Left Field

Headline: Top architects go back to school

The Australian Financial Review, 31 October 2008, Robert Bevan, p.61

The Australian Institute of Architects national awards last night rewarded m3archtecture and McBride Charles Ryan for public and residential architecture respectively. Winner of the international award was PTW Architects + Arup + CDDI for the Water Cube in Beijing.

Headline: Drop-down screens dominate renovations, enthusiasm for spas drained

The Australian Financial Review, 7 August 2008, Scott Elliot, p.69

Home owners are choosing to renovate rather than move due to associated costs such as stamp duty according to a poll released by Archicentre. Dedicated broadband internet points, drop-down plasma screens and security systems were high on people’s renovation list according to Archicentre.

Headline: Hungrier Mile turns prize site into wasteland

Sydney Morning Herald, pg 1. Sunanda Creagh. 6 August 2008.

The architects who won a design competition for East Darling Harbour have accused the state government of pandering to developers by "bulking up and dumbing down" their plans for the Hungry Mile.

Philip Thalis, Paul Berkemeier and Jane Irwin, who won Australia's most significant international architecture competition since the Opera House, have also warned that a single developer could end up controlling Sydney's biggest urban renewal project and the last significant CBD site.

"It is very disappointing and it's not good for Sydney," Mr Berkemeier said yesterday. "You can't take an office park mentality, with these huge office blobs, and put that in the middle of the city. We will end with some very dumpy buildings there. We cannot let the development industry dictate the outcome."

Headline: Hungrier Mile ruins prize site: architects

The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 2008, Sunanda Creagh, p.1

Two years after the Government announced that Thalis, Berkemeier and Irwin had won a design competition for Barangaroo, the architects have revealed that - after the fanfare died down - they were sidelined by the Government and their vision bastardised.

Their plan for Barangaroo, affectionately known as the Hungry Mile, envisioned a park at the eastern end of the 11-hectare site, small streets connecting the CBD to the water, residential development and articulated office blocks of different shapes and sizes at the western end. The architects have now warned that a single developer could end up controlling Sydney's biggest urban renewal project and the last significant CBD site.

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Headline: At last, something for Sydney's architects to cheer about

In an op ed piece, Elizabeth Farrelly provides her opinion on the winners of the Australian Institute of Architects' NSW Award.

"The Sulman went to Kennedy Associates' Bowden Centre at Mount Annan Botanic Gardens; handsome but too heavily dependent, to my mind, on Glenn Murcutt's Arthur Boyd Centre, and not as good.

The Wilkinson went to James Stockwell's Leura House, a worthy but familiar re-run of '50s California, in a strongly horizontal Neutra-meets-Gordon Drake kind of way."
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Headline: Democracy makes a mark in new offices

The Australian Financial Review, 17 July 2008, Patrick Durkin, p.15

At last night’s Premier’s Design Awards in Melbourne, Ashton Raggatt McDougall won an award for its design of 1010 La Trobe Street. The building, in Melbourne’s Docklands, was designed referencing themes from the technological age - bar codes, Morse code and circuit boards. Corner offices have also been removed, replaced with interior offices, marking the move towards a more democratic style.

Headline: Woods Bagot grows

The Australian Financial Review, 11 July 2008, Paddy Manning, p.69

The global studio operations of architect, Woods Bagot, in Sydney and Perth have been expanded to aid its 300 staff working in design studios in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

Headline: UIA appoints Cox

The Australian Financial Review, 8 July 2007, Robert Harley, p.56

The International Union of Architects has appointed Australian architect, Louise Cox AM, as its president. Ms Cox was formerly a national president of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Headline: Beauticians sought for city's ugliest building

The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 2008, Harriet Alexander, p.5

The University of Technology, Sydney will run a competition for architects and designers to come up with a scheme to improve the iconic tower's appearance and its contribution to the campus's environmental sustainability plan.

There has even been talk of recruiting the tower-hating former prime minister Paul Keating to the judging panel.

Architecture Award

Australian Financial Review, 17 June 2008, Robert Harley, p.51

The Royal Australian Institute of Architects have awarded the University of South Australia's John Wardle Architects with Hassell-designed Hawke Building the 2008 Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture .