All posts by Rey
Commercial Bay – Te Toki i te Rangi

Warren and Mahoney in collaboration with Woods Bagot and NH Architecture
New Zealand/Aotearoa


Accounting for an entire city block at the heart of a rapidly evolving city, Commercial Bay delivers far-reaching urban design, transport, workplace and experiential outcomes, influencing Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland far beyond its physical boundaries.

Designed by Warren and Mahoney in association with Woods Bagot and NH Architecture, Commercial Bay occupies 97,500 square metres at the foot of Auckland’s Queen Street, where the historic ‘mercantile axis’ meets the emergent ‘waterfront axis’. It is a pivotal site which connects with Auckland’s sense of self as a waterfront city with a rich history as a place of trade and connection between cultures.
The project scope comprises the City Rail Link tunnels, a new 38-storey commercial tower, a three-level retail precinct and public laneway network.

The nine-year design-led project commenced prior to site acquisition, and traversed master-planning, feasibility, urban design, architecture, base build interiors, leasing, wayfinding, design guidelines and artwork integration.

Its context exists at two scales – that of the skyline, and that of the street. Each of these contexts is vital, but the primary opportunity became the urban outcome – and the way in which the project could be truly transformational for the city experience.

Commercial Bay draws inspiration from urban regeneration projects in Melbourne, London, and Munich – but combines these influences with local narratives to deliver an outcome which is distinctively of and for Auckland.

The urban response conceives of the overall block as a series of related but individual buildings. The intention is to dissolve thresholds, break down the scale, celebrate the streets, enhance connectivity and create a seamless extension of the urban experience.

 

Finishes: SCE, The Tile People, Prodema Prodex, Thermosash Commercial Ltd.

 

Photography: Giulia Caponnetto, Incredible Images Ltd, Simon Devitt, Jono Parker, Sam Gould.
The Hedberg

LIMINAL Architecture with WOHA
Australia


Consolidating an important urban nexus of Hobart, Tasmania, The Hedberg vision presents a culturally significant performing and creative arts destination and education precinct that fuels Tasmania’s cultural offering in a contemporary global context.

Co-located with the Theatre Royal, the oldest operating theatre in Australia, The Hedberg integrates a thriving music and performance hub that is fuelled by the provision of multiple bespoke performance venues, a cutting edge recording suite, cascading foyers and roof decks stimulating engagement and performance opportunities, front and back of house support spaces, creative workshop laboratories, rehearsal spaces, integration of the heritage-listed Hedberg Garage and universal access to all levels of the Theatre Royal for the first time. Digital and new media technologies facilitate local and global collaborations and exchange.

The push and pull of form responds to the rhythm and scale of the urban context and heritage precinct, with the glazed main entry anchoring the corner of the building, responding to the heritage buildings’ scale bookending the development. The cladding provides a neutral backdrop to the texture, colour and detail of the heritage buildings; its reflectivity de-materialises the mass reflecting its surrounds and shifts with the time of day and season. Scaling devices amplify the visual independence of the heritage buildings while creating a soft urban edge, humanising the building’s scale in the public realm.

The design strategy evokes a sense of the theatrical activities inside. The cladding suggests a shimmering theatrical curtain, the exterior sparkle takes its cue from the opalescence of abalone shells, traditionally used to carry fire, acknowledging the significance of fire in cultural exchange and the role it continues to play as the original natural ‘theatre’ for storytelling.

Interpretive layers are interwoven into the built fabric as salvaged materials and archaeological fragments found onsite are exposed, reused, integrated into floor finishes, tracing footprints of the past or presented as sculptural forms in wall panels to reflect stories within stories. The Hedberg adds a contemporary layer to the site’s evolution, translating stories of the past overlayed with aspirations of the future, deepening an understanding of place.

The project was delivered through a partnership between the University of Tasmania, the Theatre Royal and the Tasmanian and Australian governments.

 

Furniture: Derlot, Simon Ancher, Cult, Interstudio. Lighting: Various. Finishes: Various. Fittings & Fixtures: Various.

 

Photography: Natasha Mulhall.
Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street

Bates Smart
Australia


The Hilton Melbourne Little Queen Street incorporates the refurbished 1931 Equity Trustees building with an additional six levels as well as a new 16-level tower to the rear. Overall, the development includes 244 hotel rooms and 10 suites, a signature restaurant and sophisticated cocktail bar, alongside guest amenities such as gym, meeting rooms and function spaces.

The heritage building provided inspiration for the overall design. Many of the original details have been restored and interior spaces impart the elegance and glamour of a bygone era, but with a distinctly modern interpretation.
Mindful of the character of the site, the new addition provides a respectful backdrop to the existing building. The extra levels and tower reference the geometry and rhythm of the original building, thereby creating a synergetic relationship between old and new.

The hotel’s premium hospitality offerings are accessed via the heritage building on Bourke Street. This allows the venues to create an identity separate from the hotel and to also attract the general public.

Access to hotel reception is via the entry on Little Queen Street, which activates a previously underutilised laneway. Here, the porte-cochere is distinguished by a dynamic bronze and gold glass screen, alongside two grand columns which reference the entry of the heritage building. By locating the hotel entry on Little Queen, the design taps into the city’s renowned laneway culture and delivers a quintessentially Melbourne experience.

 

Furniture: Top Knot, Tivoli Intl. Lighting: Anova, Aglo. Finishes: Stanmore, Brintons, Contemporary Leathers. Fittings & Fixtures: Top Knot, Tivoli.

 

Photography: Paul Gosney, Sean Fennessy, Kristoffer Paulsen.
8 Loftus Street, Quay Quarter Lanes

Studio Bright
Australia


Quay Quarter Lanes is the rejuvenation of a city block in the heart of Sydney City. The project comprises a collection of new and restored buildings, laneways and arcades – all by different architects working alongside each other. Responding to the precinct masterplan, each architect was responsible for the design of one building, mindful of its neighbours while celebrating its own distinct identity.

Our building at 8 Loftus Street is squeezed between Customs House and the Gallipoli Memorial Club, maintaining continuity of the building line and massing of this historic thoroughfare.

Two levels of retail spaces form a base for 31 apartments housed over six upper levels. An arcade link marries the busy street to the inner laneway refuge. Upper level restaurants lead the eye up to tucked-away spaces for exploration and respite. The whole is capped by a roof space brought to life with a recreational roof garden for the use of all residents.

Formally, the new building shifts and folds, fluidly responding to spatial influences and contextual constraints. Mass appears polished and “ground away’’ with setbacks swelling and receding, softening the transitions by gently sliding back from the street façade line. In reference to nearby heritage buildings, corners gently curve and sweep, suggestive of quieter spaces in the laneway just around the corner. Richly inhabited edges provide spaces to sit with your back to the wall.

 

Furniture: Grazia & Co, Tait. Lighting: Apparatus, Lambert & Fils, Living Edge, Vibia, Koda Lighting, Anchor Ceramics, Grazia & Co, Flos, Euroluce, Astro, Caribou. Finishes: Austral Bricks, Brickworks Building Products, Metrix, Shutterflex, Interpon, Briggs Veneer, Dulux, Plank. Fittings & Fixtures: Miele appliances, Gaggenau appliances, Fisher & Paykel fridge, Blum joinery fittings, Astrawalker.

 

Photography: Rory Gardiner.
Shepparton Art Museum

Denton Corker Marshall
Australia


The design of Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) is characterised by simplicity and clarity, with compelling imagery creating a landmark cultural destination for Shepparton. The scheme was won in a limited competition. It includes an art museum, Visitors’ Information Centre, Kaiela Arts Aboriginal community arts centre and 120 person event space able to operate out of hours for conferences, weddings and social occasions, all within a 5,000 square metre cubic form.
SAM is located on the approach to the town centre, within a popular park within the flat Goulbourn River Plain.

A restricted ground floor, necessary due to a floodway across the site, was turned into a design opportunity – a small footprint was extruded vertically over five levels to generate the distinctive small-and-tall art museum. The design is ingeniously integrated into the park via a dramatic “Art Hill”, which screens all building services, back-of-house and loading dock under the expanded parkland. The Art Hill has the advantage of effectively creating an upper ground level enabling the museum cafe to enjoy an elevated outlook while being directly connected to, and accessible from, the park.

Four different galleries, totalling 800 square metres, are accommodated. Two of the galleries are designed to ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air conditioning Engineers) Class AA standard to be able to accommodate exhibitions on loan from premium museums and galleries. The façades of SAM comprise four thin floating L-shaped plates suspended in the landscape. They group together, at different heights and contrasting materiality, to form a composition at a scale comparable to the river red gums. By subverting the expression of built form into a composition of abstract sculptural elements, scale becomes indeterminate.

SAM is a building whose physical form is surrendered to a shifting play of colour and patina that changes with the weather and time of day. It is simultaneously powerful and recessive. SAM is a distinctive small-and-tall art museum: a space of contrasts, reflection and discovery, and full of delight.

 

Furniture: Jardan, Didier, James Richardson Furniture, Les Sinclair Design Studio. Lighting: iGuzzini.

 

Photography: John Gollings (Image 1), Tim Griffith (Image 2-4).
Te Ara Ātea (Selwyn Library and Community Centre)

Warren and Mahoney
New Zealand/Aotearoa


Te Ara Ātea, is a new library, community and performance facility. It is the anchor landmark building for the future Rolleston Town Centre, situated on what is currently Rolleston Reserve in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Aotearoa New Zealand.

Following Selwyn District Council’s extensive community consultation, Warren and Mahoney utilised this vital local knowledge to form the backbone of the briefing and design process, delivering a community facility that is directly formed from its community’s needs.

Te Ara Ātea acts as a beacon, not only in location, but for the diverse and growing Selwyn District community it serves. The design of the building has a strong community focus and challenges the typical preconceptions of a ”library”. Selwyn District Council and the collaboration of the wider design team worked hard to connect community needs with cultural heritage at all levels. The result is not only a library but a flexible, multi-purpose community and performance space that acts as a hybrid museum and live history tour.

A primary structure of the building is the steel frame to meet the client’s requirements for large, uncluttered areas for maximum future flexibility. External walls are timber framed with glazing and are clad in custom designed scalloped aluminium panels and solar shade louvres. The semi-polished silver anodised finish was developed especially for the project in conjunction with the façade engineers and the aluminium suppliers. The shimmering reflections created by the cladding are intended to evoke the rippled surface of the braided rivers that are unique to the Canterbury plains and hold cultural importance to local iwi.

Furniture: Aspect Furniture, Harrows, Hay, Cult, Sancal, UFL, Billiani, Unison Workspaces, Noom, Kada, +Halle, Bishops Interiors, Swiss Design, Zenith Interiors, Porcini, Fletcher Design, Luxxbox, Vidak.

 

Finishes: Autex Industries, Prime Panels, Autex Industries, Jacobsen, Inzide, Heritage Carpets, Belgotex, Jacobsen, Inzide, Decortech, Creative Flooring, Prime Panels, Dulux, Resene. Fittings & Fixtures: Caroma, Mico, Ondo, Plumbline, Robique, Heritage Hardware, Bili, Supreme.

 

Photography: Grant Davis, Ian Hutchinson, Simon Devitt.
Wangaratta Street

MAArchitects
Australia


Wangaratta Offices has been designed to nurture the philosophy that architecture is responsible for the development of a more sustainable built environment. Incorporating a complexity of intents manifested through robust yet refined aesthetic values and pragmatics, the development fosters holistic workplace practices.

Located in Melbourne’s diverse and dense inner-urban Richmond, the boutique commercial office space is a striking brutalist inspired addition to its industrial neighbourhood. Negotiating workplace wellness alongside activation of the public realm, and deeply considered tenant flexibility, the six-storey building achieves a future-proofed relevance allowing it to evolve alongside tenants from myriad industries and scales.

Constructed primarily of concrete, the façade is a study of mass and void. Large windows of irregular width expose “Juliet” style balconies at every level. The chamfered columns are offset to maintain the façade composition and generate areas of light and shadow in changing light conditions. The deep reveals conceal operable blinds to protect the main façade from the western sun. The singular form has two distinct massing strategies which relate to the east and west context respectively. Although it is anticipated that the building will eventually be built up on both sides it has been designed as a cohesive form rather than two disengaged facades.

Through innovative schematics that navigate indoor and outdoor space, the orchestration of natural light and shade, and an intelligent balance between productivity inducing design and social amenity, Wangaratta Offices stand as testament to abiding workplaces designed to respond to and bolster the needs of inhabitants and community alike.

 

Lighting: JAZ, Inlite, Fresnel, Euroluce. Finishes: Fibonacci Stone, Signorino, Plank Floors. Fittings & Fixtures: Brodware, Streamline.

 

Photography: Derek Swalwell.
Wesley Place – 130 Lonsdale Street

COX Architecture in collaboration with Lovell Chen
Australia


130 Lonsdale is the first new building of the broader Wesley Place precinct, located on the historically and contextually significant 1.1-hectare site in Melbourne’s CBD. It comprises 60,000 square metres of premium commercial space across 35 levels of campus-style floorplates, plus 1,820 square metres of retail and public spaces that sit among the precinct’s existing heritage fabric.

The ground-level experience is anchored by the sky lobby, a sculptural canopy that references the parabolic geometries of the existing gothic revival buildings,that brings an intimacy to the foyer and tempers the threshold between internal and external spaces.

The building’s identity is expressed via a highly sculptural, curvaceous architectural form responding to existing heritage fabric and skyline. The design has been conceived through a singular urban gesture that flexes around the Church, preserving the contemplative nature of worship and opening up key sightlines through the lower levels of the building, welcoming people to the urban realm below, and reinforcing new pedestrian connections between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale Streets.

The Podium has been designed as a recessive backdrop to the existing building fabric on the site. A series of undulating folded metal fins create a delicate veil over the façade, a subtle gesture that gives further prominence to the Church, Manse and Schoolhouse, while allowing access to light and views for the building inhabitants.

The tower has been envisaged as a vertical campus, comprising flexible office floorplates ranging from 1700 square metres to 2000 square metres NLA via a side core. An efficient structural system optimising spans provides largely column-free floorplates, allowing for flexibility for interconnectivity through voids and stairs that are expressed primarily through the western façade.

The curved form allows the building to recede into the skyline, with the concave western façade aiming to reflect and sample the historical fabric below as the sun moves across the facade, providing a strong sense of identity to the precinct.

 

Furniture: Walter Knoll, Gubi, Arper, Simon James, Karl Andersson & Soner, Resident, Porro, Enea, Humanscale, Design Nation, Zenith, Kezu, Made by Tait, Didier, Jardan, Kfive. Lighting: NDY Lighting, Inlite, Flos, Deltalight, Xlux. Finishes: Unfilled Roman Classico Travertine, Bluestone, GRP, Pelle, Instyle, Kvadrat Maharam, G-Lux, Signorino, Bronzeworks, Regupol, Bolon, Sculptform, Autex, Robertsons Bricks, Caesarstone. Fittings & Fixtures: Brodware, Caroma, Gerberit, Five At Heart, Lockin, Zetr, Billi.

 

Photography: Trevor Maine, Tommy Miller, Lynton Crabb.
52 Reservoir Street

SJB
Australia


The history of Surry Hills is one of constant change, adaption, and renewal. Occupying a postage-stamp-sized site, 52 Reservoir responds to this legacy with a fine-grain response to the surrounding streetscape revitalising an overlooked part of the suburb.

This joyful mixed-use project consists of ground-floor retail sited beneath eight levels of boutique office space with private and shared gardens and roof terraces. 52 Reservoir Street was a constrained, overlooked site at the western end of Surry Hills which had been owned by the Fracks family for decades.

An aquamarine façade sculpted from custom glazed bricks confidently announces the development’s presence. As the building rises to meet the parapets of its neighbours, it steps back to reveal a gently scalloping exposed concrete structure.

A laneway is formed between its western neighbour, connecting Reservoir and Foster Streets for the first time since the early 20th century. Restaurants and cafés occupy the ground floor and activate the street. Above, commercial tenancies enjoy column free floorplates, expansive glazing, sunlight and natural ventilation.

 

Furniture: Black Beetle Landscape. Lighting: builder. Finishes: Surface Gallery, Porters Paint, Gerry’s Glass, Dulux, Rockcote, Armstrong Ceiling Solutions.Fittings & Fixtures: Parisi, Reece, RBA Group, Metlam Australia, Harvey Norman, Smeg, Winning Appliances, Hafele, Designer Doorware, Planex, Cora Bikes, Exquisite Solutions.

 

Photography: Tom Roe (Image 1-2), Brett Boardman (Image 3-4)
Jewish Care Anne and Eric Smorgon Active Living Centre

DesignInc Melbourne
Australia


Jewish Care’s Anne and Eric Smorgon Active Living Centre connects people through social and recreational activities, cultural and spiritual services, and therapies that enhance wellbeing, health and independence.

The building design celebrates the diversity of Jewish culture and its multifaceted identity through the use of a woven pattern, symbolic of people and nature. This dynamic motif features throughout the interior and is reproduced at a range of scales. In contrast, the exterior has a predominantly brick palette, expressing robust materiality.

The central space acts as a “community spine” with flexible gathering spaces flowing from it. Offering a range of adaptable community spaces, consulting rooms, a gymnasium, and café, the Centre provides diverse activities and services for the community and the neighbouring Gary Smorgon House residents. The project introduces a direct link between Gary Smorgon House and the Active Living Centre, creating a seamless transition between the two facilities. With a focus on older people who live independently in their own homes in the local area, the Centre is a place of connection where seniors can visit, exercise, and meet with others through therapeutic interactions or social activities that promote active living and healthy ageing.

Functional requirements included meeting and administrative rooms, training and outreach services and respite services for the wider community. A new dedicated Shule was incorporated into the ALC, replacing the Shule at the neighbouring Gary Smorgon House. The Active Living Centre includes allied health services that focus on restoring, improving or maintaining elders independence and wellbeing.

 

Furniture: Thinking Works, Zenith. Lighting: Column Light, ECC Lighting, Satelight. Finishes: Adbri, Australian Sustainable Hardwoods, Woven Image, Australian Sustainable Hardwood, Signorino. Fittings & Fixtures: Barben, Caroma, Enware, Billi.

 

Photography: Dianna Snape.
Murray Bridge Soldiers Memorial Hospital Emergency Department

Wiltshire Swain, collaborating artist Sam Gollan
Australia


The Murray Bridge Soldiers Memorial Hospital (MBSMH) Emergency Department (ED) is one component of a wider existing site upgrade that also includes the relocated Administration, refurbished Central Sterilising Supply Department (CSSD) and fire services upgrade in the South Australian regional town of Murray Bridge.

A key conceptual driver for the ED component was to provoke a sense of pride within the community. With the layout and program strictly prescribed by function and operational parameters, it was imperative to emphasise through design that the hospital and all its functions are an integral principal public building that serves to strengthen the sense of community.

The design resolved long standing existing issues by separating pedestrian, ambulance and public car access and egress. Functional relationships have also been programmed into the design. Secure and logical progress through the facility provides privacy and safety to staff, patients and visitors, while discrete closed treatment bays afford a high-level of privacy and balance of supervision for vulnerable patients. Connections to existing hospital facilities and units have also been strengthened with improved internal wayfinding and circulation hierarchy.

Externally, the project provides a prominent “meeting place” that both acknowledges traditional owners and preserves the prominence of the existing war memorial monument. The redevelopment resolves wayfinding and access, offering a plaza to be shared by the community for ANZAC day functions.

 

Furniture: Workspace Commercial Furniture. Lighting: Various. Finishes: James Hardie, Cemintel, Austral Bricks, Revolution Roofing, Laminex, Dulux, Dupont, Armstrong, Altro, Armstrong, Italia Ceramics, Interface. Fittings & Fixtures: CS Group, Woven Image, Instyle.

 

Photography: David Sievers Photography (Image 1-3), Mark Wiltshire (Image 4).
Flow Yoga

Craig Tan Architects
Australia


Providing a calm bastion of respite, Flow Yoga on Dairy Road allows users to experience a greater sense of interconnectedness with their bodies, the environment and the community. The studio is centred on engaging the user’s senses and is conceived as a balanced series of sensory episodes that provide an interplay between intimate treatments and communal yoga sessions.

Tapping into the social DNA of the Dairy Road development, the studio is composed as a village-like campus with experiential episodes within the tenancy. The communal scale of the yoga studio is counterbalanced by the intimacy of the therapy pavilion and the chill-out space. Realised on an extremely economic budget, and using sustainably sourced plywood, cork and stains, the studio has been extremely well received by the users and the greater community.

Flow Yoga is entered from the adjoining communal square, the entry zone, that features a sculptural reception desk and stained cork floor. This becomes the axle of the space, providing connection between the key spaces.

The ochre-coloured, acoustically enclosed therapy room creates a calm, centred space, with a soft pulsing light from the overhead skylight and a connection to the outside with a view to the adjoining square. The chill-out / kitchen zone adjoins the therapy pavilion and is loosely defined by a stained hardwood timber frame. A green coloured blocked dado introduces intimacy to the space and there is also integrated display shelving and a kitchenette with a communal table.

A periscopic mirror to the Yoga Studio, creates a connection to the adjoining corridor and a mirror to the fascia of the therapy room helps unifies it with the timber frame and the lower scale of the adjoining chill out zone. The moody atmosphere of these intimate spaces is balanced by the ethereal lightness of the barn-like yoga hall. A light grey stained plywood dado defines a personal scale for inversions, and integrates the existing windows, entry door and yoga equipment storage area.

 

Furniture: Skeehan Studio Hoshi Armchair, Adam Goodrum Molloy Table and Chair, Custom design furniture. Lighting: Ken Neale. Finishes: Dulux Paint Systems, Grimes and Sons Stains. Fittings & Fixtures: Keg King Kegmaster Series 4.

 

Photography: Jaime Diaz Berrio.
BIPO Beauty Clinic

Studio RYTE
Hong Kong, China


BIPO is a beauty clinic that pursues a comprehensive total beauty solution for its customers. The design of the project is that of a soothing getaway experience that helps melt away clients’ stresses to regain harmony between the inner and outer bodies. It is a place where beauty and health are taken care of from the inside out.

A total design was delivered for BIPO – from the logo, to the colour palette of the brand through to the interior space. BIPO is a holistic experience that instigates and supports harmony, health and wellbeing. The colour palette of the interior is filled with earthy toned materials, including environmentally friendly acoustic boards, sustainable flooring and soft upholstered furniture. A touch of greenery provides colour and texture to the space concurrently acting as a buffer to absorb sound. Full-height curvatures are expressed in columns, while smaller forms are inbuilt in shelving. The same language is carried through in small details such as the wooden name card stand and the outdoor metal leaflet stand, both expressing the continuous flow of beauty and health between the inside and out.

Echoing the new logo and the brand philosophy, the interior presents a balance between material and light, curvature and flow. It represents the human body and universe where energy flows in and out as a cycle.

 

Furniture: HiQ Furniture. Lighting: YJXG Lighting. Finishes: NewTeam, Markway, Ryte, Formica. Fittings & Fixtures: Dorma.

 

Photography: Studio RYTE.
Ally Singapore

Kaizen Architecture
Singapore


Ally Singapore is a 6500 square feet (558 square metres) luxury indoor cycling gym and coffee bar, with in-house shower and locker facilities and 02 spin studio that houses a total of 70 spin bikes. It is located at the heart of the Singapore Business District, Shenton Way, within the second floor of an office tower.

Access into the gym premises is via a pair of escalators from the office tower’s main lobby. At the entrance, there is an art wall comprising large radial wall sculptures as a backdrop to a floating digital wall and abstract landscaping. A floating sculptural reception counter on a spherical base takes centre stage to a waiting lounge that connects to the landscape through glimpses of the landscape outside that is mirrored indoors through the insertion of a lone tree and its planter.

The waiting lounge is one of the three community spaces within the project that also includes a coffee and juice bar for members and non-members of the gym. The main spin studio is a semi-circular form that is also the largest area within the floorplate. Vertical recessed light strip detail, mimics the abstract movement of wheels and also lines the perimeter of the external façade. Inside, the spin bikes are arranged in auditorium-style rows that follow the semi-circular form of the room. The interiors are finished in black with acoustic panelling and programmable light features in axial layout have been included on the ceiling.

On the other end of the gym, just before the washrooms, is a round transition space or rotunda. This is the third community area and is lined with shared lockers. Terracotta coloured terrazzo flooring and walls define this space and copper coloured mirror applied as a ceiling feature provides an illusion of height.

Designed with a “Yin and Yang” approach, the washrooms are divided into two zones through material and colour application. The lockers, toilet facilities and vanity counters employ a palette of beige stone, light timber laminates and sand-colored walls, while the darker stone tiles and dark grey-colored walls demark the shower areas. Indirect, recessed cove lighting and feature wall lights are used as the primary lighting source within the washroom areas and supply soft illumination.

Ally Singapore is a prototype model to the new gym space – one that functions beyond its expected program and function to encourage connection and community.

 

Furniture: Custom Made, Comfort Furniture. Lighting: Ganen SG Pte Ltd. Finishes: Hafary Pte Ltd, K Stone Pte Ltd, EDL Laminates, SKK S Pte Ltd, Nippon Paint & AkzoNobel Paint. Fittings & Fixtures: TOTO, Hansgrohe.

 

Photography: Khoo Guo Jie.
400 George Street EOTF

nettletontribe
Australia


As a collaboration between nettletontribe Architects, client, Cromwell Property Group, and Builder, ATG Projects, the new end-of-trip facility for 400 George St redefines the end-of-trip experiential design for Brisbane. It moves beyond the usual basement level amenities to create a facility that has wellness and luxury in mind, while also providing a place for moments of calm and to refresh away from the fast-paced world in which we live.

Responding to the brief, the level one food court was transformed to include more than 500 lockers as well as a dedicated lounge space. An additional 150 bike parks were added to the existing car park in response to the growing demand for on-site secure bike parking, promoting a space where exercise and movement are encouraged.

Early collaboration between builder, client and designer meant that finishes were holistically considered and able to meet client budgetary requirements without compromising design intent. The design aimed to minimise its environmental impact where possible and radiate wellness and calm.

The delivery of the design moved beyond the client brief and showcased the potential for inner city work and amenity spaces to reflect and support the people who use them. It is a bespoke space that is end-user focused.

 

Furniture: Tom Skeehan, Stylecraft, Materialised, Interiors Online, Interiors Online, Geometric Stool, Comax, Ross Gardam, Temple & Webster, Temple & Webster. Lighting: Prolicht, LAD Lighting, Invader, Wall Light Nocturnal, Nordic Tales, Surrounding Lighting, Rakumba, Lee Broom, Space Furniture, Trend Lighting, Aizer, Unios, Titanium Starlight. Finishes: Beaumont Tiles, Ultra Flake Epoxy Coating, All Purpose Coating, Interface, Interface, World Woven Collection, Natural Dobby on Cushionback, Amber Tiles, Sculptform, PEFC, Rockcote, Dulux, Acratex, Aluskirting, Builder, Gyprock, Oxytech, Wattyl, Laminex, Pelle Leathers. Fittings & Fixtures: Caroma, Stern, Bradley, JD Macdonald, Handy Sanitiser, Caroma, Coolibah, Metlam, Sonia, Hafele, Bobrick, Phoenix, Lo & Co, Dorf, Dyson, GHD, ZETR, Five at Heart, Interim, Kirkbuild, Billi, Vertikal, ASSA signs.

 

Photography: Scott Burrows Photography.
ODE Dermatology

Foolscap Studio
Australia


ODE Dermatology fuses wellness with hospitality service and hotel-inspired luxury to provide Melbourne’s Gertrude Street a unique dermatology offering. Housed within a heritage building, a sumptuous interior fit out and technology overhaul reflects the client’s dual medical and aesthetic philosophy: that holistic skin care should be an “ode to ones’ self”.

The brief was to design a clinic rather as a luxury-inspired hotel as opposed to the usual sterile environment. The design strategy placed an emphasis on inner beauty, which, in turn, informed the conceptual approach. “Inside-out” references the body through translucent and transformative materials, while “duality as unity” balances human with the high-tech – manifested through contemporary design insertions in a heritage context.

Special rear and side extensions on the ground floor proved crucial to the functioning of the space, and, in the process, provided an opportunity to encourage diffused natural light. Indoor planting was introduced through a suspended and fully irrigated arbour that spans the full 16-metre length of the now, newly created enclosed lightwell corridor. A new punctuation takes advantage of this vista, allowing patients to await their consultations in the centrally-located decompression lounge that is a re-envisioning of the ubiquitous “waiting room”. The experience is transformative with enhanced daylight and a space furnished with designer pieces, soft textiles and a lustrous, custom-designed houndstooth rug.

New state-of-the-art technology was installed in the treatment and consultation rooms, and provides ODE Dermatology with cutting-edge clinical capabilities, without compromising on aesthetics. Upstairs, period features are highlighted, juxtaposed with bespoke joinery pieces, including an O-shaped mirror in the powder room that becomes an ode to the brand itself.

 

Furniture: Myles Pedlar, Flinders Lane Gallery, RC&D, Foolscap Studio, Tom Dixon, Living Edge, Plop Ottomans, Stylecraft, Cini Boeri for Arflex, Space Furniture, RBM, Backcare & Seating, Dowel Jones, Own World, Mario Ferrarini for Crassevig, Cane-line, Achille Castiglioni for Zanotta, Cult Design, Hay. Lighting: Sphera, Volker Haug Studio. Finishes: Marblo, Earp Bros., Haymes, Apex Stone, Kvadrat & Zepel, Warwick, Instyle, CCS, Forbo, Ampelite. Fittings & Fixtures: Nood Co., Billi, Studio Henry Wilson, Designer Doorware, DAAC.

 

Photography: Willem-Dirk du Toit.
University of Queensland Elkhorn Building

m3architecture
Australia


The University of Queensland Elkhorn Building required the complete refurbishment of an existing 1970s structure that supports the work of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). The project also includes highly technical research laboratories for chemistry and biological specialties, fume cupboards, environmentally controlled tissue culture rooms and biosecurity quarantine facilities. There is a commercial kitchen with blind tasting facilities to service Uniquely Australian Foods, an organisation researching Indigenous and native plant foods, and new learning spaces that support First Nations students and their Elders. QAAFI and Uniquely Australian Foods research is committed to sustainable local food sources.

Associated offices, amenities and a new lift complete the project, which makes strong connections to the lush vegetation on the south of the site. The lift is located externally to provide an experience of nature when moving between floors, while inside, communal spaces use colour and materials to both reflect and draw in the landscape.

The connection between health, wellbeing and landscape is well established in this project. Reflecting its use and its users, Elkhorn explores the observation and interaction with the natural world by linking science, art and architecture. The scientists who inhabit the building observe and amplify the characteristics of the plants they study using traditional research techniques. Similarly, artists in the 18th century observed and amplified the characteristics of the landscapes they painted by framing them using a dark-coloured concave mirror known as a “Claude glass”.
Taking the “Claude glass” as inspiration, Elkhorn uses convex, stainless steel infill cladding to heighten the perception of the building and the landscape it sits within. The reflective cladding shifts the building between the subject of our observation and an object for observing the natural world.

 

Furniture: Koskela, Blu Dot, Dowel Jones, Janie Collins Interiors, Schamburg+Alvisse, Zenith, Grazia&Co, Arredorama, Actiu, Innerspace, Thinking Works, Innerspace, Infinity Italy, Specfurn. Lighting: Anton de Groof for Tonone, JCS, FREND lighting, AGLO, FREND lighting, Valoya LED lighting. Finishes: Decor Systems, Armstrong, Rockfon, Forbo, Gibbon Group, Interface, Birrus, Trespa, Laminex, Briggs Veneers, Rimex, Woven Image, DULUX, Laine, Instyle. Fittings & Fixtures: Zip, Pratt, Dexion, Broen, Caroma.

 

Photography: Lucas Muro.
Westmead Private Hospital – Stage 3 Expansion

Silver Thomas Hanley
Australia


The Westmead Private Hospital is positioned at the gateway of the Westmead Health and Innovation District, which is to become one of Australia’s largest health and research zones with state-of-the-art facilities. The main building works included a three-floor addition to the front entry of the hospital, a new drop off, reception and waiting area, a 28-bed Inpatient Unit connecting on level one, and 13 new Consulting Suites on level two. The Interventional Suite was expanded to include two new Operating Theatres and there is a full refurbishment of the two existing Cardiac Catheter Laboratories.

The façade utilises tiles with an articulated form to invigorate the hospital’s prime position and street presence and the interior design concept focuses around a warm, lush palette bringing a sense of luxury and hospitality to patients and visitors. Soft surfaces and rich materials have been used to create welcoming and comfortable spaces while being supported by best practice healthcare design.

A variety of lighting sources are found through the facility, with feature lighting to staff areas to further identify these spaces, integrated lighting within handrails and patient-controlled lighting to the bedrooms that create an environment the patient can control, adapting lighting levels as required throughout the day. Natural lighting however, is a key consideration to healthcare design. Large windows to patient rooms and into common corridors and stairwells have been included and allow natural light in for patients, staff, and visitors to be able to visually connect to the environment outside.

Landscaping incorporated the planting of a large number of trees to offset the new building. This was to assist in reducing the “urban heat island” that cities face, creating a better urban environment within the community and shade for users as well as maintaining habitats for local fauna within the area.

 

Furniture: OwnWorld, Workspace Commercial Furniture, Safety & Mobility. Lighting: Domus Lighting, Sunny Australia Lighting, mLight, Klik System. Finishes: Laminex, Polytec, WilsonArt, Materialised, Corian, Ontera, Shaw Contract, Academy Tiles, Tarkett, Armstrong Flooring, Dulux, ColorTile, HWG Facades, Corium Brick Tile. Fittings & Fixtures: Metlam, Kethy, Handle House, Surecare, Intraspace, Dyson, Intrim Group, Corian, Enware, Caroma, GWA Bathroom & Kitchens.

 

Photography: Inhaus Media (Image 1), Tyrone Branigan (Image 2-4).
Yarram Integrated Healthcare Centre

McBride Charles Ryan
Australia


The Yarram & District Health Service (YDHS) Integrated Healthcare Centre is a small-scale healthcare project situated in Yarram, regional Victoria, a three-hour drive from Melbourne’s CBD. This project reveals an innovative approach towards public healthcare with a meaningful significant civic response. YDHS Integrated Healthcare Centre is a vibrant and equitable public healthcare hub for the region, advocating for preventative medicine that brings the community together. This landmark health building celebrates preventative health and serves as an example of what architecture can do to promote proactive health for regional communities, in Victoria, Australia, and across the world.

The design brief called for a state-of-the-art rural healthcare facility, consisting of patient-arrival areas, treatment bays, pathology room, consult rooms, interview rooms, utility rooms, nurse and office spaces with shared networks to the existing local hospital. Retaining and attracting excellent staff (particularly doctors) was a key concern. There was a strong desire to attract the community to use the facility regularly to increase better health outcomes in the town and surrounding areas.

The design decisions of the YDHS Integrated Healthcare Centre brought a functional, beneficial and innovative project to the heart of Yarram, showcasing the beauty and inventive possibilities of future regional healthcare facilities.

The infrastructure for extracting energy from the earth in the form of geothermal energy was instigated as a tool to further the long-term sustainability efforts of the project. The building is well insulated as well as having double glazed windows. Timber was locally sourced and a local company, Radial Timber, uses every part of the log by cutting on the angle radially around the log. The building’s design and layout successfully captures an abundance of natural light, The colonnade roof shades the building and provides outdoor shelter and seating.

 

Furniture: Workspace, Design Nation, Schiavello, Zenith Interior, Made For, Interstudio. Lighting: Versalux. Finishes: Austral, Viridian, Dulux, Tesrol, Duropal, Austral, VMZINC, Forbo, Zuncalume Corrugate, Radial Timbers. Fittings & Fixtures: Aus Timber, Vertilux, Forbo, Alspec, Caroma.

 

Photography: John Gollings AM (Image 1, 2, 4), Tim Yi-Ting Lee (Image 3).
Alyssa Aisyah

University of Auckland
New Zealand/Aotearoa


The Indonesian island of Bali has established its position as one of the world’s top tourist destinations. Its popularity started in the 1920s when the Dutch colonised Indonesia and successfully cultivated a tourism strategy that has subsequently shaped Bali’s social construct and physical domain.

Tourism has replaced agriculture as the main contributor to the local population’s livelihood. And while there is no precursor for resorts as a building type in Balinese tradition, driven by the economics of modern tourism, resort buildings are reshaping the face of the island. This phenomenon has influenced the current touristic culture within the island and has affected the authenticity of Balinese identity, traditions, and values.

The project addresses the cultural landscape of subak, which encompasses the vast paddy rice terraces, traditional water irrigation system, and its congregation as Bali’s living heritage. Subak is the physical embodiment of Balinese fundamental traditional philosophies of Tri Angga that dictates the tripartite order and creates a hierarchy from the profane to the sacred through its water temple network, and the Tri Hita Karana philosophy, which is embodied in the locals’ rituals and way of life to create harmony and balance within their everyday lives. The project places subak, its system and congregation at its core and implements these two traditional philosophies into the design.

The project proposes three sequences of a journey that echoes the tripartite division of the Tri Angga concept. The project’s framework constructs a cycle that depicts the progression from the profane to the sacred — following the subak’s water temple network along the river. It relies on implementing the regenerative principles of Tri Hita Karana and the subak calendrical rituals to set the course and ensure the continuity of the subak system as Bali’s authentic identity.
Froebel Carlton

Silvester Fuller
Australia


Froebel Carlton is located within the Melbourne Connect precinct in the heart of Carlton. Accommodating 92 children, Froebel Carlton is a vital amenity serving parents of this purpose-built precinct and neighbouring residents and workers. With a focus on innovation, the precinct aligns with the Froebel vision of “best practice and curious for next practice”. This vision served as an underlying principle guiding the design from initial spatial relationship studies through to material and fittings selection, including landscaping conceived in collaboration with Openwork.

The irregular shape of the base building presented an opportunity to differentiate the interior play spaces from those outside. An orthogonal arrangement of internal spaces, radiating from the access core, approximates the external building shape. The spaces created between the orthogonal internal facade and irregular external facade become the meandering external play space comprising subtle topography variation, material differentiation and planting in a naturally ventilated, sheltered environment.

Within the primary play spaces a timber latticework grows from the centre. One object – multiple uses, was the starting point for the interior concept. With a focus on financial and spatial efficiency, the concept explores the consolidation of components addressing multiple qualitative and quantitative brief requirements. In a previous project for Froebel, this idea was realised with bespoke timber pods inserted into the space incorporating seating, display, storage, enclosure and spatial definition. For this project the idea has been taken a step further, extending these objects up and over, branching out over the spaces, a super-ceiling to define spaces, acoustically dampen sound and partially conceal building services above.

The warmth of the super-ceiling complements the bright fit out palette of soft grey and white with an occasional burst of colour in secondary smaller play spaces. The calm material and colour choices were made based on research into early learning environments and the use of antimicrobial surfaces helps support a clean and healthy environment for all.

 

Furniture: Silvester Fuller. Lighting: LED Lighting Group. Finishes: HVG Facades, Laminex, Spectrum Rubber, Bauhaus, Glennon Tiles, Tretford, Autex, Dulux. Fittings & Fixtures: Allegion, Designer Door Hardware, Astra Walker.

 

Photography: Froebel Carlton, Shannon McGrath.
Relinque Urban Retreat & Spa

Studio Tate with McCabe Architects
Australia


Celebrating the natural landscape of its locale, Relinque Urban Retreat & Spa is a collection of immersive spaces within a circular architectural form that has been created to support an intuitive client journey, offering an “all gender” day spa experience.

Functionality underpins a great day spa and so the floor plan of Relinque Urban Retreat & Spa was divided. On one side are ice and steam amenities, contrast therapy, hydrotherapy, body and face treatment spaces and a yoga studio-offering holistic wellness. On the other side, there is a spinal clinic and Pilates and osteopathy facilities that help complete the circular client journey as a natural flow when moving through the space. Conceiving a functional interior was also key to enabling staff to work efficiently and support the client experience.

With a colour palette of greens, greys, burgundy and earth tones throughout the collective space, there is a sense of textural “earthiness” that is also contemporary and sophisticated. There is a concrete floor in reception with coloured aggregate, offset by a forest green marble desk, forest green joinery and leather banquette seating, positioned against a backdrop of textured paint with timber battens. Within the spa, the five individually contained treatment rooms feature a colour datum in a deep rust tone while the steam showers are tiled in soft sage green with a granite shower bench.

The workshopping and briefing of this project encompassed a very detailed approach in order to expand on the functionality of the spa. The goal was not only to create a solid design outcome but also to ensure an efficient work environment that would accommodate a quick turnaround of treatment rooms and create a fluid experience for the clients to travel through but also feel tranquil and serene.

 

Lighting: Pendant Light, In Good Company, George Nelson, Lighting Collective, Beacon Lighting. Finishes: Dulux, Bishops Decor, Pelle Leathers, Kvadrat, Signorino, G-Lux, National Tiles, Laminex, Eveneer, Karndean Design Flooring, Cerdomus Tile Studio. Fittings & Fixtures: Linear Standards, Harvey Norman, Laal.

 

Photography: Lillie Thompson.
Cradle Coast Campus at West Park, University of Tasmania

John Wardle Architects with Philp Lighton Architects & Room 11
Australia


The transformation of the University of Tasmania’s West Park precinct into a community orientated campus celebrates the importance of place, connection to land and landscape and an ambitious future. The design of Cradle Coast Campus draws on three key concepts – escarpment in miniature, fields of the north and a protected courtyard. The profiled nature of the building breaks down the building scale from a dominating single form, into smaller modules alluding to a campus within a single building.

Located on the north-west coastal edge of Burnie, the site is characterised by coastal plains, escarpment and uplands. Through the use of scale, materials and form the design reinterprets the dramatic coastline. The building appears to rise out of terra-firma, progressively rising one level up in the north and east of the building. Its partial floor plate accommodates a combination of workspace, academic research, learning and teaching.

The green roof to the main building provides a connection to nature and incorporates low maintenance, indigenous plants that can tolerate the full gamut of climatic coastal conditions of the region. Integral to the precinct development are the opportunities to support outdoor learning, provide visual amenity, rehabilitate by aiding and improving the retention of biodiversity, all while encouraging passive activity within the precinct.

The central courtyard is accessible, open and welcoming for all to inhabit – for outdoor learning activities, socialising, Indigenous and community events or relaxing within a weather protected external environment. The building envelope achieves excellent energy usage by using high performance insulation throughout. Glazing and sealing in the building ensures reduced thermal bridging while airtightness, water, vapour, moisture and condensation-control offer maximum effectiveness. The building is respectful of its privileged position on the coast of Tasmania and promotes environmental and biophilic measures.Informal learning, the library and café occupy the internal edges of the courtyard, the life of the building is drawn to its edges and on show.

 

Photography: Anjie Blair (Image 1, 2, 4), Adam Gibson (Image 3), Oi Studios.
Alatus

fjmtstudio
Australia


Alatus is a new innovation and learning centre that provides contemporary pedagogy spaces within a sustainable and adaptable environment. The building was constructed primarily of exposed concrete and timber with an intricate timber façade and shading elements.

Drawing reference from the site, Alatus captures the identity of the campus. It is designed to generate an environment that pursues the notion of learning and creates a sense of cohesion and identity.
A state-of-the-art 162-seat presentation space, a double-height gallery, nine flexible learning commons and multiple maker spaces form this new two-level timber building. The integration as a technology hub for robotics, coding, creativity and research, is a natural progression for a school that strives for academic excellence.

The facility has been designed to maximise interconnectivity between spaces while carefully fostering creativity and design. In addition, western external seating terraces allow for viewing of sports on the oval while the landscaped eastern courtyard sensitively responds to its context and creates strong links to the senior student centre and middle school teaching and commons buildings, providing for new external seating and teaching areas available for use by staff and students. This iconic building will become the new centre for middle year students, showcasing the school’s innovative and sustainable values, promoted through new learning environments and spaces to be used by the whole school community.

Alatus has rejuvenated an under-utilised area of the school campus and celebrates the school’s treed environment and location on the Mornington Peninsula. The building’s address, facing onto the school oval and beyond, enables for the creation of contemporary light-filled internal and external teaching spaces, blurring the line from inside to outside and encouraging individual creative thinking.

 

Photography: John Gollings.
Brisbane South State Secondary College

BVN
Australia


Brisbane South State Secondary College is an innovative vertical school located within the Brisbane Knowledge Corridor and is an integral part of this leading education, health and research network.

A permeable and energised public realm maximises learning interactions, along with a memorable and vibrant central native garden. The campus consists of flexible and resilient buildings, designed to adapt to changing learning pedagogies over time. Each building is centred around double-storey learning hubs, which offer next-level learning characterised by open, adaptable and shared presentation spaces for collaboration across multiple disciplines.

The vertical campus is connected across five new buildings with open gallery settings that formally frame views of landscape features significant in Country. The historical use of the site for camping, weaving and the making of tools by the local First Nations inspired the screens, scored details of the concrete panels, and incorporated an endemic palette of flora, colours and materials.

The sustainable aspiration for this inner-city vertical school was to create comfortable and naturally inspired learning environments where students can deeply connect with community, landscape and Country.

Carbon usage is minimised largely by the adoption of mixed mode ventilation throughout, optimised with effective solar orientation, sun shading and landscaped micro-environmental design, and offset by 100kwH solar array.

Situated on a ridge, open galleries and learning spaces orientate towards parkland settings and cooling breezes, enhancing aspect to extensive surrounding and campus native landscaping irrigated by a 400kL rainwater storage system.

 

Furniture: Kezu, Officeline, Woods Furniture, Koskela, Zenith, Innerspace, Stylecraft, Officscape. Lighting: Koskela. Finishes: Supawood, Interface, Tarkett, Forbo, Altro, Dulux, Staron, Kvadrat, Woven Image, Laminex, Autex, Instyle. Fittings & Fixtures: ZIP.

 

Photography: Christopher Frederick Jones.
Cannon Hill Anglican College D Block

Reddog Architects with Blueline Architecture
Australia


Working in conjunction with the college’s masterplan, the new building, D Block, is a high-profile location for the campus and forms a critical connection for the linear journey from Prep to Year 12. The building provides a natural entry point into the campus and is an important intersection between the senior and middle schools and was intended to give CHAC flexibility in using the space, acknowledging the college’s desire as part of the Masterplan for use in a wide variety of functions, events and learning experiences.

The CHAC D Block development has created a new double-storey building housing six new teaching and learning spaces, breakout spaces, an outdoor deck, locker bays, student amenities, a contemporary kitchen and a new food and beverage precinct for students. It was important that the design responded to the existing bushland context. It was also important that the construction of the building and the end use building had minimal disruption to existing mature trees on the campus.

Choosing a palette of white brick enhances the sense of surrounding bushland by providing a background for the leaf shadows from the surrounding trees. The bushland inspired interior colour palette of muted greys, greens and pinks work as “wayfinding” prompts, helping students and visitors to the campus to navigate through the area.

Every classroom is intentionally different due to outlook, orientation and as a response to site. Brickwork was chosen as a natural material with little to no ongoing maintenance. Other finishes including raw concrete, terrazzo, powder coated metal and plywood are similarly robust. Utilising undercrofts as spaces for outdoor learning created additional functional areas for the school with less building footprint. Pockets of breakout space at edges and junctions ensures that the idiosyncratic organic forms are best utilised. Operable walls ensure spaces are flexible, minimising future alterations.

 

Furniture: Fuse Furniture, Kfive, Botton and Gardiner. Lighting: Iguzzini, Versalux. Finishes: Dulux, Laminex, Intergrain. Fittings & Fixtures: Onterra, Forbo, Gerflor, Big Ass Fans, Decor Systems, FSP Australia.

 

Photography: Christopher Frederick Jones.
The Clendon Centre

Architectus
Australia


The Clendon Centre is a new education building for Loreto Toorak’s campus and its principal role is that of home base for students years seven to nine. Comprising six floor levels with three of those levels below ground, the design maximises opportunity within a very restrictive physical context, while respecting the physical and visual integrity of the schools’ historic setting.

The building has been shaped by the learning programs and social interaction of the students. The space is organised into “learning by levels” strata with years seven and eight occupying the two upper levels and year nine the ground and basement level one. Each of the floors accommodates all formal home rooms and informal areas so that students can truly base themselves within their year-level “hub”. “Socratic circles” exist in addition to classrooms, providing opportunities for students and staff to engage in learning settings not possible within the classrooms.

The Clendon Centre’s spatial quality is defined through scale, proportion, connection and materiality. Staggered double-height volumes encourage larger social settings and provide vertical connections throughout. While classrooms are enclosed for timetabled occupation, smaller spaces are provided for smaller groupings and tasks.

Internally, an appropriate sense of calm and quiet arises from the deployment of a minimal material palette of timber, concrete and glass. Plywood wall linings protect heavy traffic areas and are perforated for acoustic absorption at high level. Pinboards in classrooms and in nooks within the informal learning spaces provide a similar function.

Colour selections are neutral, serving as backdrop to the vibrant colours of learning. Glazed walls and steel mesh balustrading offer visual and physical connection, ensuring daylight penetration and optimal views. The mechanical strategy was premised on achieving the best air quality for all users – a consistent strategy in creating equity of experience.

 

Furniture: Herman Miller, Living Edge, Jardan, Materia, KFive & Kinnarps, Schiavello, Stylecraft, Thinking Works, Stylecraft, Koskela. Lighting: Ark Lighting, iGuzzini, Lux FX, ERCO, Buckford Illumination Ground, One.Au, Klus, Inlite, Filix, Lite Source & Controls, ISM Objects, Marset, EST Lighting. Finishes: Autex, MaxiPly, Jakob Webnet, Tensile Design & Construct, Atkar, Interface, Comcork, Laminex, Dulux, Laminam XL, Signorino, Vertilux.

 

Photography: Trevor Mein.
The Hedberg

LIMINAL Architecture with WOHA
Australia


Consolidating an important urban nexus of Hobart, Tasmania, The Hedberg vision presents a culturally significant performing and creative arts destination and education precinct that fuels Tasmania’s cultural offering in a contemporary global context.

Co-located with the Theatre Royal, the oldest operating theatre in Australia, The Hedberg integrates a music and performance hub fuelled by the provision of multiple bespoke performance venues, a cutting edge recording suite, the University of Tasmania’s Conservatorium of Music, and cascading foyers and roof decks that stimulate engagement and performance opportunities. Also included are front and back of house support spaces, creative workshop laboratories, rehearsal spaces, integration of the heritage-listed Hedberg Garage and universal access to the Theatre Royal for the first time. Digital and new media technologies facilitate local and global collaborations and exchange.

The form responds to the rhythm and scale of the urban context and heritage precinct, with the glazed main entry anchoring the corner of the building, responding to the heritage buildings’ scale bookending the development. The cladding provides a neutral backdrop to the texture, colour and detail of the heritage buildings; its reflectivity dematerialises the mass reflecting its surrounds and shifts with the time of day and season.

The design strategy evokes a sense of the theatrical activities inside. The external expression is influenced by minimalist forms in contemporary music notation and the cladding suggests an open theatrical curtain. The exterior sparkle takes its cue from the opalescence of abalone shells, traditionally used to carry fire, acknowledging the significance of fire in cultural exchange and the role it continues to play as the original natural “theatre” for storytelling.

Interpretive layers are interwoven into the built fabric as salvaged materials and archaeological fragments found onsite are exposed, reused, integrated into floor finishes or presented as sculptural forms in wall panels, tracing footprints of the past and acknowledging the traditional landowners, the Palawa.

 

Furniture: LIMINAL Objects with Derlot, Simon Ancher, Cult, Interstudio. Finishes: Foyer Carpet Design: LIMINAL Spaces with Michelle Maynard.

Photography: Natasha Mulhall.
Newshoots Greenhithe ECEC

Copeland Associates Architects
New Zealand/Aotearoa


Newshoots Greenhithe ECEC interweaves classroom and landscape through its nature-centric design inside and out. Three passive timber pods arranged around a triangular courtyard form the classrooms, while a timber bridge elevated over the rejuvenated native wetland below connects the carpark and classroom to create a sense of adventure and exploration.

The pods have been arranged to form a triangular courtyard. This play area is partially protected by a generous translucent veranda, providing diffused light over external links between pods and covered external play areas. Each pod has been designed with sustainable practice in mind with high-level openable windows facing east, allowing the activity spaces to receive the morning sun while providing natural passive ventilation. With warm natural timber interiors, soft colour palettes, bespoke scale-sensitive timber furniture and playful lighting, a harmonious visual language has been achieved between furniture and architecture. All services have been discretely considered and arranged in an efficient layout to optimise visual calmness within the spaces and rainwater is stored in detention tanks and re-used for flushing toilets and irrigation.

Each of the three pods has its own colour palette reflecting the world’s primary elements: green for nature, light terracotta as earth and blue for water. The interiors have a soft timber backdrop from the exposed structural cross-laminated timber panels that adds another textural link connecting to the surrounding environment. Large sections of glazing enhance the site’s elevation, bringing the outside in, and creating a sense of being nestled among the surrounding dense foliage and large trees.

The harmonised visual language between architecture, interiors and furniture creates design continuity and wayfinding within the centre. New Shoots designed bespoke cabinetry to suit interior spaces and respective palettes and collaboration with lighting designers conceived a lighting approach that creatively weaves throughout the spaces, adding soft, curvaceous elements in contrast to the orthogonal internal walls.

 

Furniture: Copeland Associates Architects, Starex. Lighting: Stanilite, TEC-MAR, Unilamp. Finishes: Resene, Megafloor, Polyflor, Colorsteel Ironsand, Glacier, Mohawk Group. Fittings & Fixtures: Caroma, Burns and Ferral, Methven, Duraplan, MacDonald, Allproof, Fisher & Paykel, Speed Queen.

 

Photography: Kelvin Lim.
Margaret Bailey Building, Ascham School

BVN
Australia


The design of the new Margaret Bailey Building was the result of a new model of classrooms to meet the strong teaching and learning pedagogy of Ascham’s Dalton Plan. This was achieved by providing contemporary, indoor and outdoor learning environments for flexible and informal ways of interacting between students and teachers.

The first stage provided a “pilot space” to experiment with a design model which moved away from the initial brief of the more traditional concept of a teacher’s homeroom/classroom, more familiar and conducive for traditional teaching models. The pilot created breakout spaces for pupils and teachers to spill out onto from every classroom, providing more collaborative and informal learning settings.

The new building improves connectivity between adjoining buildings to achieve DDA Compliance and creates a more legible, sheltered and safe pedestrian network through the campus.
It does not contain internal corridors between classrooms, instead utilising the informal learning areas which face onto the courtyard as circulation space. This provides a much more dynamic and collaborative learning space which will further promote informal interaction between students and teachers.
The built form responds to the domestic scale and village-like atmosphere of the existing school fabric, while retaining the prominence and significance of the heritage Glenrock Building directly opposite.

The building’s façade consists of a screen element that extends and wraps around the new balcony of the library building creating a uniform backdrop to the Glenrock Building. The fabric screens and sculptural concrete stair, highlight the entry to the library and the new building respectively. The internal learning spaces have passive cross ventilation and shallow floorplates and attenuated mechanical systems allow air to flow through spaces without compromising acoustics between learning spaces.

 

Furniture: P4 Design, Pedrali, Ross Didier. Lighting: Kilk, Beacon Lighting. Finishes: Laminex, Kvadrat, Abet Laminati, Maharam. Fittings & Fixtures: Zip, GWA Group, Caroma.

 

Photography: Katherine Lu, Felix Forest.



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