Architecture Australia, January 2020
Architecture AustraliaProvocative, informative and engaging discussion of the best built works and the issues and events that matter.
Reflection
AA January/February 2020 preview
On a global scale: The worldwide reach of Australian architects
Projects
Shells, sails and upturned hulls: National Maritime Museum of China
China’s first comprehensive maritime museum, located ouside Tianjin, at once reflects contemporary globalism, the marine history of the local area and a profoundly Australian style of architecture rooted in landscape metaphors.
Windermere Jetty Museum by Carmody Groarke
Perched on the shore of England’s largest lake, a “living museum” dedicated to the preservation of maritime craft and tradition articulates and stitches together the many narratives of its place.
A fitting bookend: Luxembourg National Library
The new national library of Luxembourg is a complex and multifaceted structure where the deftness of the architect’s illustrative hand has resulted in a flowing sequence of spaces that beckons the community.
Sacred ambition: Chapel and Meditation Room
Sited among the millennia-old hills and boulders of northern Portugal, this ensemble of spiritual buildings reflects an ambitious set of intentions – to call upon an elemental sense of time, of seasons and of place.
History with modern luxury: Amanyangyun Shanghai
In its expansive yet judiciously ordered design for a hotel near Shanghai, this Perth- and Singapore-based practice demonstrates its experience in Asia and its ability to integrate ancient and new.
‘Necessary and motivating’: The Tiing
On the north coast of Bali, a new hotel responds intuitively to its local context, with accommodation carefully angled to reflect the balance of Balinese life between the mountains and the sea.
An audacious architectural proposition: Unhistoric Townhouse
Akin to “fabric that twists and flows in the wind,” the brick facade of this townhouse by System Architects spearheads a new urban language for the historic New York district of Tribeca by drawing on its past.
In praise of shadows: Terrace House near Demachiyanagi
Atelier Luke’s diminutive Japanese-Australian architectural hybrid reconstitutes the fabric of the original townhouse in a respectful yet compelling way, creating spaciousness as much through darkness as through light.
Discussion
In it to win it: procuring projects abroad
What are the challenges and opportunities for Australian architecture practices working internationally? Ross Donaldson, who led the global growth of Woods Bagot, shares his insights.
Australian architects and the future of Chinese cities
The rapid urbanization of China is opening up significant opportunities for Australian architectural practices.
A cultural and generational shift in teaching architecture
Scott Drake, an Australian educator in Thailand, explains the cultural and technical challenges of teaching Thai students to be “international.”
Architecture schools can be self-obsessed and claustrophobic
Tom Heneghan, a professor in the Department of Architecture at Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, reflects on the eye-, mind-, and door-openning opportunities of “internationalized” architectural education.
Architecture can no longer afford to live in a capital ‘A’ bubble
Richard Blythe, professor and dean at the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia Tech, says architecture will need to be rethought in terms of less predictable and more hostile environmental conditions.
Could a radically open architecture school help graduates invent jobs?
Australian educator Gretchen Wilkins, Head of Architecture at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, says that in the face of an uncertain future, architecture schools could foster whole new types of creative practice.
‘Storytelling is a critical act of architecture’: Liam Young
In widening the scope of architecture beyond buildings alone, could architects design the next Hollywood blockbuster or video game landscape?
Is architectural education outmoded, overpriced and increasingly irrelevant?
Architectural educators are inventing and trialling new education models to meet the challenges brought on the ‘marketization’ of higher education.
The Anganwadi Project: From little things, big things grow…
Esther Charlesworth explores the work of an Australian NGO that recruits skilled architects to volunteer their time to work on preschool centres in India.
Curating as a spatial practice
London-based designers and exhibition curators Rory Hyde and Kate Goodwin converse on the value of spaces where architecture can be recognized as an integral part of culture.
Rights of future generations: Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2019
Stephen Todd visited the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah to experience the alternative visions that are at the core of the triennial, curated by Australian architect and designer Adrian Lahoud.
A. S. Hook Address: Koning Eizenberg
The dynamic practice of Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg, 2019 Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medallists, has relied on their willingness to says “yes, and” instead of “no, but” and their love of collaboration.
Venice Biennale 2020 Australian Pavilion preview: In | Between
Architecture Australia catches up with the curators of the Australian Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Platform
A revolutionary practice redefining architecture
Based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Milinda Pathiraja and Ganga Rathnayake of Robust Architecture Workshop have developed a mode of design practice with an impact that goes beyond its built projects, to contribute to social, political and economic development .
More articles
Roundtable: A pulse check during the COVID-19 recession
Linda Cheng brings together six members of the profession from across the country to find out how they are faring, and what they see as the opportunities for architects and their collaborators in a post-COVID world.
Australians on the world stage
Australian architects are highly valued for their agility in fast-changing industry conditions. We round up selection of international projects, designed by Australian practices, currently under construction or on the drawing board.
‘Messy vitality’: Monash University Chancellery
ARM’s Chancellery acts as a portal between Monash University and the community, celebrating campus history while providing a contemporary facility.
Unbuilt work and the practice of architecture
For Philip Vivian, unbuilt work is at the core of what it means to practise architecture, offering the opportunity to explore unconstrained ideas, to engage in city-shaping visions led by the public interest, and to promote a “design-led optimism” for the future.