lahznimmo architects
lahznimmo architects creates places for people and with people in mind, aiming to make a social and cultural contribution to the built environment. So the post-industrial surroundings and burnt-out remnants of "Building 13" were a perfect inspiration for this latest incarnation of the café: a much-needed lively hub for Blaxland Riverside Park in Sydney's Olympic precinct.
Smart Design Studio
Founded by William Smart in 1997, Smart Design Studio quickly secured its reputation as an excellent multidisciplinary practice, combining a generally holistic approach with fine attention to detail. This project is a perfect demonstration of this success: an open, transparent workplace with symbolic yet practical flourishes designed to foster an atmosphere of creativity.
Nesson Murcutt Architects
When Neeson Murcutt inherited this project, it had evolved from an ambitious two-storey concept into a laid-bak one-storey weekender.Hugging the slope and flying under the radar, this is a fun yet practical home: a working model for affordable sustainable living in a subdivided suburban setting.
Gray Puksand
Thanks to the stimulus package, there’s a lot of money around at the moment for sub-$3m school building projects. One of the more contested aspects of this Federal Government program has been the use of “best practice” design templates to rationalise and accelerate the building process for all public schools. Schools are asked to nominate the type of facility they would like, choose from amongst a number of templates, and customise according to need.
Brown Falconer
Australian Technical Colleges provide education opportunities in regions with a large youth population, a strong industry base and a high need for skilled labour. The Northern Adelaide college campus, designed by Brown Falconer and completed in 2008, provides for 360 Year 11 and 12 students and 40 staff, teaching commercial cookery, metals engineering, building and construction, electro-technology and automotive industry skills.
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?
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.
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.
