Morgan Street Revitalization | DESIGNANDARCHITECTURE and M.Ramsay

The Morgan Street Revitalisation project in Mount Morgan, Central Queensland, aims to rejuvenate the town’s main streetscape and bring its unique history into the foreground. With a focus on safety and accessibility, the project transforms the existing layout, which includes a park flanked by one-way roads and shops into a more inclusive space. Landscaping and meandering paths take people on a journey of exploration through the town’s history, while seating areas are provided for moments of reflection, along with an improved street crossing for local students.
Key historical elements such as The Running the Cutter Statue and The Mafeking Bell have been preserved and added. And steel arbours inspired by the old opencut mines replace the deceased Tree of Knowledge, offering shade and paying homage to the town’s mining history. This revitalisation project blends landscape and history, offering a unique and accessible public space that honours Mount Morgan’s unique heritage.

Transport Access Program – Tranche 3 | Transport for NSW Urban Design (Public Transport & Precincts)

The Transport Access Program (TAP 3) is a 10–year, billion –dollar project of station precinct upgrades across NSW. Design managed by Transport for NSW’s Urban Design Team, the program goes beyond accessibility compliance to deliver bespoke, safe, pedestrian–friendly environments in complex urban neighbourhoods, regional towns, and heritage settings.

The TAP 3 program challenges traditional thinking, bringing an architectural and urban design–led process to one of the most heavily regulated sectors within the built environment. The program spans 54 station precincts across city, intercity and regional networks.

It has delivered valuable place benefits that could easily have been abandoned in favour of cost and compliance. Improved access comes hand in hand with urban heat mitigation, Aboriginal and heritage interpretation, intuitive way finding and reduced visual clutter. By championing strong contextual public domain principles from the beginning, these station upgrades move beyond standardisation and repetition to positively contribute to the communities they serve.

Tarakan Street Social and Affordable Housing | NH Architecture, Bird de la Coeur Architects and Openwork+Tract

This redevelopment of a government–owned site in West Heidelberg comprised of 130 tenure–blind social and affordable homes, is one of the first delivered in the Victorian Government’s Big Housing Build.
The three buildings respond to the scale of their suburban context ranging from 2 storey townhouses to 6 storey apartments. Entries are designed with a low number of keys per entry enabling small communities to flourish, providing a sense of address for all residents. The foyers and corridors are naturally ventilated by light–filled openings and provide numerous spaces for gathering and pausing.
The apartments have been arranged to be flexible post–construction through careful structural design. Two smaller dwellings can be inexpensively combined to form one slarger one without structural or services modification. The large balconies provide outlook without compromising on privacy. Additionally, the material palette draws inspiration from the site’s flora and references the site’s history as an Olympic village.

Sydney Football Stadium (Allianz Stadium) | Cox Architecture with ASPECT Studios

A stadium in the park a public building set within a public park. The stadium is a memorable public room for shared play and celebration.

The surrounding public domain is expanded, legible, and accessible. Varied in activation it includes intimate spaces, new public play spaces half basketball play, exercise, kids play to a civic gesture in the form of the Kippax stairs connecting Paddington and Surry Hills.

A rusticated base mediates topography, while a visually recessive bronze body contains significant program. A sinuous highly efficient white steel diagrid roof provides identity. Guided by a do more with less approach, the project achieves LEED Gold.

The Sporting Club of Sydney positioned adjacent the stadium mediates a scale shift to the smaller heritage buildings of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The clients objective to (re)positions Sydney ahead of competing cities through offering uncompromised patron event amenity while attracting national / international events is achieved.

Saint Teresa of Kolkata | Lyons

The Saint Teresa of Kolkata building at ACU is a new, state–of–the–art vertical campus, located on the periphery of Melbourne’s CBD. The design encourages cross–facility use with flexible internal and external spaces designed for recreation, socialisation, teaching and learning. The design also responds to the needs of students, teachers, and researchers, prioritising flexibility to support the University’s long–term needs.

Spanning 13 levels, the building features an abundance of informal and formal learning spaces, including an urban amphitheatre designed for lectures and student gatherings. The building also includes upgraded student amenities, including green spaces, terraces, and a rooftop multi–sports court. The new building seamlessly integrates into the historically significant Mary Glowrey Building, blending old and new to shape a distinct character for the ACU St Patrick’s Campus.

Preston Level Crossing Removal Project | Wood Marsh Architecture

Bell and Preston Stations have been developed as part of Victoria’s Level Crossing Removal Project.

Bell Station references its suburban context. The City of Darebin’s roofscape was abstracted into a three–dimensional façade pattern. Within this façade, windows filter coloured light into the concourse. Preston Station’s design took inspiration from the adjacent Preston Market. The façade was designed as an array of black vertical folds, resembling a barcode used by market vendors. These folds were filled with vivid colours drawn from the produce in the market.

The elevated rail makes space for landscaping, public amenities, and recreation spaces to better serve the neighbourhood. These stations provide new opportunities for connection and link the local community to greater Melbourne by providing safe and equitable access.

The project integrated indigenous co–design to create meaningful and culturally inclusive spaces. Formal, landscape and programmatic design decisions directly emanated from this process.

Powerhouse Place | Public Realm Lab

Powerhouse Place is the most recent project to connect Mildura’s CBD and community to the Mighty Murray River. This important post–settlement industrial site had fallen into disrepair. It has now been reimagined as a place for community, creativity and connection.

The project includes adaptive re–use of the historic powerhouse for events, exhibitions and retail. New buildings contain a commercial kitchen, public toilets (including changing places) and a café. These small buildings nestle around a central green space for performance and relaxation.

Powerhouse Place celebrates the scale, history and materials of the powerhouse building but reflects the need to create new community spaces that are ecologically restorative, inclusive and activated.

The new buildings are the first carbon–positive, hemp masonry public buildings in Australia and are arranged to create human–scaled, intimate and tactile spaces.

Redfern Station | DesignInc

Redfern Station is a transformative piece of urban infrastructure that revitalizes, reconnects, provides universal access and enhances the station and precinct. The new southern concourse and station entries at Little Eveleigh and Marian Streets provide high quality, high amenity places that draw on their rich natural, cultural and built heritage context.

Design cues are taken from Eveleigh’s original wetland landscape as well as its more recent industrial past, with ideas of mist and steam expressed in the perforated cladding, and views framed towards local vistas and the existing heritage buildings. The design also adaptively reuses the industrial warehouse at 125 Little Eveleigh Street as a main entrance. Along with the new public connection across the railway line, shared pedestrian and bicycle zones improve access to local facilities. Thoughtfully combining Indigenous, natural, industrial, and contemporary heritage, the project truly encapsulates the spirit of place, promoting a vibrant local community.

Parramatta Aquatic Centre | Grimshaw and Andrew Burges Architects with McGregor Coxall

The Parramatta Aquatic Centre (PAC) is a recreational facility located in Parramatta. Situated on a 20 hectare park adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Parramatta Park and Old Government House, the centre embraces the vision of the Mays Hill Masterplan while complementing the surrounding landscape. Instead of an enclosed structure, the PAC is a connected community landscape with a sunken courtyard at its centre.

The pools appear to be carved out of the site’s topography, minimising their impact on the park. Construction materials like recycled waste, concrete, and timber were selected to blend with the environment. The design also includes First Nations interpretive elements in collaboration with local Darug elders. Sustainability was prioritised, incorporating woodland restoration, water sensitive urban design, and renewable energy. The PAC has attracted over 20,000 visitors per week since opening, offering essential swimming and recreational facilities to Western Sydney while addressing urban heat concerns.

OneNinety | Donaldson Boshard with Rezen Studio

Representing a paradigm shift for the Perth CBD, 190 St Georges Terrace is a departure from the traditional corporate lobby experience. Offering a boutique, club-like atmosphere this forgotten space has been revitalised through a crafted, contextual approach that has resulted in a unique and commercially successful corporate hospitality offering.

At the heart of the project is the “Living Laneway”, a string of curated experiences extending across the site, integrating the vibrant new lobby, café, wine bar, and lush urban courtyard.

The client and design team embraced a bold strategy by eschewing rigid distinctions between public and private areas, instead opting to invest in universally accessible high-quality amenities. The thoughtful integration of spaces at 190 St Georges Terrace demonstrates a forward-thinking approach that sets the project apart in architectural and experiential terms.