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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