 | Cairns: Cairns Convention Centre
Stage 1 of Cox Rayner’s Cairns Convention and Exhibition Centre has opened to acclaim for its environmental advances—notably the concertina roof (a commercially desirable iconic element), which funnels tropical downpours into a 115,000 litre tank used to water the garden, a solar hot water system and extensive use of sensor-controlled sun louvres. A couple of disappointments: the exhibition halls (over half the area and presumably vital) seem to be on hold, so the building now looks squat in isolation; also, the much-vaunted plantation pine roof trusses were deemed too complex for timber, and are done in steel. |
Sydney: IMAX Theatre, Darling Harbour
Last seen collecting an award for the Powerhouse Museum, and then offering a scheme for the ailing Adelaide MFP, Lionel Glendenning— senior architect with HBO+EMTB—is close to delivering a new conversation piece to Sydney. Thrusting up between two flyovers in the heart of clean white Darling Harbour is his occulus-shaped IMAX Theatre—clad with an in-your-face chequerboard of shiny yellow and black metal tiles. The effect is reminiscent of highway road-signs— and, predictably, is not appreciated by Philip Cox, architect for major buildings in the vicinity. Glendenning’s object will contain the world’s largest cinema screen (36 by 30 metres), a 540-seat auditorium, a 200-seat café and a top-level function room with views over Cockle Bay and Pyrmont. The budget is $21 million. |
Sydney: The Horizon
Contradicting the tendency for Sydney’s new apartments to be shoebox-sized, Harry Seidler’s design for the 43-storey Horizon tower (on the old ABC site at William and Forbes Streets, East Sydney) offers room to swing a cat and spacious balconies, along with an array of “world-class resort facilities” which are drawing high prices before construction has begun. Despite casting long shadows over upper Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst, the $70 million building—a typically imperial piece of form-making complemented by low-rise terraces lining the street edges— will add a more impressive termination to William Street than the Coca-Cola sign behind. |  |
Melbourne: Hampton Hotel Penthouses
To add value to an existing hotel on Beach Road, Hampton—a suburb of Melbourne—architect Charles Curry-Hyde is developing a scheme for two rooftop penthouses—one with three bedrooms and the other with four bedrooms—accessed via a shared lift from street level. Local planning regulations required a design which looked like a roof or was set back from the building’s edges, so two languages of forms have been employed. The asymmetric, curved roofs contain public rooms and children’s bedrooms while the central section includes master bedrooms. Intended materials are light rendered walls with roofs of zinc-lined copper. Both penthouses have access to several roof terraces; bedrooms face towards Small Street and living areas look across Beach Road. |
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Adelaide: Kildare House
Recent University of South Australia architecture graduate Karl Traeger (winner of a concrete masonry design award for his scheme for a new airport in Canberra) is in BA stage for a metaphor-drenched house in the dunes at Aldinga Beach, south of Adelaide. With a budget of $180,000, he has designed a complex object derived from images of crabs and exoskeletons. Exterior materials are being selected for their “sunbleached” character—walls are fibro and concrete block overlaid by a curved screen of fibreglass which refers to the curve of the shoreline. The plan includes three bedrooms, with the main living zone on the upper level to exploit the view west to the ocean. On the floor below, another living zone (the “self-possession space”) is oriented more directly to a north-facing deck at the side of the house. |
| Walga: Ford Service Station
Sydney-based Chris Elliott Architects is designing a car dealership at Yallah, near Wollongong. Sited beside an access road around five metres above the Princes Highway, the scheme involves modest interventions to two existing industrial sheds and a “sculptural display” near the road. This will include a brick ramp and steel support structure with a canopy and Ford sign; to be floodlit at night. The largest shed will house the workshop and spare parts facility, while the smaller pavilion will contain offices and a showroom—which has been conceived as a “sardine tin” peeled open to reveal its contents and invite entry. |
Melbourne: Mowbray College Art-Tech Room
Revisiting his second-favourite campus, Melbourne’s Norman Day has recently completed the addition of a stealth bomber—sorry, art and technical studios—to Mowbray College at Melton. The new block includes a CAD computer studio and facilities for printing, textiles, electrics, woodworking, metalwork and welding. Conceptually, the scheme is intended to offer “a place of hope and theatre to challenge regular perceptions of ‘trade’ based training and ‘ideas’ education as if they were exclusive notions.” Visually, the building is distinguished by a geometrically adventurous projection like the nose of a malign war machine; an image entirely familiar to the games-addicted students who use the space. |
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