PROJECTS

Type - Adaptive re-use
Country - Australia
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A large central courtyard joins the two buildings behind their separate facades.

Goodhope by Those Architects

A reliance on first principles and a nuanced understanding of the site enabled Those Architects to transform two buildings into a conjoined space to host diverse creative practices.

Commercial
Light spirals downstairs from the skylights above.

Tasman Gallery by Benn and Penna Architects

A former shed in Byron Bay designed to balance art, life and work adapts to the changing creative needs of its users.

Interiors
By architecture practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Less is designed to be a non-commercial public space that users can activate as they see fit.

Dairy Road Masterplan

Molonglo Group, David Chipperfield Architects (residential), Assemble (UK) (industrious), Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture, Craig Tan Architects, Oculus Landscape Architecture & Urban Design, Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Oculus Landscape Architecture & Urban Design, David Chipperfield Architects, Assemble (UK) with JAM and Ell Ell Architects, Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture

On a site east of Canberra and adjacent to wetlands, a collaborative team whose process inverts the “master” plan paradigm is gradually designing a diverse neighbourhood in a restored landscape.

Commercial, Landscape / urban, Public / cultural
The bricks used for the facade have been repurposed from another local project, adding to the project’s sustainability credentials.

19 Waterloo Street by SJB

Behind an existing terrace in Sydney, a tiny new build defies expectations by creating an apparently spacious yet private home that considers its neighbours and the planet.

Residential
The client pushed the idea of a civic project further by adding exhibition spaces, incubator hubs, cafes and general gathering areas outside of their own office requirements.

Yirranma Place by SJB

Yirranma Place in Sydney is a skilful exercise in adaptive reuse, guided by SJB. The design’s two overarching principles – sensitivity and respect – help to create a multifunctional workplace in a grand 1920s building.

Interiors
New Farm Neighbourhood Centre by Vokes and Peters with Zuzana and Nicholas

New Farm Neighbourhood Centre by Vokes and Peters with Zuzana and Nicholas

Vokes and Peters with Zuzana and Nicholas

With its alterations and additions to an inner-suburban Brisbane Queenslander, a local design team created spaces that work together like an ensemble cast to encourage human habitation and celebrate the community’s daily routines.

Public / cultural
Years of accumulated architectural detritus have been stripped back, with new insertions honouring the history of the site while making it fit for purpose.

Collingwood Yards by Fieldwork

In repurposing the derelict site of an inner-Melbourne technical college, this project seeks to embed arts in the community, provide affordable studio space in an otherwise unaffordable area and create public amenity that is welcoming to all.

Public / cultural
The design, with Venetian-inspired courtyards and flamboyant neo-gothic flourishes, transforms the precinct into a city within a city.

Queen and Collins by Kerstin Thompson Architects and BVN

With precision and nuance, Kerstin Thompson Architects and BVN have come together to create a benchmark workplace and urban project that celebrates and re-energizes the iconic Gothic Bank Complex in Melbourne’s CBD.

Commercial
The conversion of the site into a permanent home for Sydney’s arts institutions will ensure the preservation of the historic structures into the future.

Industrial cathedrals: Walsh Bay Arts Precinct

A dexterous amalgam of architectural interventions turned a 100-year-old pier on Sydney Harbour into a permanent home for some of Australia’s leading performing arts companies.

Public / cultural
The two-storey machine hall has been preserved as an open gallery space, with new bay windows cantilevering out between the heritage steel detailing.

Pathway to a dense, historic and beautiful city: Substation 164

Sustainably compact, respectfully resolved and thoughtfully arranged so that heritage and modern elements complement one another, this redevelopment of two Sydney CBD buildings offers hope for the city’s future.

Brickworks merges local intent with commercial scale, bringing sustainable design to daily suburban life.

A sustainable, integrated neighbourhood: Burwood Brickworks

Suburban, replicable, sustainable: Burwood Brickworks furthers the conversation by returning to first principles to deliver smart resource management – and resident empowerment.

Commercial
A 600-seat amphitheatre has been inserted into the circular concrete structure on the water that once supported a towering crane.

From deforestation to regeneration: Spring Bay Mill

An old woodchip mill on Tasmania’s east coast, once an integral part of the state’s controversial logging industry, is now a post-industrial events and performance venue and the site of ongoing environmental regeneration.

Public / cultural
The project reworks a 1980s house, transforming the appearance of the existing brick-veneer structure.

Simple pleasures: Noosa Heads House

In Noosa Heads, a tired suburban house is resourcefully remade into a robust but welcoming retreat that emphasizes the simple pleasures of a holiday home by the coast.

Residential
The building’s upper parapet was replaced by a luminous layer of insulated polycarbonate wall behind which a discreet second floor has been added.

Bohemian legacy: The Hat Factory

In a once bohemian suburb of Sydney, a modest building that became a symbol for squatters’ rights has been sensitively renovated to retain its significance beyond its scale.

Residential
The large, curving coffee bar features “Golden Cappuccino” marble, brass trim and fluted timber panelling.

Mediterranean connection: Via Porta

Studio Esteta has channelled Italian heritage and urban experiences to transform a nondescript suburban Melbourne shopfront into a welcoming deli and eatery.

Hospitality, Interiors
The windows are double-framed, making the glazing blast-proof in the unlikely event of an explosion at the nearby port.

A deceptively simple cafe: Gathered

Designed by Ewert Leaf, this pared-back and striking cafe in Melbourne’s Footscray belies a host of logistical and functional solutions to manage its portside setting.

Commercial, Hospitality, Interiors
The vast plaster ceiling features copiously repeated prismatic forms, housing lights that can be varied in colour and intensity.

A good Melbourne citizen returns: The Capitol

After a major 1960s downscaling and a series of ad hoc renovations, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin’s Capitol Theatre has been re-engineered to beguile audiences for another hundred years.

Education, Public / cultural
Colour has been used to differentiate the spaces and to elevate the interiors through playful but complementary colour schemes.

Flying colours: Giraffe Early Learning Centre

In Sydney’s Northern Beaches, architecture studio Supercontext has restored and reused a heritage substation, converting it into a place for children to play and learn.

Education
Studios are contained within the two-storey stables wing. First-floor studios on new floors are broken up with floor-to-roof voids that allow views of the original structure.

Intricate recasting: The Stables, VCA

This considered refurbishment honours a once-vital part of Melbourne’s infrastructure, transforming the formal rhythm of stables and riding halls into flexible studios and performance spaces for the Victorian College of the Arts.

Education
Sliding panels and bifold doors allow the interior to return to its original singular volume. Artwork: Elliott “Numskull” Routledge.

‘Changing the performance’: Camperdown Warehouse

Fusing concepts inherent in furniture design and architecture, this conversion of a former motor vehicle factory in Sydney serves as a prototype for a novel approach to adaptive re-use.

Interiors, Residential
The new work is clearly articulated off the side of a 1960s red-brick building. A fly roof and colonnade encourage occupation of the outside space.

Civic ambition: Lismore Regional Gallery

Dominic Finlay Jones Architects in Association with Phil Ward

In the regional city of Lismore, Dominic Finlay Jones Architects in association with Phil Ward has paired a modest, thoughtful intervention with community-minded thinking to design a thoroughly successful civic space.

Public / cultural
In the renovated Esme Cahill building, the seven flat arches of the original facade (a reference to Filippo Brunelleschi’s historic foundling hospital in Florence) have been dramatically extruded to create three-dimensional forms that define a large outdoor canopy.

Joynton Avenue Creative Precinct

In this robust work of adaptive re-use, Peter Stutchbury Architecture has reached back into history to transform an ensemble of former hospital buildings in Sydney’s Green Square Town Centre into a dynamic public arts precinct.

Public / cultural
From the forest the house presents as a simple, silvery grey trapezoid, its a roofline in tune with the tumbling slope.

‘Thrillingly Simple’: Possum Shoot Shed

A simple pavilion formed from the remnants of an existing shed, this “thrillingly simple” project makes the most of its majestic site.

Residential
The plan of the one-hundred-square-metre studio has been subtly reconfigured and new insertions into the space are meticulously finished.

‘Sensuously textural’: Luxe Ten

Maria Danos Architecture has transformed a graphic design studio space into a moody and textural one-bedroom apartment.

Residential
Five small-scale workshop pods act as a tiny precinct within the warehouse space.

Claisebrook Design Community

CODA Studio has converted a sleepy warehouse in a forgotten pocket of East Perth into a contemporary co-working space that offers areas to think, create, gather and eat.

Interiors
The City of Perth Library, with its distinctive circular form and angled top, maintains open views to the Titles Building.

Civic pride: Cathedral Square

Kerry Hill Architects has led a collaborative redevelopment of the historic heart of Perth since 2009, complementing the existing heritage fabric with architectural insertions at an urban scale.

Hospitality, Public / cultural
The Flinders University Commons is situated just north of the Main Assembly Building (MAB), which is now an open-air community space.

Canopy of industry: Tonsley Main Assembly Building Redevelopment

A former car assembly building redeveloped by Tridente Architects and Woods Bagot plays a central role in the ongoing development of the sixty-one-hectare precinct of Tonsley.

Landscape / urban, Public / cultural
A new garden pavilion provides a guestroom, music room, laundry, garage and extra storage, while also creating a visually appealing backdrop to the backyard.

Urban multi-tasker: Backyard Studio

Adapting an inner-city site for a young family with a steady stream of interstate guests called for a standalone addition that accommodates a plethora of different activities.

Residential
Excavated sandstone blocks are used to re-create the pre-colonial landform of the Barangaroo Reserve site, a former shipyard.

A naturalized landscape: Barangaroo Reserve

Bruce Mackenzie examines the design thinking, vegetation, soil science and collaboration that created Barangaroo Reserve.

Landscape / urban
The structure at the western end of the building has been completely rebuilt. The building’s elevation subverts the symmetry of its gable.

The Condensery: Somerset Regional Art Gallery

PHAB Architects has revived a former condensed milk factory in Toogoolawah, Queensland through considered restoration and contemporary gestures.

Public / cultural