Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Architecture Australia

After a tumultuous year, the value of our architectural community is evermore evident. This year, 2021, is a very special one for the Institute, marking our ninetieth as a national professional collective with a global reach. Celebrations commenced on 18 November 2020 and will continue throughout the year. Writing my fourth foreword on this auspicious date and reflecting on the history that shaped us, I contemplate the first general meeting of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) in 1930, which formalized a marriage between separate state institutes. Between 1871 and 1903, each of the states founded its own architectural institute. By the “Roaring Twenties,” all were well-established, financially sound, and firmly constituted. The idea of federating, first mooted in 1887, was formally proposed in 1914. From 1915 to 1929,…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation We like this building; it seems poised within its physical context. By poised, we mean composed and separate from its context, but at the same time somehow enigmatically reactive to the particular nature of that context. The building is Johnson Pilton Walker’s (JPW) Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, which brings together the existing Nicholson, Macleay and University art collections to enable a profound increase in accessibility for students, academics and the general public. Alongside exhibition spaces, the new building will also provide a substantial collections store, loading and conservation facilities, a diverse range of internal and external learning environments, and numerous event spaces. Form As we stand on the loop of University Place before…

The architectural profession and its journals, publications and prizes tend to focus on architecture’s value as built artifact. The corollary to this is that the unbuilt has less or no value, or at best that it comes in a poor second place. This binary is a consequence of a professional body of knowledge that focuses on buildings alone and that arguably misrepresents the fuller dimensions of our practice. Rather than exposing the broader knowledges that go into architectural production, it commodifies the notion of “building” as object. Consequently, what architects actually “do” at work is often undervalued by the public and there is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of an architect’s work and what it is that architects actually believe they are doing. And if architecture is diminished to…

Jury citation: This scheme strongly argues for a better synthesis of planning, urban design and, to a degree, social engineering, to address the social and racial demarcations between central Paris and it suburbs. With a proposed new underground rail line to encircle the city, there is an opportunity for the above-ground spaces to be converted into a “green ring.” Using the rock and earth from the rail line tunnel’s formation, new buildings will be built using this “waste” material and, with planning laws permitting higher densities close to green space, it will allow a new, community-focused form of housing to be built. Envisaged as a way of “stitching” the two parts of Paris together, this scheme – by its radical but thoughtful intervention – has the potential to blend through…

One of my early memories in architectural publishing was the relaunch of the AA Prize for Unbuilt Work in 2007, under the editorship of Justine Clark. I acted as a facilitator to the jury and distinctly recall the energetic and inspiring debate and conversations between jurors Shelley Penn, Peter Skinner, Anthony Burke and Justine. Offering as it does the chance to exploit the immense potential of design thinking to solve problems creatively, unbuilt architecture has an unbridled ambition that is a refreshing departure from the more constrained aspect of the daily practice. After a decade-long hiatus, the AA Prize for Unbuilt Work has again returned, with this issue of Architecture Australia celebrating this year’s winners. From big-picture thinking and provocations to schemes with conceptual depth and rigour, the collection of…

One of the privileges and pleasures of curating a conference is the selection of the keynote speakers, as individuals and in relationship to one another – imagining and composing in your mind resonances, lively dialogues and conversations. As co-curators of the 2020 National Architecture Conference (which could not go ahead, ultimately, due to COVID-19 restrictions), Emma Williamson, Kieran Wong, Justine Clark and I were drawn to Jude Barber and Kerstin Thompson for their intersection of organizational innovations, profound built work and vital advocacy for architecture. The following passage is woven from two independent Friday-afternoon conversations, one week apart, about the why and how of their spirited practice. Education: formative influences Kerstin Thompson: I studied at RMIT in the 1980s, and the profession and the academy were absolutely integrated, mutually defining.…

With society’s focus on the built artifact, and the commodified notion of building as object, it can be easy to disregard the value of unbuilt work. But as architects, we are as interested in the social as in the material, the cultural as the technical. And if we are to play our part in the shaping and sustenance of cities, unbuilt work is vital in helping us to demonstrate what we, as a discipline, truly value.…

Experimentation, speculation, invention – celebrating the unbuilt Jury chair overview With more than 200 entries submitted, this year’s jury was excited by the overwhelming response to the relaunch of the AA Prize for Unbuilt Work after a decade-long hiatus. From the truly inventive and polemical to the entirely realistic, many of the schemes dealt with the very real issues facing us today, offering suggestions as to how we might change our course into the future. It is an interesting moment in time to relaunch such a speculative prize, living as we are through what feels like one giant experiment. We have been given a chance to dream up a new world; and I believe architects can lead the way by collectively drawing on a unique capacity for imagination and pragmatism.…

Jury citation: Lego has come a long way since its early days of rigid gender boundaries and “idealized” settings (the hospital set now includes female doctors). It retains its kit-of-parts formula but has crossed over from child’s play alone. Its Technic imaginaries, sci-fi worlds and major works of architecture are ever-evolving and increasingly complex. MvS Architects’ poetic architectural tablets are serious Lego. Each sculptural objet d’art, reminiscent of deconstructivism and other “isms,” is intriguing and delightful. The imposed constraints on form and material deliberately create symbiosis and dichotomy between the sheer and undulating faces of each tablet. Exemplified in Ryou-Un Maru (pictured), the method of obscuring the Lego studs is in itself artful. The Lost Tablets remind us of the cuneiform clay tablets of the Nabonidus Chronicle. The type, according…

For a gallery of the shortlisted projects, go to: architectureau.com/articles/ 2021-aa-prize-for-unbuilt-work-shortlist…

The COVID-19 pandemic could be the biggest global disruption in generations, and its effects are not limited to health and the economy. Its long tail could have implications for many areas of the built environment.  The profession is at a crossroads, a transformational moment that could lead to a rethink of both its model of practice and how to remake the world. This roundtable seeks to explore how architects can not only survive but pivot to play a vital role in a post-pandemic world. Linda Cheng: The architecture profession stands on a precarious ledge just now, as clients abandon their projects and the government wage subsidy – which is supporting the incomes of as many as 60 percent of architects – starts to taper off. Are we in a temporary…

Built on the land of the Turrbal people Vertical schools, while familiar in other parts of the world, are still reasonably novel in Australia, particularly in the government school system. Increasingly, though, the typology is becoming relevant as more families opt to live in inner-city areas because of their proximity to work and lifestyle amenities. In Brisbane, as the dominance of high-value knowledge-intensive services further transforms the urban economy, significant urban renewal is driving greater residential density. In response, the Queensland state government has resourced the creation of two new vertical inner-city schools, one in Fortitude Valley in the inner north and the other in Dutton Park in the inner south. The first of these two projects to get underway, Fortitude Valley State Secondary College, is also the first school…

Every architectural work has an unbuilt side. In Robert Harbison’s classic (romantic) book on the subject of the unbuilt, he states categorically, “…the solidest architectural facts are fictional to a degree. Like much art, buildings often have a virtual or imaginary component, not that they are liable to vanish like thoughts, but that they are more precarious than they ordinarily appear, because preoccupied with meaning something.”1 Harbison seeks to locate the motivation of architectural endeavour from the material to the immaterial dimensions of every project. In his terms, what architects seek to create is always more than bricks and mortar; not just the unbuilt but also that which is “unbuildable.” Today, to dissociate the unbuilt from the stuff of “real” practice is to ignore a huge amount of the work…

Most of the work produced by architects is unbuilt and part of the daily professional dance: concepts, strategies, options, sketches and storyboards. Architectural training places greater emphasis on the building of concepts and ideas than on the practicalities of the built object, yet in typical architectural practice, the success of an idea is most often measured against its built outcome. Of course, as our Instagram accounts attest, many built works are outstanding professional achievements of architectural beauty and some may even hold strong relationships to people, place and time. Yet a built work – even a large and significant one – is, by its very nature, a small set piece in the city, containing highly specific ideas imprisoned by and endlessly tuned to the confines of the project, the client…