Michael Kirby Building | Hassell

The Michael Kirby Building at Macquarie University tells a story of sustainable adaptation and growth, crafting new gathering spaces that encourage interaction and promote the exchange of ideas.

The design utilises the concrete framework of a pre-existing administration building as a foundation for a new timber structural system. The transformation extends beyond the structural, replacing the concrete shell with a transparent, glazed façade directly connecting the building to the tree canopy along Wally’s Walk.

A previously exposed courtyard is now transformed into an enclosed, naturally ventilated atrium space. A series of skylights provide controlled lighting, providing equal parts sun and shade.

The decision to re-use rather than fully demolish has extended the life of the building. Creating a high quality crafted timber interior speaks to Macquarie University’s ongoing commitment to a sustainable campus.

Little Young Street 4A & 4B | David Langston-Jones

With a footprint little bigger than a pair of double garages, two 80 sq m houses have been fitted onto an awkward sloping site which most would expect to contain only one. Infilling a narrow inner city laneway, these replace the original asbestos ridden bungalow, which had outlived its usefulness, with two storey houses without garages taking advantage of their proximity to public transport.

The identical houses are ‘upside down’: bedrooms below and living areas above. All ‘machines’ bathrooms, stairs, kitchens, rubbish bins, etc are rowed in front concentrating the main massing away from the street. Articulate and expressive, the resulting external appearance contributes much to the streetscape.

Internally, the houses exhibit a spaciousness and grandeur that belie their size and are private yet transparent in spite of being cheek by jowl with neighbours. Carefully arranged openings frame views onto courtyard gardens, distant trees and the sky while filtered sunlight enliven the living areas throughout the day.

Liverpool Civic Place | fjcstudio

Liverpool’s Civic building, lost to fire, prompted a transformative initiative at the southern end of the CBD. A new Civic Place includes a unique 21st century library, Yellamundie, and Civic Building. Inspired by the gentle curve of the Georges River, Yellamundie’s curvilinear design invites pedestrian flow and connectivity. Set at the terminus of tree lined Macquarie Street, it harmonises with the Civic Foyer that references Greenway’s local heritage buildings.

The library’s curved form, reflecting the river’s eddies, fosters gathering and embraces a timber decked gathering garden and sunken courtyard. Within the plaza, a grove of resilient Crepe Myrtles combats heat island effects, and reinforces the strong Hoddle like city grid. Integrating much of the 5000sqm library beneath the plaza presented an urban challenge, resulting in generous on grade public domain from Scott Street. Liverpool Civic Place uniquely resolves complex urban challenges to offer invaluable social infrastructure to an increasingly dense Western Sydney city.

Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club | Adriano Pupilli Architects

Nestled within the rugged coastal dune scape of Griffith Reserve, the Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club emerges from the landscape. It quietly signals its presence via a series of weathered timber forms, each defining a corner of a communal courtyard. This is a place for the community to gather, to save lives, to train, to pause and reconnect with each other and nature. The architecture recedes to allow natural coastal flows and processes to characterise the experience of the building and the land.

Over time the building is designed to weather and patina in place, a robust and hardworking architecture for generations of club and community users to enjoy, be inspired, delighted and surprised, day to day and across the seasons. An architecture where people and place can thrive and be well.

Lunar Apartments | Rothelowman

Lunar integrates what people love about living in Jannali in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire: being part of a neighbourhood and community, and having light, nature, ventilation and views. Offering a new vision for suburbia, Lunar provides high quality, affordable, liveable apartments for the local market, many of them young couples and downsizers who want to stay close to family and friends.

The five storey courtyard building is surrounded by nature and rock shelves, and maximises the number of north facing dwellings, for sunlight and views. Externalised circulation fosters a neighbourhood feeling and animates the streetscape. Breezeway apartments draw light and ventilation through the interiors. Drawing on suburban housing models, every apartment has two facades: a front porch (public corridor and semi public internal space) and back yard (private balcony). These outdoor spaces provide connections to nature and fragment the building to create a lighter density and modern, unpretentious architecture that relates to Jannali’s character.

Maggie Street | Curious Practice

Maggie Street reinterprets and respects the amenity, heritage and character of the surrounding suburb, but while neighbours inhabit as single dwellings on large lots, Maggie Street manages a fraternal quadruplet of generous two storey townhouses. Flexibility in the planning of each unit can allow for any number of occupant requirements, from a growing family, home office or just having room to have the grandchildren stay.

Materials have been chosen for their practicality, durability and texture changing with shifting shadows and development of patina over time. The red cement bonded particle board and zincalume claddings bring both familiarity and vitality to the development, and with lawn removed from the site, an all native landscape plan brings biodiversity back to help repair the site post construction.

Increasing density, reducing sprawl and fostering a sense of community between occupants are becoming the new standards for developments people actually want to live in not just buy.

Maitland Administration Centre | Maitland City Council, BVN, PTW and EJE

The new Maitland Administration Centre is a key new civic element that reinforces a connection to Maitland’s past. The project incorporates and celebrates a number of significant buildings from different eras, dominated by the 1890 Town Hall.

The heart of the project is the new grand lobby. Its public nature is important in connecting the office, performance and civic functions of the facility. The lobby cleverly navigates design and heritage issues allowing future relevance of key community areas such as the Town Hall and Council Chambers.

The new Administration component responds to its context and recognises its importance in the civic and cultural life of the community and representing the ideas of permanence and presence. The design utilises a masonry screen wrap to address massing and materials.

The new building seeks to create a dynamic workplace and reinvigorated public facility with a high level of amenity for staff and visitors.

Maitland Bay House | Studio Bright

Located on the central coast of NSW, next to the Boudii National Park, with views down to Maitland Bay across the surrounding native bushland, this new house resolves the difficulties of a sloping site, bushfire regulations and a site compressed between neighbouring properties.

The plan is a careful negotiation between these constraints while providing for living spaces that capture northern light and the views, as well sensitively responding to the ecology of site and the adjacent properties.

Constructed from brick, the building form is defined by two wings that frame the entry sequence, some mature Angophora trees and a protected flat outdoor area for the children to play. Between the two, a linking breezeway is totally operable. The upper level with its form slightly offset from that below, holds bedrooms and study. The overall form is robust and protecting but also porous and able to be opened up as required.

Manly Cove Residence | BVN

A contemporary coastal sanctuary Manly Cove Residence capitalises on its remarkable cliffedge setting while responding to family dynamics, privacy needs, and coastal conditions.
As location and orientation offered ample opportunity to prioritise panoramic vistas into Sydney Harbour, BVN designed the residence across a series of concrete platforms that follow the natural terrain contours and allow a seamless flow between indoors and the landscape.

A cascade of garden courtyards connect the site from the entry through the dwelling to the boatshed at the water’s edge. Lush planting and façade screening maximise privacy.
Our spatial programming successfully manages shifting family dynamics with separate entries and zones for the parents and their increasingly independent teenagers. Casual areas on the lowest floor can be used for relaxed family enjoyment or guest accommodation.

BVN’s design also astutely preserves the waterfront nesting area for endangered penguins and corridors for bandicoot colonies that traverse the site.

Lagoon House | p.s.architecture

Lagoon house is located along the north outlet of Curial Curial (Curl Curl) lagoon meaning river of life. The project responded to the client’s brief and beyond; it has engaged with the exploration of space and light whilst sandwiched between two large residences. It reinforces the tradition of elemental architecture characteristic of p.s.architecture in this instance in suburban Sydney.

Entry Court is an extension of the back dunes the ground floor living introduces scale light and breeze typical of this place. Stairs are lightweight and provide joyful access to a variety of upper level places bathrooms and laundry practical. Bedrooms buffer both with qualities of light, one east one west.

Lagoon house is not precious but relies on the knowledge of daily activities to embellish life, the familiarity of one’s favourite clothing to dwell comfortably all within the one of Sydney’s landscape.