Traditional Land Owners: Wonnarua People
Maitland Regional Athletics Complex (MRAC) is stage 2 of the implementation of the Maitland Sports ground recreational precinct masterplan.
MRAC also falls within the broader Central Maitland Structure Plan which sets out an ambitious vision, supported by key strategies to guide growth and development of one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state over the next 20 years. The athletics complex forms part of the East Central / Horseshoe Bend Precincts where the objectives are to focus and cultivate the educational, recreational, artistic, cultural and community role to service the whole of the Maitland LGA.
The close concentration of public and cultural buildings within this area offers the opportunity to form a key hub for the town and incorporate the Sports ground Precinct as a major piece of public space.
Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“Maitland Council now employs three full time architects, some for over 10 years. As part of this project a local architect, Studio Dot was also involved. This has enabled the organisation to drive quality design outcomes with the growing number of new community, cultural and recreational buildings in the LGA. The architects have ownership of the projects from the initial consultation process with user groups, maintenance staff and all management groups within the organisation through to handover to user groups. Feedback on the projects is used to assist in the design and documentation of future projects.”
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Our new studio is an innovative, sustainable and sculptural building, purpose-built for who we are and how we work. The design embraces the essence of industrial buildings from this precinct, apparent in the composition of the façade and materials. Structurally, it embraces the innovation and economy of industrial buildings. Environmentally, the naturally lit and ventilated studio collects rainwater and generates its own power, creating a carbon neutral building.
While retaining most building elements, creativity and structural innovation are embraced in the new components. The brick façade peels open to create windows and awnings. The studio stair is supported by an array of cables that forms balustrades and complements the existing roof trusses. The galvanised steel-framed windows are finely detailed and linked to an automated shaft and lever system. Over the workspace is a caretaker’s residence, made from four self-supporting brick catenary vaults, offset from each other to allow light in.
The Little National hotel rises 12 storeys above the Wynyard Walk Entry Building located on Clarence Street in Sydney’s northwest CBD. Its design aims to create a hotel that’s unique in structure, architecture and hospitality, offering everything that’s needed—and nothing that’s not.
The project brief called for a restrained, efficient design that seamlessly integrates architecture and interiors. Instead of acting as an end destination, the hotel’s design needed to generate a full city experience, where guests feel as if they’re part of theCBD. The small 800 sqm site footprint became the key element that unlocks this experience; it required precise planning, with every millimetre carefully allocated and optimised.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
Doma’s vision for the Little National Hotel has been realised in every minute detail of the architecture and interiors. A mix of well-designed spaces, highly thought-through finishes and materials, sustainably-conscious and locally sourced details, the hotel is an intensely urban experience and not just the end destination. Thanks to the way the Little National Hotel has been conceived by Bates Smart, guests are invited to be curious, to embrace new experiences and to fully live the city.
-Patrick Lonergan, Director of Hotels, Doma Group
Workshop, a new 8 storey fringe office building, echoes the warehouse heritage of the surrounding Pyrmont neighbourhood.It brings together large office spaces for global creative companies, small spaces for startups and shopfronts, an indoor/outdoor sunken café, a double height gym, and a childcare centre. Its expression is of its place, and its integrated interior supports 21st century whole wellbeing. Together, these design features stitch Workshop into the neighbourhood and allow the building to give back, enhancing Pyrmont’s fabric.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
Milligan Group’s intent from the start was to create the best campus-style creative building in Sydney and to respond to the wider needs of the Pyrmont precinct. Bates Smart has delivered a blueprint for how to create a true commercial community:one that supports its tenants so they thrive, increasing productivity and engagement for their employers. Workshops showcases a new era of best practice workplace design, bringing the creative feel of a contemporary warehouse to life. We have no doubt that Workshop will serve as a catalyst for Pyrmont’s transformation into a compelling destination.
-James Milligan, Managing Director, Milligan Group
BMW + MINI is a new flagship retail destination navigating a sloping site at the busy intersection of Darlinghurst, Rushcutters Bay and Kings Cross with an elevated split-level structure that presents as a series of grand display cases. Its renovation responds to the opportunity provided by the full demolition of the existing facility, which was no longer t for BMW’s operational requirements, to provide a state-of-the-art consolidated BMW + MINI headquarters reflecting the design ingenuity of this iconic brand.
Located in the Byron Bay Industrial Estate, the purpose-built brewery was designed to bring the Stone and Wood family under one roof. The brief was to create a new ‘spiritual home’ for the team; multi-functioning spaces for brewers, office/marketing teams, sales, maintenance and management staff whilst working as a gathering space/cellar door for the general public.
The design re-works the notion of the Australian Shed – a steel and timber structure that deconstructs as it opens to the north where the courtyard defines the entry, and greenery climbs the vertical timber screen. This space provides not only a transition from the carpark to the inner workings of the brewery, but an opportunity for passive and solar interventions. The ancillary brewhouse (the heart of the brewery) extrudes from the main shed – this south facing component boasts a glazed wall that allows pass-byers to see the functioning brewery.
Client perspective: How does the design benefiet the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
Rather than creating a monument to ourselves or our sporting prowess, we sought the space to be a celebration of movement and learning, which is exactly what it has become.
In the months since opening, it is now hard to imagine how the School operated without such a space, well-used by students, staff and members of the community alike, from early hours to well into the evening.
The surpassingly beautiful design and indefatigable attention to detail from the team at Neeson Murcutt + Neille will remain a gift to generations who may never fully realise to whom their thanks are due.
Client perspective:How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
Accommodating an incredibly complex research programme, discipline-specific laboratory spaces, technical support and office workspace, the Macquarie University Biological Sciences Building is home to the ARC Centre for Fruit Fly BiosecurityInnovation. It brings together Australia’s leading fruit y researchers in a single purpose-built facility on the North RydeCampus. The unique facility allows the researchers to focus on finding pesticide-free ways to control an insect which poses a significant threat to agriculture. HDR’s specialist lab and education planners designed a facility that meets these complex and unique research needs while providing future flexibility. The building is both beautiful and functional.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Project Discover, a close collaboration between Cox Architecture and Neeson Murcutt and Neille, follows Crystal Hall by Neeson Murcutt Architects that re-orientated the museum to William Street, its original frontage.
The design is highly strategic. It prioritises changes that will sustain the Museum into the long-term.
The project aspires to create a singular civic space giving a ‘heart’ to the Museum; reveal and celebrate the Museum’s rich historic layering; create legibility of movement – vertical and horizontal; enable universal public access throughout; and enhance the Museum’s engagement with William Street.
The new civic space is uncovered through the removal of The Still Addition mezzanine, while the new touring gallery is placed below this space through the relocation of 3 levels of storage. Crystal Hall is connected via a new generous threshold to the Museum. A new stair engages outwardly with the city – adding new ‘delight’ in movement through the Museum.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The design has opened-up the Australian Museum and helped achieve our goals of improving the visitor experience and attracting more visitors. The result is a new civic space for Sydney where visitors enjoy the architecture alongside the exhibitions.
Combining a sympathetic understanding of the cultural heritage of original buildings and additions, the 2020 design overlay reveals a new way to experience the nation’s first museum. Sight lines across vast spaces are revealed making wayfinding easier while heritage sandstone, previously hidden, is unveiled alongside modern inclusions.
The record attendance figures achieved in the first two months of reopening speak for themselves.”
Architects were tasked with a complex brief to contemporise the State’s High Court facilities, upgrading both the Supreme Court building, constructed in 1869 and the Sir Samuel Way Building. The skilful design solution needed to consider functional, operational and safety requirements while reconciling years of unsympathetic development across multiple buildings.
The result is a competent, articulate design that creates a new, legible single point of entry that flows through to an axial courtyard, cleverly landscaped to resolve levels, define new from old and offer contrast to the warm and sensitively lined new court rooms.
This adaptation is both poetic and pragmatic, innovatively restoring pride in the State’s Supreme Court.
Reid House is at the centre of the Sydney CBD where the business district meets the fashion strip. The project saw the ambitious restoration of the shop fronts, foyer and façade windows lost thirty years ago.
Based on original drawings, the design reinstated Edwardian shop fronts on the three original shopfronts. Acknowledging the conversion of the warehouse into offices in the 1930s, the barber shop and front door, and a spacious foyer have art deco detailing. The awning was stripped back to reveal its original structure. Modern metal windows on several floors were replaced with timber framed frames consistent with the surviving windows.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Project Discover, a close collaboration between Cox Architecture and Neeson Murcutt and Neille, follows Crystal Hall by Neeson Murcutt Architects that re-orientated the museum to William Street, its original frontage.
The design is highly strategic. It prioritises changes that will sustain the Museum into the long-term.
The project aspires to create a singular civic space giving a ‘heart’ to the Museum; reveal and celebrate the Museum’s rich historic layering; create legibility of movement – vertical and horizontal; enable universal public access throughout; and enhance the Museum’s engagement with William Street.
The new civic space is uncovered through the removal of The Still Addition mezzanine, while the new touring gallery is placed below this space through the relocation of 3 levels of storage. Crystal Hall is connected via a new generous threshold to the Museum. A new stair engages outwardly with the city – adding new ‘delight’ in movement through the Museum.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The design has opened-up the Australian Museum and helped achieve our goals of improving the visitor experience and attracting more visitors. The result is a new civic space for Sydney where visitors enjoy the architecture alongside the exhibitions.
Combining a sympathetic understanding of the cultural heritage of original buildings and additions, the 2020 design overlay reveals a new way to experience the nation’s first museum. Sight lines across vast spaces are revealed making wayfinding easier while heritage sandstone, previously hidden, is unveiled alongside modern inclusions.
The record attendance figures achieved in the first two months of reopening speak for themselves.”
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Our new studio is an innovative, sustainable and sculptural building, purpose-built for who we are and how we work. The design embraces the essence of industrial buildings from this precinct, apparent in the composition of the façade and materials. Structurally, it embraces the innovation and economy of industrial buildings. Environmentally, the naturally lit and ventilated studio collects rainwater and generates its own power, creating a carbon neutral building.
While retaining most building elements, creativity and structural innovation are embraced in the new components. The brick façade peels open to create windows and awnings. The studio stair is supported by an array of cables that forms balustrades and complements the existing roof trusses. The galvanised steel-framed windows are finely detailed and linked to an automated shaft and lever system. Over the workspace is a caretaker’s residence, made from four self-supporting brick catenary vaults, offset from each other to allow light in.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The project has developed our studio’s ambition to make, test, model and prototype new ideas, structures, technology and compositions. Constructed with durable materials, we hope that this will be our home until at least 2050, and for each element to last until that time.” “The construction team whole-heartedly embraced the ambition of the project and brought their skill and expertise to make the project far better than the lines on the page. And more rewarding than the building itself, was watching people take on the challenge and apply their trade to forms and details that they’d never built before.”
Carpe Diem is a unique collaborative workspace constructed by International Towers within the ITS T2 building at Barngaroo.
The centrepiece of the space is the companionway – a delicately engineered structure that functions as a stair, meeting and performance space. The design exploits its spectacular location high above the city to create a unique and rich spatial experience designed for collaboration and social interaction.
Rosewood Centre is a new sports and learning facility that gives public presence to Barker College at its eastern entry. A large building organised over 3 storeys it provides 5 multi-use sports courts, 12 classrooms, multi-use learning spaces, staff areas, a function room, fitness facilities, and parking. The building comprises 3 architectural elements – a light-filled Sports Hall, a canopy awning, and a carved linear ‘Field Building’ with smaller learning areas, social spaces, and balconies overlooking both the courts and fields. Direct circulation connects these elements making way finding easy. In this project structure characterises the interior, and interior atmospheres strengthen the spatial order – memorable and compelling. This is a building about space and movement. The Sports Hall is a new ‘public’ room for Barker that ‘celebrates sport for all’, hosting all-of-school assemblies, inter-school competition and daily sports learning.
In April 2019, the Opera House opened the doors to its redesigned function and events centre – the Yallamundi Rooms.
Located on the Northern Broadwalk, the venue sits inside the building, providing breathtaking views of Sydney’s Harbour.
The project involved removing an unsightly events marquee from the Northern Broadwalk, restoring the building’s original façade and ensuring the World Heritage-listed masterpiece can be enjoyed as architect Jørn Utzon intended.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, were appointed to the project, bringing meticulous attention to detail to ensure the venue respects the excellence and beauty of the World-Heritage listed building and retains significant heritage features by architects Jørn Utzon and Peter Hall, including o-form concrete walls, white birch moulded timber “wobbly” panels and pink granite terrazzo floors.
The project resulted in a flexible space, capable of subdivision, with floor-to-ceiling windows that provides a visual and physical connection to breathtaking views of Sydney’s Harbour.
Comprising a dramatic double-height living space, a cinema, and gym, a new garden pavilion gives another dimension to a heritage manor and makes a comfortable guest house when friends and family come to stay. Although new and old have very different styles, they are connected through careful planning and skilful craftsmanship and attention to detail.
The rounded concave and convex walls adjoin angles together to create sculptural rooms. These rooms celebrate the visual beauty of concrete, as a richly textured material bought to life with natural light. This is explored with the careful placement of windows at the end of corridors, on the sides of curves or side-lighting the room and ceilings in the main room. The austereness of this material, used on all walls and ceilings, is softened by light grey travertine floors and accents of stained walnut used in the joinery, stair and on the upper-level floor.
Porous House is a social experiment between two unrelated families (including the architect) working together on the regeneration of remnant rainforest in Bundjalung Country in the Byron Hinterland. A robust building designed to support active and creative living, it is highly tuned to its context in sympathetic and surprising ways. By the considered use of gates and perforated screens a shed-like façade opens to reveal three distinct volumes separated by lush courtyards. Connected by a dynamic breezeway or ‘mud room’, the bedrooms and living spaces draw on memories of cabins, motels and caravans. A playful ‘tower’ within the living volume loosely defines spaces that foster communal engagement or quite contemplation, while the eat-in kitchen recalls the camaraderie of school camps. All joinery, furniture and soft furnishings have been designed and made by the client team, achieving a rich personal interior palette in contrast with the landscape and the building’s exterior.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
We love the 1950’s bro houses that make up our little fishing/holiday village, it’s what attracted us to the area. So when we had to knock down the back at and out buildings because they were no longer habitable we were determined not to do something incongruous with the area and existing cottage.
The north facing concrete slab works beautifully keeping the living space warm in winter and cool in summer. The doors slide open so that you feel like you are outside when you are in and can work and cook without missing a turn at croquet or Finska.
Sydney Theatre Company (STC) Vision; “a place to continue creation of excellent experiences for audiences, artists, visitors and staff – all under one roof”.
STC is unique internationally housing all functions; set-production, rehearsal, theatres, administration and bar in this one incredible heritage-wharf harbour-front location – a place and a history worth preserving.The design response addressed needs for; growth and operational eciency for the next 30 years guided by three keyprinciples;1. Maintain “all-under-one-roof” STC philosophy – improve eciency and habitability2. Increase access to heritage volumes – improve diering spatial articulation3. Provide material distinctiveness between the old and new
Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre(GPARC) is located within the Green Square Town Centre, one of the largest urban regeneration sites in Australia. The winning entry in an international design competition, the project establishes a new recreational heart in an emerging urban context that will become the highest density neighbourhood in Australia. The program includes a combination of 5 pools (indoor and outdoor), a large health and fitness centre, and a park including a sporting eld, outdoor gym and outdoor BBQ’s.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
This project is part of the City of Sydney Green Square urban renewal project. Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre(PARC) is providing world-class community facilities to support this growing town centre.
The design was inspired by Sydney ocean pools and offers something for everyone from children playing and friends taking a dip to serious swimmers improving lap times.The site brings a hub of green, open space and recreation. It features plenty of outdoor space to relax and play in, including a synthetic sport eld and picnic facilities, fitness training circuit and multipurpose sports field.
Traditional Land Owners: Wonnarua People
Maitland Regional Athletics Complex (MRAC) is stage 2 of the implementation of the Maitland Sportsground recreational precinct masterplan.
MRAC also falls within the broader Central Maitland Structure Plan which sets out an ambitious vision, supported by key strategies to guide growth and development of one of the fastest growing municipalities in the state over the next 20 years. The athletics complex forms part of the East Central / Horseshoe Bend Precincts where the objectives are to focus and cultivate the educational, recreational, artistic, cultural and community role to service the whole of the Maitland LGA.
The close concentration of public and cultural buildings within this area offers the opportunity to form a key hub for the town and incorporate the Sportsground Precinct as a major piece of public space.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“Maitland Council now employs three full time architects, some for over 10 years. As part of this project a local architect, Studio Dot was also involved. This has enabled the organisation to drive quality design outcomes with the growing number of new community, cultural and recreational buildings in the LGA. The architects have ownership of the projects from the initial consultation process with user groups, maintenance staff and all management groups within the organisation through to handover to user groups. Feedback on the projects is used to assist in the design and documentation of future projects.”
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
The building does a fantastic job in fitting in with the unique landscape of Rocky Hill, whilst also blending in modern elements and finishes. Around 25,000 people visit our Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum each year and the expansion allows us to accommodate further touring groups, as well as attract touring exhibitions – in turn further lifting visitation numbers and the economic benefits for the region. Bob Kirk, Mayor Goulburn Mulwaree Council.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
The Hat Factory, built on Gadigal Land, has survived fire, police invasion, and countless parties…..It’s been a hat factory, a printers, a squat and a ‘social-centre’. Now it enters a new phase of its life.
The Hat Factory unpicks the romantic ideal of living in a warehouse.– the 2 dwellings are permeable rather than hermetic – they are more like a pair of glass houses held within a masonry slipper than loft style apartment building. As vessels for knowledge they retain memories of the past, at the same time offering a way to deliver compact, flexible urban living into the future.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“We wanted to create a home that was child friendly for all ages, with different spaces to entertain our family and friends. The home also needed to house the outdoor lifestyle equipment we enjoy.”
“The design has achieved this beautifully. The open flow from the kitchen, living, outdoor entertainment and pool connects us, but also allows us to be doing different things – cooking, reading, playing, watching TV or swimming. The orientation of the house onto the gardens help to give a sense of privacy.”
“The home has a calm feel to it, which is easy to relax in.”
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
From the onset we didn’t want a big footprint but a better footprint and a sense of the house being an extension of ourselves. It was designed around the way we live, and reflects our interests and values.
The four-storey bookcase to accommodate the only things we’ve both moved around with since teenage-hood, books. The deep pool with windows in the basement, bringing natural daylight to the basement. The use of natural materials that make the house warm and feel lived in even though it’s new. We were very keen on a connection and fluidity between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal and Wangal Peoples of the Eora Nation
A 1970s heritage-listed semi is re-engineered for contemporary family life. Keeping within the building footprint, architect Conrad Johnston has carved extra space and forged stronger connections to landscape and place, while maintaining the integrity of the original structure and material language.
Restoration of the superstructure included peeling out the perished interior linings, stripping back to the original concrete structures and replacing fixed windows with new, high-performance timber framed glass. This also helped to improve the overall thermal efficiency.
Connection to the landscape was enhanced by opening the house to natural air and rising the small sitting room to be level with the courtyard.
More space was created by converting the original air-conditioning plant on the lower ground level into two extra bedrooms and replacing the existing garage with a two bedroom apartment above. The interiors were redesigned to soften the geometry of the narrow grid with built-in furniture and joinery.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The SRG house is like a tree house, effortlessly opening up to the landscape giving the feeling of living outside which is perfect in the Sydney climate.
All the spaces, although they are compact in size, anticipate how you want to live, with inbuilt furniture and a material palette which is both contemporary yet complementary to the 1970 era home.
The house anticipates how you want to live. The winter morning sun streams into the kitchen when waking up and in the afternoon you can move the western living and terraces and watch the sunset over the Ironcove Bridge.”
Riley’s Terrace is a deeply personal project, it was the chance to be my own client during a time when I was heavily pregnant with my first child. It was also a time of not only personal uncertainty but global uncertainty and this helped shape various design elements throughout the build and ultimately restrict our initial budget aspirations.
Having lived in the terrace prior to the alteration, I felt it was most important to respond to the overall small-nature of the build area by addressing three critical areas. The provision of natural LIGHT, maximising the physical SPACE and establishing a CONNECTION back to the land and the fabric of Redfern.
Enabling natural light to filter into all parts of the terrace throughout the day was incredibly important, not only for practical reasons but particularly to help nurture my family’s wellbeing. Designing a central courtyard allowed Westerly light to filter through into the kitchen and Easterly light into the living room. A high rectangular window on the laneway façade maintains privacy but also provides the space with muted light as the afternoon sun draws low. A skylight in the stairwell disperses light throughout the upstairs spaces and helps us navigate the spiral as the sun shifts between the East and West.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
The completed project is a dream home. So many people pass by and offer such positive feedback on the renovation. To us, it is everything we could have wanted in our home for the future. We have a lift so we can grow old comfortably. The homeowners amazing light penetration and casts beautiful shadows at certain times of the day. William took into consideration heat from the west and made sure we did not have a problem with overheating. The revised plan is brilliant and my husband and our extended family utilise every space across the five levels.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
The unadorned high walls of our home and the substantial steel front door provide us with complete privacy and peace from the outside world, whilst still complimenting the shape of the surrounding historical buildings.
Within is designed for comfort, with each area accentuating a different advantage, whether it be the city views, northern sunlight or the seclusion of the courtyard. The layout is flexible enough to accommodate both work and relaxation. We spend most of our time on the middle floor and exterior deck which provides the perfect vantage for our two dogs to watch the world go by.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
We love the 1950’s bro houses that make up our little fishing/holiday village, it’s what attracted us to the area. So when we had to knock down the back at and out buildings because they were no longer habitable we were determined not to do something incongruous with the area and existing cottage.
The north facing concrete slab works beautifully keeping the living space warm in winter and cool in summer. The doors slide open so that you feel like you are outside when you are in and can work and cook without missing a turn at croquet or Finska.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
In a neighbourhood we have grown to love, we wanted a house to adapt to our ever-changing needs.
Panov + Scott’s design delivers a space that feels open and comfortable, yet intimate, enabling us to spill out into the courtyard beneath the ginkgo tree while entertaining, or simply enjoying time as a family.
It is the small details that bring most joy – the movement of light and shadow denoting the passage of time; the way we flow from one activity to the next with ease; the glimpses of the roof garden and beyond, serving as reminders of our little urban sanctuary.
Traditional Land Owners: The Guringai People
Pearl Beach house is the realisation of the clients dream, to build a bespoke, concrete sculpture in the bush, on a budget that demanded creative solutions.
The site is nestled amongst Burrawang scrubby woodland, rainforest species and ancient grass trees, on the edge of Pearl Beach village.
Inspired by the patch of blue sky amongst the dense tree canopy, the heavy masonry form wraps around this clearing, elevating living areas to capture the sun.
The carefully considered entry sequence defines the spatial arrangement of the building. This journey blurs the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces, to create connection to both bush and sky.
Off form concrete is used judiciously, mixed with low cost materials within a restrained palette. The predominance of grey textures enhances the homogenous sculptural quality of the building, considered bursts colour in the ceramics and heavily grained timber, ground the building in its bush surrounds.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The everyday is elevated as we walk through rooms and experience variations in light, mood and texture. Views of the bush have been selected and framed, which somehow feels more immersive. It’s impossible not to smile wide when bathing outdoors, in the elements. We feel part of what’s around us.
The experience of living in the space is transformational.
The house works as a unified whole, spatially because of how easy it is to open up to the outdoors and visually because of the consistent palette of materials. It induces calm, it allows us to be still and reflective.”
Traditional Land Owners: The Awabakal People
Whitebridge, near Newcastle was famous in the 1800’s for a 60 acre garden, ‘Bulls Gardens’. It was described at the time as a botanic wonderland of a large variety of plants, visited by national and international guests. We collectively set out on this project with the idea of arriving at a garden and the coastal view. The house bookends the garden as the headlands do the beach. A shared love of the war time coastal bunkers in Europe and Australia, and the climatic benet derived of integration with the landscape meant the house is half buried for climatic stability, bushfire protection and increased habitat and biodiversity. The house has hovering platforms of earth and planting, under which to shelter. The site is more landscape than house and the robustness of concrete endures the interaction with the surrounding geology and earth. The Danish client refers to the house as the ‘Bunkeren’.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“Our primary objective was to create a home that provided a balance of shared and private spaces for our large family. The communal areas flow seamlessly on the same level allowing family and guest to spend time together or seek intimate spaces. Our kids can play inside or in the garden within sight but without feeling watched. The bedrooms and work spaces are more secluded and give privacy. An escape into ones own space. The stone room and cellar are our hidden gems that we use as a quiet retreat individually or as a family.“
Traditional Land Owners: The Dharug and Gundungurra Peoples
Night Sky is future architecture – absolutely self-sufficient, power production design to last beyond 120 years. Flexibly planned, this home for a handicapped man presents a managed efficiency, long term flexibility and sensible restraint as an exemplar of the way we might consider future home models.
The open minded, intelligent client has a reputation for anticipating trends and his small humble abode reflects his nature and ambition; a pleasure to work with such educated support. The central vaulted room, his favoured form with supporting appropriately scaled adjoining annexes.
Much of the building is hand crafted by a team of remarkable makers – this house pursues an avenue of thinking that bridges past (ancient) with beyond (energy management). The client deserves accolades.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“A lifestyle change decided. A site selected. A brief defined : “Take me on an architectural journey that I would not have taken alone.”
I repose in total physical and spiritual communion with my home of multiple vistas. I am content and satisfied in my mountain cabin.“
Traditional Land Owners: Bundjalung People
The Federal House provides a vessel through which to enable habitation and the ongoing experience of a particular place and time. Within the folding hills of its hinterland site, the home acts as both experiential container for this place and as a conditioning object, consciously aware of its outsider status within the traditional ownership and legacy of this landscape.
The project establishes a relationship between “site and modifier”, between place and object, and is envisaged to enable multiple readings, from beyond and from within. A reverberation of the settler colonial homestead typology, the home carries verandah DNA into a tightly controlled envelope allowing modestly scaled living and bedrooms spaces to expand into a covered outdoor living space.
Grounding the project is a subterranean pool linked to a garden void at the heart of the home, and to a northern aperture framing the view to the valleys and hinterland horizon beyond.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
As the architect and owner, this was the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see if my wife and I could build an experimental home on a bush block that was as self-sufficient and low impact as possible. The aim was to create a small home to be used primarily, to start with, as a weekender to escape the city. The home needed to connect with nature on one hand while also close up when outside conditions aren’t favourable. The concept, inspired by the local sandstone caves, was for two opposing concrete skillion forms to both provide shelter and open onto the bush.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
The house connects us, day and night, to the beautiful landscape, nature and changing weather conditions outside.
The design allows our connection to the outside to vary dramatically, from completely open to a filtered sunlight through a dynamic series of screens on the western façade.
The mesmerising view of sacred Gulaga, amplified from the sunken living space, is a constant reminder of the traditional custodians of the land.
With shafts of morning sunlight, cool breezes through louvres, and the thermal mass of the rammed earth wall and concrete floors, living in the house is a joy year round.
This project is less about architectural design and more about the power we have as architects to help our neighbours. In the summer of 2019/2020 the Australian bushfires devastated so many communities, but none more so than Cobargo. Like everyAustralian, we at Breathe wanted to do what we could to help in the aftermath. To that end, we embarked on the Cobargo Santa Project, providing pro-bono Architectural services to the brave firefighter, Dave and his wife Barbara whose home had burnt to the ground. They are kind, generous people who have fostered over 400 children over the past 30 years. Dave is the town Santa. They are incredibly deserving people who found themselves starting from scratch.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
As a family holiday house, it was important to feel close to nature and relax. The house caters for varied and changing, family age groups and is inviting across seasons.
Ngaio accomplishes this with:
It is such a pleasure being able to spend time, both together and separately, in such a beautiful space.
Set in the hills in northern NSW the house has a wondrous view of the sea and sky, and sits on a hill set in a private rural setting. The changing phases of nature change the experience of living in this house from day to day. A contemplation space sits at the centre of the house, and there is a sense of calm and stillness throughout.
Ideas of connectivity with nature relate to the clients’ interest in the ideology of Indigenous peoples. The living area forms a protective wing to the north-easterly winds. Living areas are planned in a U shape around a central garden area. This accords a protected area when winds blow from the north-east. The scale of the house is intimate and engaging.
This is a house that generates its own electricity. Materials reflect ideas of connection to land and sustainment of life.
Newmarket, located on the former Inglis stables, stitches together past and present through its masterplan, high quality housing, retail, dining and public space. The Eastern Precinct is the development’s first completed stage.
Newmarket Residences, at the north end, encompasses 128 apartments and a new ground floor dining precinct in two 8-storey buildings. Open precast concrete frames interpret the architecture of the adjacent school whilst accommodating everyday life: dining below, apartments above. Simple apartment planning focuses on natural cross ventilation, framed picture windows and open corner balconies that look to the established tree canopy.
Four residential buildings, containing 165 apartments, compose Figtree Pocket at the south end. The buildings are defined by bold angled precast concrete blades that rise and fold to form elevated roofs. The polished precast’s warm white aggregate references Randwick’s traditional sandstone structures. The blades balance views and privacy and manage the sun, allowing residents to appreciate the landscape.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
At its heart Arkadia is about ecological sustainability and social sustainability.
The project by DKO Architecture, Breathe Architecture and Oculus is founded on three key design pillars: Community, Environment and Architecture.
Community: Arkadia is the result of considered community engagement and a holistic approach to creating a meaningful and accessible space for Alexandria locals.
Environment: Sustainability has been incorporated into every aspect of Arkadia, from extensive bike storage in the basement – far exceeding traditional requirements – to the vegetable gardens on the rooftop. The project has been designed to minimise CO2 emissions from the outset, by harnessing solar heat gain in the winter with a high thermally efficient envelope of half a million recycled bricks.
Architecture: DKO + Breathe felt strongly about creating a sense of place within Arkadia. The design focuses on creating shared experiences with an integration of green space via communal areas within the building.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“DHA’s role is to provide housing and related services to Defence members and their families. The design concept for Arkadia reects DHA’s goal to develop thriving and sustainable communities across Australia.
DKO together with Breathe Architecture, won a City of Sydney Design Excellence competition because of their design and detailing quality.
DKO’s vision for the use of recycled brick, acknowledging Alexandria’s brickworks heritage, resulted in a facade which is both extraordinary and functional. Connections between inside and outside spaces, and the provision of generous community amenity, encourages social interaction between neighbours – an important attribute for all DHA projects.“
Traditional Land Owners: The Kuring-gai People
Sited on one of Sydney’s iconic headlands, Harbord Diggers is surrounded by spectacular coastal sandstone formations and native coastal landscape.
After years of uncertainty, a building envelope and master plan was proposed by Architectus to comprehensively transform the site with a redevelopment that combined seniors living and a range of community facilities. With extensive community consultation, the resulting vision was to set a new direction for clubs in NSW – more family friendly and attuned to modern lifestyle.
Architectus + CHROFI + JMD design embedded the project into the natural environment, amplifying its beauty while exponentially expanding the club’s offer with seniors living apartments, retail, carparking, child-care, multigenerational sporting and fitness facilities and a food and beverage precinct with expansive outdoor terrace.
The outcome is testament to the master plan with a diverse set of facilities nestled gently into one of Sydney’s great coastal headlands.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The new venue, befitting the coastal location, has been embraced and adored by our local community since opening as a destination for all to enjoy – evidenced by membership growing exponentially from 20,000 in 2018 to 65,000 in 2021 while visitation levels have almost tripled.
The seamless transition from internal to external areas has provided the venue with greater flexibility, functionality and driven the customer experience, encouraging opportunity for customer engagements that have become a backdrop for social media posts.
As a result, the Club has become financially sustainable and a showpiece of the Club and Retirement Living industries.”
Situated on a prized corner site in a historic inner-city neighbourhood, 249 Darlinghurst Road reimagines an eclectic building in a leafy urban precinct. The three-storey build-to-rent development revitalises the street-level retail shop and converts former commercial spaces into apartments while inserting communal space and new apartments at the rear.
Heritage architectural layers – a once-grand Victorian villa and 1920s ‘shop top’ addition – have been revealed, restored and referenced in the design process. The Darlinghurst character and designed original use is conserved in this project to honour the character. Not a heritage listed site – the project was treated as so with an ambitious client and extended design process.The design taps into the creative history of the building and the sheer energy of the location – a well-trodden path through the cultural heart of Sydney – while delivering serene, private sanctuaries within a dense urban setting at the top of the town.
On a difficult triangular site in the coastal suburb of Newport on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Foamcrest Apartments is a form generated from the unique site. A composition of glazed bricks, o form concrete and sandstone, materials selected for their durability and appropriateness for the ocean side location, the seven apartments are 100% adaptable and differentiated by unique plans. With two prominent street fronts and a central lobby that is open to the sky, the design carefully balances solar access, privacy and outlook. With a nod to the rounded forms and aqueous colours of the proximate ocean worn coastline, the building celebrates the plastic qualities of concrete and the capabilities of the shimmering pale green bricks. The form emphasises a low profiled horizontality that is generally well below the height limit. The character of the building provides a fresh, contemporary and appropriate contribution to the locality.
Teracota is a residential development comprising 29 mostly large-format units and 1 retail space, located on Mitchell Rd inAlexandria. The project was designed as a quiet building, one that sits comfortably and respectfully in the street. The previous buildings on the site, a brick faced warehouse and 19th C corner former bank building presented an opportunity (and a justification) to replicate and reinforce the historical urban condition, with façades built hard to the boundary, rather than setback as prescribed by the controls, releasing the centre of the site for an unexpected, peaceful and quiet landscaped courtyard.
Materiality and a clean, refined modularity of structure was the key driver for the architectural resolution of the design. The street walls are not solid, but designed as a “teracota” filigree element, providing both privacy and security for the residents, whilst allowing for social activation and engagement with the street.
The Apartment Building designed at 22 Llanda Street is imbued with architectural and urban qualities, articulated expressed construction, with superior low-tech environmental performance and heightened liveability.
Situated on a narrow 458m2 site on Bondi Junction’s eastern edge, the building is a slim-line 9-storey block, set in gardens all around, topped by communal roof terraces.
The building has a rigorous tectonic order, in which every element and material has its logical place. The façades have a carefully articulated massing, with the primary frame of expressed concrete blades and projecting slab edges and hoods.
Within this primary structural order sit infill elements including lightweight panelised cladding, windows and doors, adjustable external louvres and aluminium balustrades.
In every aspect of its design, environmental performance and construction, the building prioritises a high degree of amenity allied to the architectural character. The project is a prototype for infill apartment buildings.
Traditional Land Owners: The Wiradjuri People
We live in a disposable society based on the excessive production of disposable goods, largely fuelled by plastics. The Plastic Palace, a temporary pavilion and material research for Murray Art Museum Albury confronts the impacts of this way of life, by inviting the public to step inside 20 tonnes of discarded plastic, the typical amount of plastic waste discarded by a regional Australian town in just one month, and reflect on the scale of the waste problem created by their discarded possessions.
Construction materials contribute up to a quarter of the worlds greenhouse emissions and landfill waste. This project attempts to influence the discourse and explore ways architects can use design thinking to mitigate some of these impacts, and work towards a sustainable built environment.
Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“Plastic Palace was commissioned by Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), to develop the inaugural summer place pavilion and exhibition. MAMA’s brief was for a place to provide refuge from the sun while exploring the artists interest in sustainability and materials. MAMA worked closely with the architect providing access and support to collaborate with Albury Councils waste management centre to help the council achieve their ambitious goal of halving waste by 2020, through education and recycling systems.“
Broken Camp utilises BlueScope REDCORE weathering steel HW350 as one of only 3 key materials. REDCORE plays the leadrole, alongside native hardwood and grey concrete, bringing natural texture, colour and durability to the rural site.
REDCORE is primarily used as ultra thin cladding and enclosure, like a tent canvas stretched over poles. With a simple folded edge detail to provide rigidity and by utilising identical wall and roof panels, efficiency of fabrication and installation were ensured with minimal wastage.
For Broken Camp, REDCORE is also utilised as landscape edging, cladding for a pizza oven and as custom candle holders —demonstrating the versatility of weathering steel and bringing cohesion to the architecture.
Sustainably durable, REDCORE beautifully complements the Australian rural landscape as it ages, a key consideration for this project. With this truly maintenance-free material, Broken Camp should provide decades of use with zero ongoing costs or resources consumption.
The Nicholson Galleries are the new home for the University of Sydney’s extensive collection of ancient Egyptian, Greek andItalian antiquities, within the university’s new purpose-built Chau Chak Wing Museum. The six exhibition spaces across Level2 create an atmospheric experience that brings the stories of these ancient cultures to the public through techniques of light, colour, volume and texture.
Taking inspiration from classical architecture and construction methods as well as contemporary art and scenography, the Nicholson Galleries establish an immersive and emotive approach to the relationship between visitors and objects, in which massive walls are bisected by light, ethereal visions oat in and out of existence behind mirrors, and rough textured walls are punctured by rich gold niches.
Through an experiential approach, and the close integration of allied disciplines, curators and conservators, the NicholsonGalleries aims to engage visitors with ancient cultures in new ways.
In a remote location in the Royal National Park, Wattamolla is a beautiful and popular picnic and camping area, boasting a waterfall, lagoon, cove and beach. Meaning ‘place near running water’ to the traditional Dharawal custodians, this place is favoured by beach goers and bushwalkers alike.
CM+ was commissioned by NPWS to design new visitor facilities to replace two existing outdated amenity blocks. The design principals centred on sustainability and durability through integration with the landscape, passive design principles, renewable energy and material selection.
Promoting the building function through legibility and clear, graphic signage were key components of the brief, and the facility is designed with segregation for male and female, and a shared central communal hand wash area.
A landscape masterplan was undertaken by Context Landscape Design, and CM+ have sensitively designed the new facilities to be consistent with the masterplan and sit elegantly within the natural bushland setting.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Our new studio is an innovative, sustainable and sculptural building, purpose-built for who we are and how we work. The design embraces the essence of industrial buildings from this precinct, apparent in the composition of the façade and materials. Structurally, it embraces the innovation and economy of industrial buildings. Environmentally, the naturally lit and ventilated studio collects rainwater and generates its own power, creating a carbon neutral building.
While retaining most building elements, creativity and structural innovation are embraced in the new components. The brick façade peels open to create windows and awnings. The studio stair is supported by an array of cables that forms balustrades and complements the existing roof trusses. The galvanised steel-framed windows are finely detailed and linked to an automated shaft and lever system. Over the workspace is a caretaker’s residence, made from four self-supporting brick catenary vaults, offset from each other to allow light in.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The project has developed our studio’s ambition to make, test, model and prototype new ideas, structures, technology and compositions. Constructed with durable materials, we hope that this will be our home until at least 2050, and for each element to last until that time.” “The construction team whole-heartedly embraced the ambition of the project and brought their skill and expertise to make the project far better than the lines on the page. And more rewarding than the building itself, was watching people take on the challenge and apply their trade to forms and details that they’d never built before.”
This project is less about architectural design and more about the power we have as architects to help our neighbours. In the summer of 2019/2020 the Australian bushfires devastated so many communities, but none more so than Cobargo. Like everyAustralian, we at Breathe wanted to do what we could to help in the aftermath. To that end, we embarked on the Cobargo Santa Project, providing pro-bono Architectural services to the brave firefighter, Dave and his wife Barbara whose home had burnt to the ground. They are kind, generous people who have fostered over 400 children over the past 30 years. Dave is the town Santa. They are incredibly deserving people who found themselves starting from scratch.
Traditional Land Owners: The Dharug and Gundungurra Peoples
Night Sky is future architecture – absolutely self-sufficient, power production design to last beyond 120 years. Flexibly planned, this home for a handicapped man presents a managed efficiency, long term flexibility and sensible restraint as an exemplar of the way we might consider future home models.
The open minded, intelligent client has a reputation for anticipating trends and his small humble abode reflects his nature and ambition; a pleasure to work with such educated support. The central vaulted room, his favoured form with supporting appropriately scaled adjoining annexes.
Much of the building is hand crafted by a team of remarkable makers – this house pursues an avenue of thinking that bridges past (ancient) with beyond (energy management). The client deserves accolades.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“A lifestyle change decided. A site selected. A brief defined : “Take me on an architectural journey that I would not have taken alone.”
I repose in total physical and spiritual communion with my home of multiple vistas. I am content and satisfied in my mountain cabin.“
Traditional Land Owners: The Wiradjuri People
We live in a disposable society based on the excessive production of disposable goods, largely fuelled by plastics. The Plastic Palace, a temporary pavilion and material research for Murray Art Museum Albury confronts the impacts of this way of life, by inviting the public to step inside 20 tonnes of discarded plastic, the typical amount of plastic waste discarded by a regional Australian town in just one month, and reflect on the scale of the waste problem created by their discarded possessions.
Construction materials contribute up to a quarter of the worlds greenhouse emissions and landfill waste. This project attempts to influence the discourse and explore ways architects can use design thinking to mitigate some of these impacts, and work towards a sustainable built environment.
Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“Plastic Palace was commissioned by Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA), to develop the inaugural summer place pavilion and exhibition. MAMA’s brief was for a place to provide refuge from the sun while exploring the artists interest in sustainability and materials. MAMA worked closely with the architect providing access and support to collaborate with Albury Councils waste management centre to help the council achieve their ambitious goal of halving waste by 2020, through education and recycling systems.“
We challenged ourselves to design, build and develop high-density, net-positive, low-energy, bespoke dwellings on a tight city block. After five years of research, analysis, design, innovation, financing, construction, and evaluation; we emerged with the Southern Hemisphere’s first Passivhaus Certified apartment building, The FERN.
Energy efficiency, filtered air free of allergens and pollutants, quiet and delightfully detailed interiors, and the city on the doorstep, are all achieved sans use of fossil fuels. Its sustainable, carbon neutral accommodation made luxe.
Providing peacefully quiet, thermally comfortable, naturally-lit, dust and pollution free homes and constant filtered fresh-air supply overcomes the need to be close to employment, recreation and the buzz of the city – and being stuck with noise, pollution and compromised amenity.
Once people experience beautiful, functional, sustainable spaces for living and working, market demand will grow, driving early-adopters in the industry to gain market edge – improving performance and reducing environmental impact of buildings.
Porous House is a social experiment between two unrelated families (including the architect) working together on the regeneration of remnant rainforest in Bundjalung Country in the Byron Hinterland. A robust building designed to support active and creative living, it is highly tuned to its context in sympathetic and surprising ways. By the considered use of gates and perforated screens a shed-like façade opens to reveal three distinct volumes separated by lush courtyards. Connected by a dynamic breezeway or ‘mud room’, the bedrooms and living spaces draw on memories of cabins, motels and caravans. A playful ‘tower’ within the living volume loosely defines spaces that foster communal engagement or quite contemplation, while the eat-in kitchen recalls the camaraderie of school camps. All joinery, furniture and soft furnishings have been designed and made by the client team, achieving a rich personal interior palette in contrast with the landscape and the building’s exterior.
Minima is a cleverly compact and crafted small-footprint home: a ‘tiny house’, rural retreat, suburban studio, or backyard room. As an architecturally-designed, prefabricated house, it is smart, sustainable, and meticulously built.
There are many versions of Minima, designed to suit sites ranging from inner-city laneways to o-grid country lots. The original, 20sqm Minima stitches in a kitchen, bathroom, and flexible living and sleeping space. The double version, comprising 40sqm, links two modules into a T-shaped compact house.
The resulting design is simple and elegant, flexible and functional. Built-in cupboards wrap the room’s edge, creating an open, transformable centre. Wet areas are clustered to one side, with a bathroom tucked behind the kitchen. This ensures thatMinima has a home for everything, all within a deceptively tiny footprint.
Minima’s base module is built from highly sustainable cross-laminated timber. Elsewhere, the palette is deliberately restrained to make Minima feel uncluttered and calm.
Courtyard House is a prefabricated, o grid, modern interpretation of the Australian rural home that provides a high-quality housing option for remote country areas.
The house features two offset modules for living and sleeping organised between a courtyard and veranda to give the house a generous sense of space with strong connection to the landscape.
The exterior has a calming presence with its elegant proportions and repetitive hardwood cladding detail and with no sense of a front, back or side, the house feels well suited in any setting.
Solar power and rainwater harvesting are neatly integrated into the core of the house.
The design optimises the factory construction process to embed finely crafted, bespoke details within the house. The fixed and sliding screens, the renewed windows and attention to detail with the interior t-out each combine to give the house a sense of quality not normally seen with prefabricated housing.
Traditional Land Owners: The Cammeraygal People
Opened to the public for the first time in over 150 years, Sub Base Platypus provides a rich overlay of its industrial and naval history. Located on the shores of Neutral Bay, it has been a gas works, a Naval Base providing torpedo maintenance and HMAS Platypus submarine base; before passing to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
In 2016 lahznimmo architects and Aspect Studios were engaged by the Trust to develop the outcomes proposed in the Trust’s Comprehensive Plan. The site is now open to the public with a series of interlinked public parks and plazas, a pedestrian bridge to Kersterton Park, a grand stair climbing the cliff face to Kiara Close and a passenger lift campanile. Super graphics facing the new FIMA Courtyard recall the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ camouflage technique used by naval vessels to confuse prowling submarines. The industrial buildings have been repurposed for complementary commercial uses.
Traditional Land Owners: The Kuring-gai People
Sited on one of Sydney’s iconic headlands, Harbord Diggers is surrounded by spectacular coastal sandstone formations and native coastal landscape.
After years of uncertainty, a building envelope and master plan was proposed by Architectus to comprehensively transform the site with a redevelopment that combined seniors living and a range of community facilities. With extensive community consultation, the resulting vision was to set a new direction for clubs in NSW – more family friendly and attuned to modern lifestyle.
Architectus + CHROFI + JMD design embedded the project into the natural environment, amplifying its beauty while exponentially expanding the club’s offer with seniors living apartments, retail, carparking, child-care, multigenerational sporting and fitness facilities and a food and beverage precinct with expansive outdoor terrace.
The outcome is testament to the master plan with a diverse set of facilities nestled gently into one of Sydney’s great coastal headlands.
Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The new venue, befitting the coastal location, has been embraced and adored by our local community since opening as a destination for all to enjoy – evidenced by membership growing exponentially from 20,000 in 2018 to 65,000 in 2021 while visitation levels have almost tripled.
The seamless transition from internal to external areas has provided the venue with greater flexibility, functionality and driven the customer experience, encouraging opportunity for customer engagements that have become a backdrop for social media posts.
As a result, the Club has become financially sustainable and a showpiece of the Club and Retirement Living industries.”
Taronga Zoo’s new African Savannah Precinct is conceived as a conceptual ‘Journey to Africa’ where multi-species exhibits take the form of authentic habitats enhanced by natural, vernacular visitor facilities and state-of-the-art operational back of house areas.
Strategised as a sequence of landscapes, the story of iconic African animals facing extinction is interpreted as an immersive experience, putting animals at the centre of the designed space, whilst providing optimised animal welfare and authentic visitor engagement.
New and greatly enlarged exhibit areas for Girae, Zebra, Lion, Fennec Fox and Meerkats include intensive African landscapes. A range of viewing shelters capturing iconic Harbour and animal vistas along an upgraded and fully-accessible visitor public domain are backed up by new operational and service facilities, all meeting strict animal care standards. The new Precinct brings together those who visit, those who inhabit the Zoo and those who advocate for action beyond the Zoo.
The Putney Hill Masterplan was delivered over 10 years, encapsulates a blending of architecture and landscape design to establish a thriving landscape master planned community centred around substantial new parklands, playgrounds, pocket parks, fitness trails and new streets – all within an existing undulating typography.
The transformation of Putney Hill has seen the careful development of a disused and surplus hospital site into a 13.9-hectare landscape masterplan community comprising of 791 dwellings.
Across this unique landscaped setting, density is carefully managed to maximise the quality and extent of public domain and parklands.
A wide range of apartments, town houses and single dwellings have been designed across the site, seamlessly integrate with the natural landscape and taking advantage of the undulating typography.
The built form is designed to fit comfortably within the overall setting of a richly landscaped public domain.
Traditional Land Owners: The Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
Project Discover, a close collaboration between Cox Architecture and Neeson Murcutt and Neille, follows Crystal Hall by Neeson Murcutt Architects that re-orientated the museum to William Street, its original frontage.
The design is highly strategic. It prioritises changes that will sustain the Museum into the long-term.
The project aspires to create a singular civic space giving a ‘heart’ to the Museum; reveal and celebrate the Museum’s rich historic layering; create legibility of movement – vertical and horizontal; enable universal public access throughout; and enhance the Museum’s engagement with William Street.
The new civic space is uncovered through the removal of The Still Addition mezzanine, while the new touring gallery is placed below this space through the relocation of 3 levels of storage. Crystal Hall is connected via a new generous threshold to the Museum. A new stair engages outwardly with the city – adding new ‘delight’ in movement through the Museum.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“The design has opened-up the Australian Museum and helped achieve our goals of improving the visitor experience and attracting more visitors. The result is a new civic space for Sydney where visitors enjoy the architecture alongside the exhibitions.
Combining a sympathetic understanding of the cultural heritage of original buildings and additions, the 2020 design overlay reveals a new way to experience the nation’s first museum. Sight lines across vast spaces are revealed making wayfinding easier while heritage sandstone, previously hidden, is unveiled alongside modern inclusions.
The record attendance figures achieved in the first two months of reopening speak for themselves.”
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
The building does a fantastic job in fitting in with the unique landscape of Rocky Hill, whilst also blending in modern elements and finishes. Around 25,000 people visit our Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum each year and the expansion allows us to accommodate further touring groups, as well as attract touring exhibitions – in turn further lifting visitation numbers and the economic benefits for the region. Bob Kirk, Mayor Goulburn Mulwaree Council.
The area known as Waterloo was once wetlands that drained to Botany Bay with an abundance of fresh water, flora and fauna. During the 20th century the area has undergone major transformation from often-noxious industry moving through to more recently, redevelopment through a masterplan set out by the City of Sydney converting the land to an urban village and weaving back into the surrounding fabric.
Sitting at the end of a new linear public park, our ambition for Waterfall was to contribute to the village – to create a series of buildings that fold energy inwards for the enjoyment of residents and outwards for the benefit of the community. The development comprises three 7-storey buildings and a 20-storey tower arranged around wetlands and parklands.
Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre(GPARC) is located within the Green Square Town Centre, one of the largest urban regeneration sites in Australia. The winning entry in an international design competition, the project establishes a new recreational heart in an emerging urban context that will become the highest density neighbourhood in Australia. The program includes a combination of 5 pools (indoor and outdoor), a large health and fitness centre, and a park including a sporting eld, outdoor gym and outdoor BBQ’s.
Client perspective: How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
This project is part of the City of Sydney Green Square urban renewal project. Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre(PARC) is providing world-class community facilities to support this growing town centre.
The design was inspired by Sydney ocean pools and offers something for everyone from children playing and friends taking a dip to serious swimmers improving lap times.The site brings a hub of green, open space and recreation. It features plenty of outdoor space to relax and play in, including a synthetic sport eld and picnic facilities, fitness training circuit and multipurpose sports field.
Alexander Symes Architect was founded in 2014 with a mission to advance sustainable architecture. The world’s climate is changing and we believe that architecture must lead the way in changing how we utilise resources to contribute to a sustainable future. This vision for sustainable architecture is layered through all aspects of Alex’s practice and through all the stages of his projects. This starts with the examination of a project brief to ensure the grounding principles of a project support a sustainable way of life. As the project takes shape, Alex deploys his depth of technical expertise realise the project to its full potential.
Alex’s technical expertise in building physics and facade system design is built on the experience he gained working in Arup building physic and facade engineer teams from 2010-2014. He has hands-on experience with construction and design for manufacture and assembly and a passion for how buildings are crafted. Alex has specialist training in the design and delivery of passive houses which we believe offer a pathway towards exceptionally comfortable and high performance homes. Alex loves to collaborate with like-minded individuals and to test the boundaries of how he can challenge the status quo to advance sustainable architecture.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
