” and credited Brian Hooper Architect and M3 Architecture. This title did not make it clear that the review was about the rejuvenation and upgrade project completed in 2020 by Brian Hooper Architect and M3 Architecture in association. Our opening credits also gave the incorrect impression that the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame was designed by these practices. It was, in fact, designed in the 1980s by Feiko Bouman Architecture, as explained by the reviewer. Further, it was not clear that the opening image (as shown above in the photograph by Christopher Frederick Jones) is a present-day view of the front facade, which was not materially changed by the upgrade. This lack…

Country is the realm that surrounds us all, with different understandings immanent in each of us. As a Kuku-Yalanji man, partner, father, son and brother who grew up in Gimuy1 on Yidinji land and now lives and works on Gadigal land, I am always Country and I am always part of Country – Country is always me and Country is always part of me. I am my story – my Country, my culture and my community – and it is always evolving. As an educator in architecture and the Associate Dean Indigenous at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, these fundamental understandings underpin my pedagogical approach and centre its empowerment of relationships, collaboration, yarning my story and listening to others yarn their stories. Constitutive of everything,…

Jury citation This is a playful work that inspires a consideration of how the enjoyment of water-based environments has developed the psyche of an entire culture. The work represents a significant departure from the now-familiar utilitarian approach to enclosed pool environments in New South Wales, prompting a nuanced conversation about how the indoor pool can provide a community room in which there can be architectural expression. The work is accomplished in delivering a familiar program in a new way, with the architectural expression itself reflecting the ethos of the project. Architecture, in the eyes of this architectural team, has been prioritized in the form of certain exaggerated formal propositions, such as the grand pergola, which acts as an “urban gesture.” This work is to be lauded for its development of…

Jury citation This school, based on the Reggio Emilia learning system, is experimental by nature. The plan, based around the retention of trees, represents the nature of its experimentation but also delivers an outcome that is generous to the broader Geelong community. The combination of open classrooms availing many possibilities for the children’s self-development is carefully considered by the architect. There is a balance in the way walls and service zones are juxtaposed so that there is also an ability to meet the needs of children who seek a sense of order and enclosure. This is an accomplished work, a reading of this genre of pedagogy relevant to our Australian conditions that could be seen as a prototype. Architect John Wardle Architects; Project team John Wardle, Stefan Mee, Alan Ting,…

Jury citation At first sighting, the plans, the section, the unusual signals of architectural composition and expression were considered by the jury to be naive and even under-considered. The best work has this quality, the risk of not quite developing into a work worthy of recognition. And yet, in any context where there is a dexterous set of hands in the architectural team and a client as fastidious as Basil Borun, there is sure to be a sense of awe, at the very least. So much more, however, is offered here. The alignment to mathematics, the counterintuitive absence of any northern orientation and the deeply committed disassociation with the context is understood with all the rare nuance of a masterful author. The potentially deeply problematic choices, deftly orchestrated, develop into…

Jury citation The industrial North Melbourne heritage of this project’s locale established the initial idea for this beautiful set of unique townhouses. The external language of red brick is the starting point of a heroic sequence of elevational expressions; considered in rotation, each elevation responds to its individual outlook and requirements. The north elevation, to the busy Arden Street, has limited openings to limit acoustic imposition and achieve privacy. Around the corner on Lothian Street, the west elevation is grounded with a series of arched openings reminiscent of Giorgio de Chirico images, with an upper-level two-storey concrete frame of Giuseppe Terragni simplicity in visual strength and purpose. The south elevation, to Little Lothian Street, completes the triumvirate, with its arched base and openings punched into a total brick surface. Each…

Jury citation In a lecture in the 1980s, architectural historian Ian Sinnamon coined the aphorism that would typify his immeasurable influence on conservation and heritage practice: “do as much as necessary but as little as possible.” This maxim has become part of Australia’s heritage conservation lexicon and is exquisitely exemplified in the works undertaken by Williams Boag Architects to this important building in the city of Bendigo. Heritage buildings are the storytellers of who and what we once were. Ensuring that they are lovingly and carefully treated promises continuum of that legacy. Heritage Victoria’s Statement of Significance for this building notes both its 1872 Mining Exchange use and its use by Allans Music in 1927, when the arcade opened. In the deft hands of Williams Boag Architects, these tales and…

“Collectively, this year’s awarded works exhibit the richness, intelligence, viscerality, complexity, individuality and delight of which Australian architecture is capable.” Alice Hampson, Jury Chair, 2021 National Architecture Awards Jury citation The QUT Campus to Country: Positioning Strategy is an effective urban design proposition and an architectural framework that provides an innovative and iterative model for built-environment practice in which Indigenous narratives and knowledges are embedded and acknowledged. The document contains a series of spatial prompts to be considered during planning to ensure the confluence of culture, identity, people and place, and principals to guide the development of future campus building projects at QUT. The foundation principle of this clear and robust document is the meaning of Country, which is central to the culture, identity and spirituality of Aboriginal and Torres…

Jury citation It is hard not to be captivated by this extremely modest, owner-built architectural intervention set within the easily loved landscape and surrounds of Lake Derby. The architectural approach is simple and intuitive. A pair of gabled pavilions – one crafted from dark burnt larch (for the sauna) and the other from light-filled Ampelite cladding (for the changeroom) is set upon a floating pontoon. Floating Sauna Derby heightens the sensual experience of landscape immersion with its deft sequence of darting between the scales of architecture, lake and landscape. Ancient architectural form, black and white, light and absence of light, landscape and platonic form is indeed memorable, beautiful and intelligent. Architect Licht Architecture; Project team Jason Licht; Builder Nigel Reeves; Other consultants PFG Group; Photographer Anjie Blair…

Jury citation Swimming pools became one of the new public spaces at the cultural and community heart of Australian post-war society, with many built as “living” war memorials. They helped to launch swimming as a significant competitive sport for the nation while sealing the emergence of what’s been labelled the golden era of Australian swimming. The former Olympic Swimming Pool stadium is one of the few remaining landmarks of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne and one of the most significant mid-century buildings. The experimental design was the result of a 1952 design competition, won by young Melbourne University graduates Peter McIntyre, Kevin Borland and John and Phyllis Murphy, working in collaboration with engineer Bill Irwin. Competition juror Robin Boyd labelled the design, which was the first enclosed swimming and…