• Home
• Past Issues

Specifier Magazine Issue 96

• 

  Civic Sports Centre and 2013 National Games Arena by EMERGENT

  A solar-powered sports centre of super colossal proportions has just taken out a heated competition for the 2013 National Games in Shenyang, China. The victor, Tom Wiscombe’s Los Angeles-based firm, EMERGENT, are building on the booming architectural progress of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, adding yet another edge to China’s dramatic cityscape. In showcasing new organic forms, they’ve designed one powerful project, a reflection on China’s national prosperity that will unite a nation when the games begin.

  read more »
• 

  Infinity Chapel by Hanrahan Meyers Architects

  A chapel is a vessel for faith – a room, building or space standing between the real world and a higher transcendence for all believers. It is a place of sanctuary. When Hanrahan Meyers Architects (hMa) designed Infinity Chapel for the Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, they created something truly special. The place of worship was guided by perfect geometries, pure materials and mathematical principles; resulting in sensuous surfaces of curves in light. What has been created is an intimate space where the real world, sanctuary and spirit are one through architecture that captivates the soul.

  read more »
• 

  Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid

  Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House is a stunning reaffirmation of the star architect’s ethereal exploration of buildings as landscape. A space so evocative considers form and structure as sensuous sculpture for urban meandering to lose oneself to a building in a denser urban jungle. Zaha, appraised the world over for aesthetics comparative to sleek sports cars and amorphous forms (at face value) – has created possibly her finest building yet, striking a sophisticated balance between theatricality and subtlety. Zaha’s latest work may very well be to China what Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House is to Australia, an exclamation point to define a city struck with an avant-garde twist of thunder.

  read more »
• 

  Kingston Library Fitout by BVN Architecture

  Libraries in architecture have always been designed from an established archetype – a repository of books contained in a place for the public to reach them. Kingston Library by BVNArchitecture is different, providing a unique insight into how architects can utilise the best of what’s there to create an engaging communityoriented space. Sited along a bustling strip of restaurants, cafés and bars, the disjunction between a ‘normal’ library and the retail ‘experience’ is vast, yet Kingston Library doesn’t try to cram one atmosphere into the other. Its solution is simple yet appropriate, in balanced equilibrium.

  read more »
• 

  Red House at Red Hill by Inarc Architects

  Far from the disconcerting bustle of urban living, Inarc Architects’ Red Hill House is a weekend retreat that infuses the remedial qualities of coastal and pastoral living. The house overlooks stretches of vineyards and wide ocean views, nestled within the undulating hills of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. In most instances, the unique scenery would inspire a home abundant in glass and expansive views, but Red Hill House seeks to do otherwise. Drawing inspiration from the diversity of the scenery itself, the house harnesses the surrounding beauty into the comfortable confines of a family home.

  read more »
• 

  Lowy Cancer Research Centre by Laznimmo Architects and Wilson Architects in Association

  Innovation and medical advancements are often in the hands of a team of people who build on the discoveries of others and rarely on the efforts of an individual. This is something prominent in the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, where, as a joint venture between the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine (FoM) and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA), its collaborative nature has been evident since its proposal. Essentially the meeting point between adult and childhood cancer research, the competition- winning scheme is fittingly the result of a collaboration between Lahznimmo and Wilson Architects.

  read more »
• 

  Trial Bay House by HBV Architects

  Trial Bay House, designed by James Jones under HBV Architects, is a romantic rebeautification of its old self built originally in 1981. The finesse in defining and redefining material, structure, plan and detail has been an applauded victory for its mastermind, who’s created possibly one of the most lovingly crafted houses in the country of late. The house was a well-deserved recipient of the prestigious 2010 Australian Institute of Architects Robin Boyd Award for best residential house in Australia.

  read more »
• 

  Kirribilli House by Luigi Rosselli Architects

  More environmentally selfconscious than conscious, ESD principles have made appearances as add-on features in many architectural solutions that fall short of truly integrated sustainable design. In an era obsessed with sustainability, solutions rarely explore the spatial potential of cross-breeding green thinking with architecture. As a practice firmly set on capturing the essence of time, place and space, Luigi Rosselli and his team offer a refreshing middle ground in their recently-completed Kirribilli House.

  read more »