Updated Melbourne Metro Tunnel station design unveiled

The Victorian government has unveiled updated designs for Ardern Station in North Melbourne, part of the Metro Tunnel station project, collaboratively designed by Hassell, Weston Williamson and Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners.
Updates to the design included in the new Development Plan contain the provision of a series of public grassed areas interspersed with tree planting, and improved station access with repositioned entry gates and the reorientation of entry ramps on Laurens Street.

The entrance will now feature 15 soaring brick arches, down from the planned 16. These are being built off-site and will be delivered to the station and installed over the coming months.

There will also be a separated, raised bike path on the west side of Laurens Street and the planned Station Lane will be widened to make more space for vehicles.

While the previous Development Plan had the ground level raising locally around the skylight, the design for ground level is now relatively flat, allowing for the skylights to appear raised.

The government said that work is well advanced on the station, with platform construction beginning in March, continuing alongside the installation of the over-track exhaust system and tunnel floor slab.

“Arden Station was where we launched our first tunnel boring machine almost two years ago, and with tunnelling now complete we’ll see the station take shape in coming months and years,” said transport minister Jacinta Allan.

The Metro Tunnel will connect the Sunbury Line to the Cranbourne and Pakenham lines with five new underground stations and will provide a future direct link to Melbourne Airport Rail.

The updated designs are on exhibition until 27 August.

written by : ArchitectureAU Editorial
10 Aug 2021
published in : architectureau.com

Heritage snub for modernist pavilion and amphitheatre

Heritage snub for modernist Fairfield pavilion and amphitheatre

The executive director of Heritage Victoria Steven Avery has recommended that a modernist pavilion, kiosk and amphitheatre in Melbourne’s Fairfield Park should not be added to the state heritage register, despited their direct association with award-winning Melbourne architects.

The Northcote Amphitheatre was designed by Maggie Edmond for Northcote City Council in 1985. The 460-seat semi-circular amphitheatre is arranged around 10-metre diameter stage and is designed to meet the surrounding parkland.
A pavilion designed by Paul Couch was built in the late 1980s to support theatrical activities at the park, and included performance change rooms, a theatrical set building workshop, public toilets and public barbecue area on the rooftop, which is shaded by gazebo with cube-shaped light box on top. The pavilion was designed to be covered in greenery and blend into landscape.

In 2019, the City of Yarra announced plans to demolish a significant portion of the pavilion to make way for a larger storage shed, and received nine objections to the plan.

The council’s own heritage advisor recommended against the partial demolish, but the council ignored that advice, promoting a petition from architecture practice Kennedy Nolan.

University of Melbourne chair of architecture professor Philip Goad made a submission to the council in which he described the pavilion as a “rare, non-residential work by the highly regarded Paul Couch [and an example of his] long-held interest in tilt-slab precast concrete panel construction system that is often a defining feature of his better-known residential works.”

“Couch has been a pioneer in using tilt-slab concrete panels in small-scale settings,” he said.

“In my opinion there is definitely a case for, at the very least, listing the pavilion structure and workshop/change rooms together with the bluestone amphitheatre as being of local heritage.”
Heritage Victoria’s executive director noted that “The Fairfield Pavilion exemplifies Couch’s preferred style of tilt-slab concrete construction used to great effect in
small-scale settings,” however, he dismissed the significance of the architect.

“Couch’s contribution cannot be said to be strong or influential, or of the order of other architects and firms recognised under Criterion H such as Harry Seidler, Robin Boyd, Peter Macintyre, and Edmond and Corrigan.”

He also dismissed the significance of the amphitheatre in relation to the life work of Maggie Edmond. “Although the amphitheatre is Maggie Edmond’s favourite work, it represents an unusual mid-career community commission, rather than demonstrating an architecturally notable point in her design oeuvre and contribution to the discipline.”

The executive director’s recommendation has been published on the Heritage Council of Victoria’s website and submissions can be made to the council until 21 June.

written by : ArchitectureAU Editorial
7 Mar 2021
published in : architectureau.com

World’s Largest Natural Marine Observatory Takes the Shape of a Whale

World's Largest Natural Marine Observatory the Shape of a Whale by Baca Architects

Baca Architects have set out to build the world’s largest natural marine observatory in Australia. Taking the form a whale emerging from the water, the project will be built at the end of the Busselton Jetty. Baca was appointed by marine contractor Subcon as Lead Architects for the new project. Called the Australian Underwater Discovery Centre (AUDC), the design will include an underwater trail and dining experience.

The $30 million project will take guests through a landscaped sequence from their moment of arrival. Bustleton Jetty Chairman Barry House says: “This is as authentic as it gets, because people are in the tank and the fish are looking in. By adding underwater dining, underwater sculptures, marine art and other features, this project will enhance Bustleton Jetty’s 155-year-old experience.”

The marine research center will promote clean oceans and feature public interaction with a research and laboratory to educate people about climate change. Chairman House goes on to say that, “This is an exciting stage of the project, to get feedback on the design that will be a catalyst for drawing people to Western Australia from all over the world, especially those who love the ocean.”

Subcon: Blue Solutions is a marine contracting company specializing in building offshore windfarm and artificial reefs, and they are joined by CoreMarine Engineering. Construction for the AUDC aims to start in the middle of next year, with the center open by December 2022. Bustleton Jetty managers are aiming for more than 200,000 new visitors in 2023 bringing the total to more than 900,000.

written by : Eric Baldwin
15 Apr 2021
published in : archdaily.com

Gallery of the Largest Natural Marine Observatory in World

SANAA’s Sydney Modern Expansion Moves Forward And Is Scheduled To Complete In 2022

SANAA's Sydney Modern Expansion Moves Forward And Is Scheduled To Complete In 2022

New details and updates have been shared by Michael Brand, Director of Art Gallery of New South Wales on SANAA’s major Sydney Modern expansion project which is currently under construction in Sydney.
SANAA’s major transformation, named Sydney Modern Project, will create a public art garden next to the existing Gallery as well as learning studios, a special studio for multimedia works and a rooftop art terrace, overlooking Sydney Harbour in the city.

The Sydney Modern Project is the first project of Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA built in Australia once complete. As the construction is well underway despite the pandemic, the building is scheduled for completion in 2022.

Michael Brand has shared details as part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ 150th anniversary celebrations in collaboration with the Sydney Opera House to mark the annual Badu Gili festival of First Nations Culture.

“While we work to complete our expanded art museum campus through the Sydney Modern Project that will see First Nations art displayed front and centre, we are proud to share some of our collection highlights with the world on the sails of the Sydney Opera House,” Brand said.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Sydney Modern Project is an important transformation of one of Australia’s pre-eminent art museums: a new standalone building will almost double the Gallery’s exhibition space, revitalise its much-loved late-19th-century neo-classical building, and create a new public art garden and civic space for Sydney.

The Sydney Modern Project will give prominence to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, as well as revitalising the Gallery’s much-loved existing building with its unrivalled collection of Australian art from the early 19th-century to the present.

For more than half a century, the Gallery has been at the forefront of collecting, displaying and interpreting historic and contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, and in engaging directly with artists and their communities.

SANAA’s new building will sit in contrast to the Gallery’s 19th-century neo-classical building. Conceived as light, transparent and open to its surroundings, SANAA’s building responds to the site’s topography with a series of pavilions that cascade towards Sydney Harbour with spectacular views.

The expansion will almost double the Gallery’s total exhibition space, from 9,000 to 16,000 square meters and will feature galleries specifically designed to accommodate art of the 21st century.

From the time of its founding in 1871, the Gallery has collected and worked with the artists of its time from both Australia and abroad, a commitment that will remain central to the transformed art museum.

SANAA’s design is comprised of a series of interlocking pavilions that step down towards Sydney Harbour. The pavilions sit low and lightly on the site, following the natural topography of the land.

The museum highlighted that “approximately 70% of the new gallery is being constructed above existing structures – the land bridge built in 1999 and the concrete roof over two decommissioned WWII naval oil tanks built in the early 1940s.”

“Adaptive re-use of the tanks will enable public access to a significant State asset for the first time.”

The design delivers much-needed gallery space while respecting and enhancing public use of the surrounding landscape, retaining and celebrating significant trees and improving the accessibility of the cultural precinct.

The new building also comprises art research and education spaces, multipurpose spaces, shop, food and beverage facilities, and visitor amenities.

The $344 million (AUD) project will include 40,000-square-metre gallery space (new and existing building), 16,000-square-metre exhibition space (new and existing building), 960-square-metre dedicated gallery to showcase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.

The project will increase the total number of trees on the site with the Gallery planting more than double the number of trees that have been removed for construction. Significant landscape design will use endemic ecological planting (Sydney Sandstone Woodland) and reinstate historic species associated with the ‘Governor’s Domain’, more in keeping with the site’s original flora.

The external facade material of the pavilions of natural limestone in warm tones and two sweeping internal walls of rammed earth in the new building are sympathetic to the sandstone facade of the existing building and parkland setting of The Domain.

In May 2015, SANAA won an international competition to expand the Art Gallery of New South Wales. SANAA revealed new images for the expansion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2017. The firm also shared a set of revised images in 2020.

SANAA was founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 1995 in Tokyo. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were chosen as the 2010 Laureates of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

SANAA’s major works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, Japan), New Museum in New York, Rolex Learning Center, EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, Louvre-Lens in Lens, France, Grace Farms in Connecticut.

written by : Art Gallery of New South Wales
23 Apr 2021
published in : worldarchitecture.org

Gallery of SANAA's Sydney Modern Expansion Moves Forward

Corporate hotel tower proposed for Brisbane’s southern CBD

Corporate hotel tower proposed for Brisbane’s southern CBD

A 26-storey hotel tower would be built on a 40-square-metre site at the southern end of the Brisbane CBD under a proposal before council.
Designed by Buchan with landscape architecture by Arcadia, the development at 44 Roma Street is being pitched as “a unique corporate traveller hotel” development that would help revitalize this “abandoned” corner of the city.

The hotel would include 212 hotel suites along with a ground floor restaurant and bar. It would be close to Queen Street Mall and the proposed Brisbane Live precinct.

The design calls for the building to be built to the boundary on all four sides, contravening council setback rules. The proposed height also exceeds planning limits.

But Buchan argues the tower’s design excellence and features that break up the mass of the building would mitigate any issues.

These include significant landscape indents and setbacks on Turbot Street and the eastern boundary facing the Pullman Hotel.

“The design and architecture also endeavour to ‘breakdown’ the mass by splitting the building into quadrants,” the architects note in planning documents.

“The quadrants are then further emphasized with two split level horizontal landscape edges. By splitting the building, it mitigates an overall box look and articulates the face elegantly without compromising elegance and efficiency.”

The ground plane has been designed to be open and inclusive, with the underpass of Turbot street envisioned as a place for exhibitions and food truck events

written by : ArchitectureAU Editorial
30 Mar 2021
published in : architectureau.com