Liverpool Civic Place | fjcstudio
Liverpool’s Civic building, lost to fire, prompted a transformative initiative at the southern end of the CBD. A new Civic Place includes a unique 21st century library, Yellamundie, and Civic Building. Inspired by the gentle curve of the Georges River, Yellamundie’s curvilinear design invites pedestrian flow and connectivity. Set at the terminus of tree lined Macquarie Street, it harmonises with the Civic Foyer that references Greenway’s local heritage buildings.
The library’s curved form, reflecting the river’s eddies, fosters gathering and embraces a timber decked gathering garden and sunken courtyard. Within the plaza, a grove of resilient Crepe Myrtles combats heat island effects, and reinforces the strong Hoddle like city grid. Integrating much of the 5000sqm library beneath the plaza presented an urban challenge, resulting in generous on grade public domain from Scott Street. Liverpool Civic Place uniquely resolves complex urban challenges to offer invaluable social infrastructure to an increasingly dense Western Sydney city.
LMS Energy Headquarters | DesignInc
LMS Energy Headquarters in Adelaide marks a significant shift from traditional operations to a hybrid workplace, encouraging industry, employees, and families to unite as a community. The repurposed building spans two levels connected by a central light-filled stairway. A tiered planter and seating area beneath the stairs serves as a waiting area that leads into a spacious kitchen and gathering space. Different work settings support the open plan offices, including quiet rooms and booths and formal and informal collaboration spaces that promote teamwork and offer flexibility for remote employees. The design team has chosen eco-friendly materials and incorporated greenery, glazing film, and curtains to reduce solar heat gain. A rooftop solar array powers the building, and the underground car park houses two electric vehicle chargers. The new headquarters reflects LMS Energy’s innovative industrial spirit while maintaining a commitment to environmental and social sustainability.
Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club | Adriano Pupilli Architects
Nestled within the rugged coastal dune scape of Griffith Reserve, the Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club emerges from the landscape. It quietly signals its presence via a series of weathered timber forms, each defining a corner of a communal courtyard. This is a place for the community to gather, to save lives, to train, to pause and reconnect with each other and nature. The architecture recedes to allow natural coastal flows and processes to characterise the experience of the building and the land.
Over time the building is designed to weather and patina in place, a robust and hardworking architecture for generations of club and community users to enjoy, be inspired, delighted and surprised, day to day and across the seasons. An architecture where people and place can thrive and be well.
Lu Style – Shanghai | Schin Architects with Atelier W
Lu Style Shanghai is the seventh edition of this boutique restaurant chain. Situated in a pair of traditional Shanghai Shikumen dwellings, the restaurant serves luxury cuisine originating from the coastal Shandong province.
The project comprises a combination of dining formats with an emphasis on private dining rooms combined with three bar areas and a flexible multipurpose art gallery and function space. Working within the tight confines of a reconstructed heritage site, we sought to bring a light touch and breathe a breath of fresh air into the formal and somewhat austere buildings. The result was a series of spaces that were unexpected and engaging, encouraging further exploration.
Lunar Apartments | Rothelowman
Lunar integrates what people love about living in Jannali in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire: being part of a neighbourhood and community, and having light, nature, ventilation and views. Offering a new vision for suburbia, Lunar provides high quality, affordable, liveable apartments for the local market, many of them young couples and downsizers who want to stay close to family and friends.
The five storey courtyard building is surrounded by nature and rock shelves, and maximises the number of north facing dwellings, for sunlight and views. Externalised circulation fosters a neighbourhood feeling and animates the streetscape. Breezeway apartments draw light and ventilation through the interiors. Drawing on suburban housing models, every apartment has two facades: a front porch (public corridor and semi public internal space) and back yard (private balcony). These outdoor spaces provide connections to nature and fragment the building to create a lighter density and modern, unpretentious architecture that relates to Jannali’s character.
Lynwood Senior High School Redevelopment | With Architecture Studio
The redevelopment at Lynwood SHS bring new life to the campus, revitalising the school presence when seen from Metcalfe Rd.
The building’s siting features a set of new buildings forming a new perimeter to the campus, together with a landscape intervention opening a thoroughfare through the school as an effective wayfinding device for pedestrians. While the cantilevered ‘crown’ defines the new school frontage, secondary pedestrian access to the school connects with expanded vehicular drop off areas.
The entry forecourt to the performing arts and learning areas is defined with patterned black brick and a large opening to the courtyard, the result being a space animated by natural light that bleeds into the building interiors.
Landscaped areas play an important role by providing new amenity and connecting the school new frontage with the new Sports Hall at the rear of the campus, revitalising existing areas such as the school orchard.
Macarthur Street Amenities Pavilion | Searle x Waldron Architecture
Macarthur St Amenities Pavilion is both functional and playful. Opportunistically taking a simple brief to upgrade school bathrooms, it finds layout and budget efficiencies to deliver more with less. Reducing the existing building footprint and spatially adapting a largescale mural, the project creates active edges for student play, learning and assembly.
Prioritising reuse, the sustainable, economic, and social value of retaining existing fabric is realised. A new canopy reorients the building towards the street, creating a public frontage and valuable outdoor learning and play space. Vibrant mural colours wrap around the chamfered corner and soffit. Red bricks matching the heritage school buildings form a recessed seating nook. A community gesture, the canopy frames a new entry, directing students towards the assembly space.
Reflecting the schools motto, Where the Past and Future Meet, the colourful connection between the canopy, verandah and adjacent heritage building demonstrates the projects unique connections to context.
Maggie Street | Curious Practice
Maggie Street reinterprets and respects the amenity, heritage and character of the surrounding suburb, but while neighbours inhabit as single dwellings on large lots, Maggie Street manages a fraternal quadruplet of generous two storey townhouses. Flexibility in the planning of each unit can allow for any number of occupant requirements, from a growing family, home office or just having room to have the grandchildren stay.
Materials have been chosen for their practicality, durability and texture changing with shifting shadows and development of patina over time. The red cement bonded particle board and zincalume claddings bring both familiarity and vitality to the development, and with lawn removed from the site, an all native landscape plan brings biodiversity back to help repair the site post construction.
Increasing density, reducing sprawl and fostering a sense of community between occupants are becoming the new standards for developments people actually want to live in not just buy.
Maggie’s House | Light House Architecture and Science
Maggies House is the stunning transformation of an original red brick, Plan 404, exgovernment home with a 1990s split level extension. The result of a carefully integrated architecture and science process By Light House is a energy and space efficient family home that is now climate resilient and takes full advantage of a leafy northerly outlook over the surrounding neighbourhood and parkland while also connecting beautifully to private garden areas to the rear.
Key principles behind this project:
Flexibility and adaptability the home needed to be suitable for a growing family and to host regular visiting family and friends
Connection with the existing wellestablished gardens and the neighbourhood
Climate resilience and solar passive design
Renovation rather than knockdown rebuild
Simplicity and a sympathetic streetscape reflective of the original neighbouring homes
Maitland Administration Centre | Maitland City Council, BVN, PTW and EJE
The new Maitland Administration Centre is a key new civic element that reinforces a connection to Maitland’s past. The project incorporates and celebrates a number of significant buildings from different eras, dominated by the 1890 Town Hall.
The heart of the project is the new grand lobby. Its public nature is important in connecting the office, performance and civic functions of the facility. The lobby cleverly navigates design and heritage issues allowing future relevance of key community areas such as the Town Hall and Council Chambers.
The new Administration component responds to its context and recognises its importance in the civic and cultural life of the community and representing the ideas of permanence and presence. The design utilises a masonry screen wrap to address massing and materials.
The new building seeks to create a dynamic workplace and reinvigorated public facility with a high level of amenity for staff and visitors.