Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Architecture Australia

Penning this foreword to conclude my year as National President, I am trying to look forward without reflecting too much on what we have achieved. At the time of writing, floodwaters are ravaging the east coast of Australia, we are still interrupted by the restrictions of the pandemic, homelessness is increasing at an inordinate rate and housing affordability has become an inherent issue for Australia, while our politicians are in election mode. More importantly, we are all enraged by the devastation being inflicted on the people of Ukraine, who are suffering beyond what we can even imagine in this country. This time of unprecedented unrest and climate chaos will prompt a resetting of the way we work, live and play. The economic model for business practices has changed, and we…

Gold Medal Sean Godsell The Gold Medal is the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour. It recognizes distinguished service by architects who have designed or executed buildings of high merit, produced work of great distinction resulting in the advancement of architecture, or endowed the profession in a distinguished manner. The 2022 recipient of the Gold Medal is Sean Godsell. Godsell’s body of work, publications, exhibitions, and speaking and teaching engagements have been accoladed in Australia. But for a small-practice architect who has completed a relatively modest number of dedicated projects, his level of international recognition is unparalleled. Godsell’s work has contributed significantly by expressing, on a global stage, an architectural response to Australia’s unique landscape. Godsell was born in Melbourne in 1960 and graduated with first-class honours from the University…

At the final session of the Institute’s Lost Opportunities symposium held in March, Sean Godsell and long-time Casabella editor Francesco Dal Co were in conversation. Sean said, “The only way that architecture progresses is if there is a degree of courage.” Based on his unwavering commitment to achieving his creative visions, this is no theoretical sentiment. Sean’s unrelenting pursuit of excellence has earned him the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour, the Gold Medal. This issue of Architecture Australia celebrates Sean and his practice (page 77) and announces the Institute’s suite of National Prizes (page 69). As Philip Goad writes, “In formal terms, almost all of Godsell’s buildings involve long, stretched rectangular blocks, whether elevated, extruded vertically, partially incised into the landscape or inserted seamlessly into an existing urban morphology.”…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation I wouldn’t be the first person to compare a city to a forest, but it’s an analogy I like. Both cities and forests are collectives defined by the elements that make them up and the relationship between them. And as with a forest, a beautiful city can’t be made in an instant. In creating a new part of a city, some planning and design are necessary, of course; but the character of the city largely comes with the wear and tear of habitation, with weather, with the layering of stories, with the relationships between buildings and with the people. These things take time. The Quay Quarter Lanes development, on a small block at Circular Quay in Sydney, has…

After almost 25 years working in Sean’s practice, it is difficult to find a single anecdote to reflect and celebrate such an important achievement as the Gold Medal. “Draw more, talk less” was chalked on the office blackboard for quite some time. It is a sentiment that reflects the rigorous work and critique to which every project is consistently subjected. The work speaks for itself. Sean works bloody hard – I don’t know anyone who works harder. His commitment, perseverance, dedication and stamina are to be admired. After all, in his own words: “You can’t complain if you haven’t drawn the detail,” and “There’s nothing better than a fresh sheet of tracing paper and a 1:20 section.” I have, over the years, kept a record of notable quotes from the…

“Ruthless in their integrity” according to Elizabeth Farrelly, Godsell’s designs are rooted in the lessons of history while searching for solutions in an uncertain future - making him “absolutely an architect for the present.” Sean Godsell is an architect of the old school. He draws by hand, details via sketch and supervises on site, in person. An avid reader and skilled writer, he feeds the lessons of history into his buildings and deplores contemporary design as uniform and unintelligent. “My strongest asset,” says Godsell, “is my training in the history of architecture.” Unsurprisingly, developers do not figure highly in his client list. This unrepentant non-conformism, although celebrated by the international intelligentsia, has tended to cast Godsell as a cult figure. Especially within the diehard postmodernism and try-hard eccentricity of Melbourne,…

2019 Vatican Chapel Award for Small Project Architecture, Australian Institute of Architects House in the Hills Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New), Australian Institute of Architects 2018 House on the Coast The Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New), Australian Institute of Architects Vatican Chapel Papal Silver Medal, Sixteenth International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2016 MPavilion 2014 DETAIL Prize, DETAIL magazine (Germany) 2015 MPavilion 2014 Award for Small Project Architecture, Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter 2014 Kew Studio Award for Small Project Architecture, Australian Institute of Architects The Kevin Borland Award for Small Project Architecture, Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter 2013 RMIT Design Hub in association with Peddle Thorp Melbourne The Victorian Architecture Medal, Australian Institute of Architects Award for Public Architecture, Australian…

It is a fact that on more than one occasion I have walked into my office and thought, “We’re not going to make it to lunchtime.” In a small practice, just keeping the doors open is a triumph. For all architects, getting up off the canvas every single time we are knocked down is a testament to our grit and determination as a profession ... and to the patience, endurance and support of our families and loved ones, who inevitably become the collateral damage in the relentless struggle to make architecture. My tiny, precious office continues to endure. I can honestly say that I have never asked for work or hocked myself on the kerb or played the expected game. From our small outpost, we have chosen to stare down…

When People Oriented Design (POD), with Coburn Architecture, won the bid to design the new Gurriny Yealamucka Health and Wellbeing Centre (GYHWC) at Yarrabah, on the lands of the Gunggandji and Yidinji peoples, the question for co-director Shaneen Fantin was not how to meet what the contract required, but, “How far can we build on what the contract was asking us to do?” The practice identified opportunities to maximize Indigenous economic benefits at multiple levels, exceeding the requirements for Indigenous employment, training, suppliers and engagement – and all within a tight contractual timeframe. The health centre was delivered without excessive cost blowouts and ahead of its scheduled delivery by the Indigenous-owned company H. C. Building and Construction. This was no small feat, particularly with the impact of COVID affecting building…

Godsell’s designs, both built and unbuilt, demonstrate a commitment to experimentation, and his ability to “shift from timeless form to playful contraption” gives his buildings a performative aspect that is admired across the globe, says Philip Goad. Sean Godsell occupies a special place in Australian architecture. He is known as a loner, as a holder of a torch for an architecture of rigorous principles, and as a champion of the idea of the architect as a special form of artist – one with the ability to connect the practical making of buildings with the poetic making of poignant dialogues with both the city and the wider Australian landscape. Across a career spanning more than 25 years, Godsell has been relentless, some might even say unforgiving, in his dedication to this…