Darlinghurst Workplace | BVN
Darlinghurst Workplace celebrates the radical adaptation of a brick warehouse into a contemporary workplace in Sydney. BVN was tasked with rehousing a 300+ workforce across 3 levels of a near century old former car garage. Collaborating with a highly skilled fire engineer allowed the introduction of a new floor to the old warehouse in mass timber, combatting structural limitations, construction efficiency and embodied carbon. A void with skylight above was carved from the building’s centre to welcome natural light and encourage movement between all levels and comradery across teams.
New outdoor terraces enhance the connection with the local context and fresh air, fostering wellness for the occupants. The fun and humour of this workplace’s culture is injected into the architecture through colour, materiality, and a unique and quirky art collection. The result is a reimagined workplace with culture as the driver and fun at its core.
Darlington Public School | fjcstudio
Darlington Public School, a small school located on the fringe of the City of Sydney near the University of Sydney and the eclectic neighbourhoods of Darlington and Newtown, has undergone a significant transformation. Linear brick structures, complementary to the local industrial masonry, house flexible learning hubs, a multipurpose hall, and support spaces, while a curvilinear perforated metal screen defines fluid, organic movement and gathering areas related to outdoor learning and play.
The redesign prioritises a contemporary learning environment, fostering a safe and inclusive atmosphere for the tightknit school community. Acknowledging diverse backgrounds, the design integrates the rich Aboriginal Peoples culture and artistic heritage, preserving aboriginal artworks with QR codes for ongoing curation.
Photographed murals from demolished walls are reproduced in the cladding, providing a tactile response and preserving cultural narratives. The landscape enhances learning by detailing indigenous plant names and uses, reinforcing the school’s commitment to a holistic educational experience.
Deloitte Workplace Sydney | Hassell
Establishing a global benchmark for quality, exceptional experience and elevated performance, Deloitte’s new headquarters, designed by international design practice Hassell, is a space emblematic of Sydney’s famous harbour.
Located inside the award-winning Quay Quarter Tower (QQT), the project redefines how large workplaces are conceived and used. Designed during the Covid19 lockdowns, its central purpose is to enable hybrid work, build capability and innovation, and support world-class client engagement.
Arranged over 14 floors in four interconnected ‘vertical villages’, each village caters to the diverse work styles, roles, personalities and preferences within the Deloitte community.
By combining Hassell and Deloitte’s insights on modern work trends, integrating seamless technology and prioritising a holistic approach to sustainability, the outcome is a compelling, diverse, sensory rich environment. Imbued with a captivating sense of place that quite literally draws people in, it encourages active participation, instils innate pride and is already a place that people love.
Charles Street Square | lahznimmo architects with SMM
lahznimmo architects, with landscape architects Spackman Mossop Michaels, were engaged by the City of Parramatta to design Charles Street Square. The design resolves complex spatial issues including steep level changes, challenging flooding constraints, retention of mature trees, numerous stakeholders, indigenous and recent heritage and large volumes of pedestrians navigating between the river and city.
A series of sweeping curves respond to the fluid form of Parramatta River at the point it transitions from tidal and brackish to running fresh water at the Charles Street Weir. The curves form a series of terraces and ramps that mediate three distinct levels: Riverfront, Mid terrace and Street level providing a continuous accessible path and river facing Amphitheatre.
The Architectural elements take their cues from traditional maritime structures the timber and painted steel shade shelter bows towards the riverfront, echoing the curving terraces and responding to the bowl like cross section of the site.
Clifton House | Anthony Gill Architects
Replacing an existing bungalow on a suburban block in North Bondi, this new family house is located on the sandy flat that runs from the beach through to Sydney Harbour at Rose Bay.
The surroundings are relatively dense for suburban Sydney with the site sharing boundaries with a mix of housing types, posing a significant challenge in terms of privacy.
The house is carefully planned around a series of courtyards with dense planting to help filter these neighbouring conditions.
The ground floor living rooms open up onto several distinct garden spaces that bring light and ventilation deep into the plan while the upper level relies on the use of fiberglass screens to ensure privacy to the bedrooms. Behind these screens, gardens provide a softness to this strategy and the overall materiality of the house that references the red brick houses and apartment buildings common to the suburb.
Coconut Crab | ASA in collaboration with Casa Adams Fine Wares
Coconut Crab is a ceramic studio designed in collaboration with the client, Casa Adams Fine Wares. Their aim is to encourage preservation and curiosity of marine life through meticulously painted, handmade porcelain plates. The biggest example being the giant tiled Coconut Crab climbing the facade. The studio design flexibly caters to ceramic production, educational workshops and business administration. It is located to the rear of the site, across from their existing family home.
The dwellings equally share a thriving native landscape which supports vulnerable endemic frog, bird and insect species and an edible garden. The strategic planning and placement was further complemented by the use of recycled materials, recycled double glazed doors and windows, along with a highly insulated and an airtight building envelope and HRV system. This ensures the users have a comfortable and durable working environment which can be easily readapted for future uses such as a secondary dwelling.
Campbell House Private Office | Tonkin Zulaikha Greer
Campbell House Private Office is the adaptive reuse of a Federation style house from the early 1890s into a contemporary office. TZG’s approach to this design was to weave the built heritage fabric into the contemporary commercial design to unify the significant building and positively contribute to its Heritage Conservation setting.
The threshold between interior and exterior spaces is blurred by layered transparencies that welcome the established front garden and abundant natural light deep into the building. A mature Weeping Fig Tree was planted in the office atrium and is the central focus of the new building. The surrounding contemporary design interventions, like the tree, breathes new life into the building.
The office is an exemplar of environmental design based on natural light, passive ventilation, enduring materials and harvesting green energy facilitated by a contemporary intervention to a heritage building.
Campbelltown Hospital Redevelopment | Billard Leece Partnership
The $632m redevelopment of the Campbelltown Hospital utilises the latest design innovation around healthcare and healing environments to deliver a vital health service for the region.
The building responds to the topography of the site creating a distinct identity that represents the growing Campbelltown and Macarthur Region. The façade of the building is designed to be alive, not static with materials that reflect the colours and tones of Dharawal Country landscapes.
Working collaboratively with Dharawal Country representatives, the design team developed concepts to enrich the project via landscape, art, sculpture, as well as the façade colours and tones. Themes of the lyre bird and native medicinal plants are expressed on the building’s façade with a dramatic sculptural floating feather and mural in the building lobby.
A key indicator to the success of the project, has already shown an uptake in attendance for care ensuring better health outcomes for the community.
Campion College | WMK Architecture
The new Academic Centre sits serenely in the landscape amongst the gum trees, seamlessly integrated with the original heritage campus building. External colonnades mirror the existing building with the intricate detailing around the colonnade arches testimony to the craftmanship of this building.
The Gina Rinehart Library combines traditional and modern aesthetics to create a spiritual, inviting space. Abundant natural light illuminates the library interior, the two-story space focused around a stunning stained-glass skylight and grand staircase. Study areas and breakout spaces are integrated amongst the extensive book collection, large windows providing visual connections to the surrounding campus.
Stenhouse Hall provides a grand, flexible space, allowing the College to hold key events. The interior is flooded with natural light whilst the finer detailing gives a sense of grandeur and elegance.
Within the Academic Building, students also have access to a lecture theatre, media room and six additional classrooms.
Capella Sydney | Make Architects and BAR Studio
Capella Sydney has transformed a heritage listed government building in the heart of Sydney into a world-class luxury hotel. The first Australian property for the Capella Hotel Group, it now welcomes the public in for the first time. First designed by George McRae in 1912, the building features a sandstone facade and a Florentine Palazzo style central courtyard, both of which have been restored and celebrated in the design.
Architecture and interiors coalesce to provide a coherent design that speaks to the building’s historical origins, taking visitors on a journey through the reimagined sequence of spaces. A complementary 4 storey set back extension with a new green roofscape houses grandly proportioned guestrooms, while the ground level is open to the public with new dining venues, function spaces and art. A wellness centre and 20m pool are innovatively integrated beneath heritage roof lanterns on level 6, celebrating the interplay of old and new.