WSH Architects
The Monash School of Architecture is the first new architecture school to open in Australia in 30 years. Curved along Dandenong Road in south-eastern suburban Melbourne is Monash University's Building F, now the modernist architectural shell of the new architecture school fitted out in its entirety by WSH Architects.
Workshop Architecture
It's not often that a whole community is invited to contribute their two cents to the design process of an upcoming project. You only need to look as far as Camden on the outskirts of Sydney and the proposed development of one of the country's largest Islamic schools to see that often the only contributions are in the form of protest. But the architects behind Stage 1 of the North Melbourne Primary School redevelopment were only too happy to collaborate with neighbours and community groups, reflecting the firm's dedication to an interactive design process.
Tony Owen Partners
If there is anything worse than an endless vista of McMansions marching across the hills, it's an endless strip of cookie-cutter homes sullying an otherwise picturesque stretch of coastline. Now, wandering along Hastings Beach, in the hilly scrub of the Royal National Park near Bundeena, one might just stumble across fifteen beach houses of the Elandra Housing Project, not that one would ever instinctively categorise them as such.
Andrew Maynard Architects (AMA)
The still-emerging Melbourne architect Andrew Maynard self-professedly explores architectures 'of enthusiasm'. His small firm splits its time between broader socio-political design studies and the small but multi-functional and versatile built works for which AMA is increasingly well known.
Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM)
Melbourne and other smaller communities owe much to ARM for influencing their colourful and exuberant public architecture. Storey Hall, the triumph of postmodern pastiche and arbitrary form; the wildly contorted Australian National Museum; the Port 1010 building, seemingly inspired by a popular visual illusion – all of these buildings evoke a response. It's hard not to have an opinion on them when the architecture is so loud. And who, after all, can inhabit Storey Hall's green-lit interior, see it's eccentric detailing and ironic Corinthian columns, and not at least smile?
For all the wonder and perplexities in the world, one thing remains constant: politics and religion will never be friends. With a tumultuous history spanning decades, nowhere elseis this better understood than in the Middle East. And such isthe backdrop of the Peres Peace House – a building free of religious affiliation, but entrenched in political sentiment. Opened in March this year, the Peace House and the organisation it accommodates, is all about reaching peace through people, rather than governments. Built on the premise that it will assist to achieve peace and also represent it, the Peace House is a structure of profound significance, a symbol of innovation and change.
read more »
