Three teams have been shortlisted for Stage Two of the Gold Coast City Council competition to design a new cultural precinct at Evandale. The multidisciplinary teams are: ARM Architecture (Australia), Nikken Sekkei (Tokyo) and CRAB_VOGT_DBI (London/Zurich/Gold Coast), each led by the named principles collaborating with teams of specialist consultants.
The three teams were selected from seventy-five entries received during Stage One of the competition, which opened on 26 March 2013. Each team will now receive $250,000 to develop their design response in detail over an intensive twelve-week period, with the winners announced in November 2013.
Plans for the precinct are ambitious. The brief called for a New Arts Museum, a Living Arts Centre, and a landscaped Artscape will be integral to the winning design. “These will become our natural civic gardens, connecting to the green bridge, which is planned to connect to Chevron Island,” says Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, at the shortlist announcement on 14 June 2013. “The three shortlisted teams had demonstrated that they understood the city’s vision for a distinctly-Gold Coast, landmark precinct which could evolve into the natural heart for arts and culture for the Gold Coast.”
The shortlisted teams’ designs will be kept under wraps until the announcement of an overall winner is made in November. At that point, a curated exhibition of all the competition entries will open at the The Arts Centre, Gold Coast.
The teams
CRAB_VOGT_DBI
This team creates a local and international architectural alliance between respected Gold Coast-based DBI Design and global architecture practice CRAB Studio (London). Landscape architecture will be led by Zurich-based Vogt.
CRAB Studio is the designer of the nearly completed Soheil Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University on the Gold Coast. The team will partner with structural engineers Bollinger and Grohmann (Frankfurt), sustainability consultants Max Fordham (London), acoustic consultants Marshall Day (Melbourne), theatre consultants Theatreplan (London), urban informatics Arup (Sydney), light installation artist Bruce Munro (UK), lighting designer Andre Tammes; and a support team of Gold Coast-based companies: GMP quantity surveyors, Habitat ecological engineers, AECOM transport, building and acoustic consultants, UPS urban planning, CERTIS accessibility consultant, Robert Bird structural engineer and TDLD lighting consultants.
ARM Architecture
Melbourne-based ARM Architecture responsible for many of Australia’s best-known cultural projects including Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance Visitor Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Canberra’s National Museum of Australia, and the new Perth Arena.
ARM is partnered with landscape architects Topotek1 (Berlin), theatre planners Shuler Shook (US and Melbourne), acoustic engineers Marshall Day (Melbourne), sustainability and engineering consultants Arup (global), museum and exhibition designers Cunningham Martyn Design (Melbourne) and indigenous and cultural consultants Duncan Gibbs and Michael Aird (Gold Coast).
Nikken Sekkei
Japan’s largest architectural firm, Nikken.JP (Tokyo) is partnered with landscape architects Earthscape (Tokyo) and art museum managers Mori Art Museum (Japan) to form the core team. Nikken Sekkei’s many cultural projects include Japan’s Hoki Museum, Pola Museum and Hyogo Performing Arts Centre.
Additional expertise will be sought through a support team including civil engineers Nikken Sekkei Civil, sustainability consultants Nikken Sekkei Research Institute, and Brisbane architects Lambert and Smith and quantity surveyors Mitchell Brandtman (Australia).
The exhibition
The Reveal: Designs for a new Gold Coast Cultural Precinct
22 November – 15 December 2013
The Arts Centre Gold Coast
