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BORNEO: SIJAS PLANTATION OIL PALM RESEARCH CENTRE

DEM Design Group (the Malaysia office of Devine Erby Mazlin) has designed a research station and visitors centre for a site in the oil palm plantations region of Borneo. Various small skillion-roofed pavilions, all made of local hardwoods—belian frames, kapur cladding and oil palm and ebony internal finishes—will be linked by a raised covered way/verandah wrapping around one corner of a natural lake.



SYDNEY: THE HORIZON

Despite complaints about its ostentatious ridgeline siting and shadow-impact on a Victorian housing precinct south of William Street, Darlinghurst, prestigious buyers have flocked to Harry Seidler’s 43-storey Horizon apartment tower since its completion in October. Some apartments have profitably changed hands several times since first purchase off the plan from developers Elarosa Investments. The cream concrete icon has been designed in an expressive modernist style, with sinuous balconies establishing a complex facade texture and a scalloped silhouette that appears surprisingly feminine for this building type.



SYDNEY: UTS FACULTY OF LAW

Brewster Hjorth (previously JBR Architects) has revised the old Edwardian markets building in Haymarket (last renovated by Cox Richardson in 1983) to house the University of Technology, Sydney’s Faculty of Law. Its design provides a more prominent address to Quay Street with a modern glassy facade contrasting the blood and bandage brick of the original markets. The new building is shallow, with a stepped rear elevation intended to maximise north and west sun in a courtyard behind.



MERIMBULA: HASLINGDEN HOUSE

On a steep site overlooking the main surf beach at Merimbula, NSW, Clinton Murray has built a “no-frills midweeker for a couple of totally active groovers” aged 70-plus. The four-bedroom house is one storey at its uphill entry and two storeys on the oceanside facade, and its plan provides a parents’ zone on the top floor and childrens’ areas below. Sited to avoid views of neighbouring dwellings in two-tone brick, this residence has a palette of locally made split face blocks of charcoal cement, zincalume, recycled timber and wood panelling constructed with the narrow sticks used to lay oyster beds.



HONG KONG: STAR ALLIANCE AIRPORT LOUNGES

Sydney’s Tony Masters has been grappling with the inconvenient design idiosyncracies of Norman Foster’s Chek Lap Kok Airport in his production of the first suite of lounges commissioned by Star Alliance; the world’s largest airline group. After consulting all the partner companies (including Ansett), Masters developed a plan which has the various lounges radiating off a central oval lobby and divided by walls concealing services. The interiors are finished with exotic stones, rare timber veneers and stainless steel, with matt glass tiles and glass basins in the bathrooms. Furniture includes lounge seats by B&B Italia and Giorgetti, and Alias café chairs.



LONDON: NACOVIA WHARF

Arthur Collin, an architect from Sydney now working in London, has won a competition for high-density, low-rise housing at Chelsea Harbour. His scheme for 61 public and private houses—one to four bedrooms— combines back-to-back terraces and courtyard units in a banded layout intended to maximise energy conservation, provide private outdoor spaces and encourage safe streets. Many units have versatile glazed garages/shopfronts. The palette includes brick-clad masonry, steel, timber and zinc.



SYDNEY: COCKLE BAY WHARF

With developers Lend Lease, New York architect Eric Kuhne has completed a large restaurant, recreation and marina complex on the east side of Cockle Bay (at Darling Harbour). Linked to a trio of office towers on Sussex Street (across the Western Distributor), Cockle Bay Wharf is built of sandstone-inspired masonry, recycled timber and steel. Kuhne mixed post modern, deconstructivist and marine imagery with “a gentle prayer” to relegate austerity and abstraction to “the shadows of history”.



MELBOURNE: BLISS BAR

As the latest example of a tendency for car showrooms to open in-house cafés to calm customers, Ivan Rijavec has installed a stainless steel refreshment bar inside the John Blair Honda showroom at Prahran. Intending “an enigmatic object to entertain the visual palates of clients and sales staff”, Rijavec designed the counter to “fuse a fat cone into a thin cone over a distance of 3.6 metres”. It was made by forming, welding and buffing stainless steel over a plywood carcass and is secured to the floor with two pipes that also provide lateral support. Companion tables and red-cushioned stools are similarly made as cones fixed by concealed columns.



SYDNEY: ANDREW BOY CHARLTON POOL (COMPETITION WINNER)

In a scheme which recently won the City of Sydney’s two-stage design competition for the Andrew Boy Charlton swimming pool at Woolloomooloo, Lippmann Associates proposed very simple renovations. Responding to a restrictive budget of $4 million (less than half the competition costing for North Sydney’s pool), Lippmann planned a glass entry foyer to exploit wide harbour and garden views, and appearing to float like a pontoon on a pond. Stairs and ramps would lead down to the pools and plant, staff and change rooms. On the lower level, glimpses are set up towards a stone heritage wall (seen across a rock garden), the existing sea wall and the harbour.

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Published online: 1 Jan 1999

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Architecture Australia, January 1999

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